Thank you for not clearing your 'favorites' settings...

Sorry, there's no new material just yet. The Dylan covers and Nico discography projects will continue this year, but for the moment I wanted anyone still alive out there to know that a post on a humor blog I used to do has its first new post in a couple of years and it's music related. Just FYI.

I hope you like visual puns.

Hall of Shame Update 2013

.....Before the year ends I should note that the recent list of inductees (pared down from an earlier list of nominees) released by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, as well as last year's, contains names from my 2011 list of deserving candidates who have been undeservedly passed over. My "Checklist of Shame" occupied ten posts over three weeks plus one the following January. The shame, it should be noted, was on the Hall, not the artists. I named over 150 acts in the Checklist itself and more in the ranty paragraphs that began and ended each posts. In the rants preceding the second post (Sept. 29, 2011) I included Lou Adler among the non-performers "inexplicably missing"; he was later inducted in 2013. Next year Kiss and Peter Gabriel are due to be inducted. Also, as I correctly predicted (Sept. 28, 2011), Public Enemy was inducted last year in its first year of eligibility.

.....Hopefully I'll be able to record more of my thoughts in the coming year (perhaps update that list), even if it's only a random "what I'm listening to at the moment" approach; anything to prime the pump and stimulate further productivity.

.....We'll see what the New Year brings. You're always welcome to leave questions and suggestions in the comments. Even when I leave gaps between posts, the comments are forwarded.

Thanks,
pblfsda

Annual link check

.....I make a point of testing all the links to external sites once a year and this year two were apparently discontinued. One, not too surprisingly, was the link to the page for the classical music label L'Oiseau Lyre which I used as a representation of original instrument recordings. Unlike rock, classical music has been undergoing development for centuries and the cumulative effect of perpetual tweaking and improvement to the instruments as well as innovative performance techniques is dramatic when you look at works written centuries apart. The original instrument movement began when music scholars discovered significant differences between sheet music written 300 years ago and copies of the same pieces of music from 100 years ago. Publishers, often without the composer's knowledge or permission, would rewrite parts for larger orchestras and for instruments that didn't exist when the piece was originally composed. If you don't know classical music very well the best way to explain the motivation for building new instruments to older specifications (before technological improvements that enabled them to project further and sustain longer) in order to play pieces in their original arrangements, imagine listening to blues and roots music played on a 1979 Casio keyboard.

.....L'oiseau Lyre began as a publishing company about 80 years ago. In the 1960's it applied its imprint to a series of recordings produced by Decca, leading to the establishment of the label. Eventually Decca became one of hundreds of labels absorbed into Universal and maintaining individual websites for all its subsidiaries seemed neither cost effective nor at all helpful in leading potential customers to the music offered by any one label. At the moment the archives of the publishing company have been relocated to the University of Melbourne (either physically or at least to their custody-- I'm not sure if the difference matters in the digital age). When I get back to posting with regularity I'll consider finding a suitable replacement.

.....The other link to disappear was a site devoted to Monty Python that seemed to be maintained by fans. I suppose an adequate replacement might be something involving Neil Innes or Eric Idle, who together were largely responsible for the musical content coming from Monty Python projects (TV, records and movies) with a few exceptions. As this blog is part music critic, part archaeologist, I preferred using fan-generated sites because artists rarely have anything to gain by cataloging discontinued packaging rather than just marketing the content. Some, such as the U2 official site, are absolutely fantastic. I have found a strong possible replacement. One drawback is that while I intend to send readers directly to the section on records and CD's I have no control over where they wander once there and the link for the home page begins a sequence of screens that simulate the opening credits to the "Holy Grail" movie. It's both funny and apt, but to emphasize the experience of watching the movie on film (as in a theater), it uses a program (probably from the 90's) that causes the screen to rapidly flash to simulate the film flickering. There are now smart phone apps that can impose a more convincing effect on moving footage and I'm concerned that this more primitive flashing effect might prompt seizures in a small minority of visitors. I'll include a link to the site here and accept comments from anyone who might have better information on this topic.

http://arago4.tnw.utwente.nl/stonedead/main.html

.....I hope to be posting again soon.

V05- Re-Introduction

.....Sorry for the delay. The last one and a half years were hijacked by three projects that were fun (for me anyway): the Halloween compilations, the hypothetical Cramps box and the list of about a hundred musical acts that should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by now. However, the original reason for writing this blog was to reproduce the liner notes to a series of compilation cassettes I put together in the mid-1990's. For the third cassette (Volumes 5 and 6) I found myself circulating them among folks who came in late. I had friends who had heard the first two and passed them to people I'd never met. That was fine with me (in fact it was flattering, if unexpected), but it made me feel a need to explain myself. I handed the cassettes out with no markings other than the series title (the name of this blog) and the name I gave to each side or 'Volume'. I had no idea how many copies each recipient ran off or loaned out. I did know what was on them, though, and some of it was pretty strange. I decided it would be a good idea to write an original introduction and since this blog has spent so much of the last year off-topic it actually works as an overdue manifesto for music fans who've stumbled across this blog in that time. I'm often surprised by the number and variety of international readers who've found me through non-English language search engines. I should apologize to them now for my love of puns and wordplay; it must cause Google's automated translation software to shoot out sparks occasionally.

.....The introduction below was written in late 1994, so the references to my collection are out of date. I lost track of U2 and R.E.M. after the late 90's, but I've picked up a lot more Dylan and Mitchell since then. Of course, none of that changes the overall line of thought. Here goes:

....."Because I also compile theme-based tapes, I have resisted the temptation to get too 'cute' about the playlists for So, What Kind Of Music Do You Listen To? . They are meant to be a random selection from an anarchic, kudzu-like collection, emphasizing those odds and ends that might not otherwise make it onto a single-artist or theme-based collection. For the most part this is still true, although the repeated excursions through clicketing piles of jewel boxes have served to remind me how much of my collection is taken up with genuinely popular pop music. Every album by Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, R.E.M., U2, Bob Dylan (up to '70), Joni Mitchell (up to '74), Cream (in fact, every Clapton project up to '75), The Monkees..., Elton John (up to '88), Pink Floyd, The Police, NoMeansNo, The Clash and the Who and probably others. That's a lot of music to skirt around and it starts to become conspicuous by its absence. A sampling really isn't representative without it, although avoiding it so prejudiciously has unintentionally given it greater definition. (There's an old joke that goes 'How do you make a statue of an elephant?'; 'It's easy, just start with a thirty-ton block of marble and chip away anything that doesn't look like an elephant.')

....."Anyone who knows me well enough to have these notes probably already knows that I was a disc jockey at a college radio station. When I joined I had already developed a taste for seeking out the fringe of pop music and my access to the station's scratchy old vinyl allowed me to hear things I had only read about. (There's a dirty joke in there somewhere.) Being on air also encouraged me to listen to programming as critically as I would to individual songs, both on our own broadcasts and those of the big stations. What I learned is that if money can't buy happiness it can at least buy you bad taste by the truckload. The largest commercial stations played the shittiest, most derivative, lifeless, boring crap I had ever heard in my life, frequently, punctuated by what seemed like endless advertisements. Their means to avoid maintaining a coherent train of thought was to discourage anyone else from doing so and then getting lost in the crowd.

....."I decided to make a conscious effort to develop the skills to program artists and styles not commonly thought to go together. At the time I was doing this the direction of commercial stations was to be so tightly and strictly formatted that many of these artists would not be played on the same station as one another, and some would not be played at all. On a good night I succeeded and I had a lot of good nights. The purpose of this, the motivating force for me, was to let people in on a secret I had discovered: that we had been conned, that we had been lied to. Commercial radio had told us that all music fit into fewer than a half dozen distinct categories and that the one (note the singular) that you were allowed to listen to was dictated by the color of your skin or your annual salary. Why? Because that made it easier for the actuaries to set the advertising rates. Really.

....."I don't have any demographics to satisfy besides my own quirky need for the unfamiliar and novel in pop music. That's why these tapes sound the way they do. Even this one, despite the fact that it's 'radio ready'. That's a term coined to describe catchy songs that have much in common with songs that have become hits; they could very likely have become hits themselves if not for the fact that they were recorded by persons arbitrarily deemed unmarketable. Thus, they remain eternally 'ready' for airplay they'll never get. Some of these songs actually were charting singles, but many more could have been had they been heard. And of course there's a few that never would have made it past my personal hit parade anyway. Enjoy."

Happy Halloween

.....You may have guessed by now that I was one of hundreds of thousands if not millions to suffer from power outages in the northeast U.S. in the wake of a freak snow storm. This should not have had any impact on completing the long overdue Cramps compilation which, frankly, I should have posted in August. However, for the previous week I'd been doing some cooking and caretaking for a relative recovering from major surgery. I brought my notes to complete editing the final track selection to make sure it fits the time limitations of the various formats. During my stay the best I could manage was to edit and post a previously written "Checklist Of Shame" installment. Now that I'm back in a position to get to work I'm finding it physically impossible to type fast enough to get this out for Halloween.

.....By some small way of compensation, I could refer you to the series of Halloween music compilations I suggested last year for those who hadn't discovered the blog. There should be a Halloween label to click on in the list to the right. Also, all this month you could have been enjoying the daily posts on http://theroadsofautumndusk.blogspot.com/ as well as http://historiesofthingstocome.blogspot.com/ for all variety of Halloween goodness (and badness), not just the musical end. Where I am trick or treating has been postponed for reasons of safety as much as convenience. Until all downed power lines have been reconnected it's best to give the kids one more day of anticipation. If I give up sleep, it might be all I need to finish the post. (And for readers in the U.S., don't forget to vote next week. You may not have any say in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but you should have a say in your own fate.)

First Anniversary

.....In the first post to this blog I explained why I began the series of mix tapes I called "So, What Kind Of Music Do You Listen To?". I worked in an environment frequented by teens and young adults and I filled the day (and my commute) with a variety of CD's and custom compiled cassettes, trying to not repeat much during those 8-10 hour days. When one young man noticed that he always heard something different when he wandered in he asked me point blank what my music collection was like. It was too big and varied to describe without sounding either like I was bragging or else avoiding the question. It prompted me to create the cassettes in unmarked boxes so that the recipients could listen without preconceptions and discover something new one song at a time. He became the first recipient of Volumes 1 and 2 and responded enthusiastically. Of course, it led to a second question that I really should have seen coming. "How did you find all this stuff? How does a collection with all these odds and ends start?" That's much easier to answer, actually. It starts far more conventionally by comparison before it veers off on wild tangents. When he asked me what I thought would make a good recommended listening list for someone starting a collection I promised him I'd write one on the way home after work and hand it to him the next time he came in. I did. Then I kept writing. Then I said to myself, "I'd better photocopy this, because I never want to do this again and somebody's bound to ask." I did wind up using it a few more times but making a blog entry out of it would make it even easier to find the next time the question arises.

.....Bear in mind that this list was created in the mid-1990's, so if your favorite album from the past decade isn't on there it's because it didn't exist. Also, it was a stream of consciousness exercise, so they're not in order of importance. I think rankings reveal more about the writer than the albums anyway. These are pieces of art and entertainment that will have different values to different people in different contexts. It's like the weather: the farmer needs the rain that ruins your picnic, the skier needs the snow I hate to shovel. This music isn't for everybody, it's for anybody. I tried not to repeat artists but after a while it becomes almost a disservice not to. Most of these are (or were) on CD on major labels so they're generally more accessible than much of what's on the rest of the blog. Oh, and all the dates on these are off the top of my head, unlike those used in the blog, which are carefully researched. List corrections in the comments if you notice something, but I've only got one day to type all this.

1. Pink Floyd- DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
2. Dead Kennedys- FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES (1980)
3. King Crimson- LIZARD (1970)
4. Kraftwerk- RADIOACTIVITY (1975)
5. The Ramones- ROCKET TO RUSSIA (1978)
6. Simon and Garfunkel- BOOKENDS (1968)
7. Talking Heads- REMAIN IN LIGHT (1980)
8. Brian Eno- BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE (1977)
9. David Bowie- THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (1972)
10. Mott The Hoople- THE HOOPLE (1974)
11. Elton John- 17-11-70 (1971) [NOTE: In the US the title is 11-17-70]
12. Marvin Gaye- WHAT'S GOING ON (1971)
13. The Wh♂- WHO'S NEXT (1971)
14. NoMeansNo- (LP) THE DAY EVERYTHING BECAME NOTHING (1985) and (EP) SMALL PARTS ISOLATED AND DESTROYED (1986)-- these original Canadian vinyl releases were reissued in the US by Alternative Tentacles, who also combined them on the following CD: THE DAY EVERYTHING BECAME ISOLATED AND DESTROYED (1988?)
15. The Residents- THIRD REICH AND ROLL (1975)
16. Patti Smith- GONE AGAIN (1996)
17. Lou Reed- BERLIN (1973)
18. The Cramps- A DATE WITH ELVIS (1985)
19. Frank Zappa- HOT RATS (1969)
20. Television- MARQUEE MOON (1977)
21. Sonic Youth- GOO (1989)
22. Iggy Pop and James Williamson- KILL CITY (rec. 1976)
23. Devo- DUTY NOW-- FOR THE FUTURE! (1979)
24. Camper Van Beethoven- TELEPHONE FREE LANDSLIDE VICTORY (1984)
25. Elvis Costello- MY AIM IS TRUE (1977)
26. Blue Öyster Cult- AGENTS OF FORTUNE (1975)
27. The Beatles- REVOLVER (1966)
28. Nico- DESERT SHORE (1971)
29. John Cale- PARIS 1919 (1973)
30. Rich Kids- GHOSTS OF PRINCES IN TOWERS (1978)
31. Jonathan Richman- JONATHAN RICHMAN (Rounder, 1990)
32. Aretha Franklin- (2LP) AMAZING GRACE (1974)
33. U2- THE JOSHUA TREE (1987)
34. R.E.M.- DOCUMENT (1987)
35. T. Rex- ELECTRIC WARRIOR (1971)
36. Roxy Music- MANIFESTO (1978)
37. Wire- PINK FLAG (1977)
38. Stiff Little Fingers- INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL (1978)
39. Social Distortion- MOMMY'S LITTLE MONSTER (1982)
40. Tears For Fears- SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR (1984)
41. Kate Bush- LIONHEART (1979)
42. Captain Beefheart- CLEAR SPOT (1972)
43. The Byrds- YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY (1967)
44. Led Zeppelin- HOUSES OF THE HOLY (1973)
45. They Might Be Giants- LINCOLN (1986)
46. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper- BO-DAY-SHUS! (1987)
47. The Go-Go's- VACATION (1982)
48. Big Dipper- CRAPS (1986)
49. The Tom Tom Club- THE TOM TOM CLUB (1981)
50. Wizzard- EDDIE AND THE FALCONS (1974) .....and now time out for ten compilations.....
51. Chuck Berry- (2LP) THE GREAT TWENTY-EIGHT
52. The Dickies- GREAT DICTATIONS
53. Pansy Division- PILE-UP
54. Tones On Tail- NIGHT MUSIC (UK version)
55. D.O.A.- BLOODIED BUT UNBOWED (Civil Defense CD version)
56. Neil Young- (3LP or 2CD) DECADE
57. Argent- ARGENT ANTHOLOGY
58. Various Artists (Dischord)- (LP) 4 OLD 7''S ON A 12"; reissued on CD with two more 7"s and a new title: (CD) DISCHORD 1981: THE YEAR IN SEVEN INCHES
59. Rolling Stones- (3CD) THE SINGLES COLLECTION
60. The Jam- (2LP) SNAP! .....and now back to original albums.....
61. XTC- SKYLARKING (1986)
62. The Pogues- RUM, SODOMY AND THE LASH (1983)
63. Bauhaus- MASK (1981)
64. Laurie Anderson- MISTER HEARTBREAK (1984)
65. Peter Gabriel- PETER GABRIEL (3rd album; Gabriel's first four solo albums were all called "Peter Gabriel" until his label threatened legal action and had the fourth album retitled before release. The 3rd album has "BIKO".)
66. Genesis- SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND (1973)
67. The Velvet Underground- (w/Cale) WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (1967) or (wo/Cale) VELVET UNDERGROUND (1969)
68. The Jimi Hendrix Experience- AXIS BOLD AS LOVE (1968)
69. Fugazi- IN ON THE KILL TAKER (1996)
70. The Clash- (3LP or 2CD) SANDINISTA (1981)
71. Joni Mitchell- COURT AND SPARK (1975)
72. The Au Pairs- PLAYING WITH A DIFFERENT SEX (1982)
73. Steppenwolf- MONSTER (1969)
74. Alice Donut- BUCKETFULS OF SICKNESS IN AN OTHERWISE MEANINGLESS SOCIETY (1990)
75. Alice Cooper- BILLION DOLLAR BABIES (1973)
76. The Soft Boys- UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT (1980)
77. Robyn Hitchcock- I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS (1984)
78. Ian Hunter- SHORT, BACK AND SIDES (1981)
79. Tom Verlaine- TOM VERLAINE (1979)
80. Blind Faith- BLIND FAITH (1969) .....and now ten various artists albums of original material.....
81. VA- WHERE THE PYRAMID MEETS THE EYE (1990) a tribute to Roky Erickson
82. VA- REPO MAN (1984) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
83. VA- THE BRIDGE SCHOOL CONCERT (1997)
84. VA- ALVIN LIVES IN LEEDS (1990)
85. VA- NOBODY'S CHILD: THE ROMANIAN ANGEL APPEAL (1990)
86. VA- (2CD) RUBAIYAT (1990) Elektra's 40th Anniversary
87. VA- (3LP) WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN (1972) featuring Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
88. VA- (2CD) THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ELVIS (1990)
89. VA- (4CD) THE STIFF RECORDS' BOXED SET (1992)
90. VA- TIME BETWEEN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BYRDS (1989) .....and another ten without repeating an artist.....
91. Paul Simon- GRACELAND (1986)
92. X-Ray Spex- GERM FREE ADOLESCENTS (1978)
93. Redd Kross- BORN INNOCENT (1983)
94. Bob Dylan- BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME (1965)
95. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds- KICKING AGAINST THE PRICKS (1985)
96. Bryan Ferry- THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE (1977)
97. Firesign Theatre- HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE WHEN YOU'RE REALLY NOWHERE AT ALL? (1969) (actually, any F.T. album is recommended as long as you listen to it really closely)
98. New York Dolls- NEW YORK DOLLS (1973)
99. Shinehead- UNITY (1988)
100. The Tubes- THE TUBES (1975)
101. The Monkees- HEADQUARTERS (1967)
102. Butthole Surfers- LOCUST ABORTION TECHNICIAN (1987)
103. Hüsker Dü- FLIP YOUR WIG (1985)
104. The Meatmen- WE'RE THE MEATMEN...AND YOU SUCK!! (1984)
105. The Del Fuegos- BOSTON, MASS. (1986)
106. Scruffy the Cat- MOONS OF JUPITER (1988)
107. Tracey Chapman- TRACEY CHAPMAN (1987)
108. Mission O f Burma- SIGNALS, CALLS AND MARCHES (CD contains original EP plus singles)
109. Love And Rockets- EXPRESS (1985) [modern CD contains all UK and Canadian tracks]
110. The Flying Burrito Brothers- (2LP) CLOSE UP THE HONKY TONKS (1972) (one LP greatest hits, one LP unreleased; the nearest CD equivalent is a Rhino compilation, THE BEST OF...)
111. Minor Threat- COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY (1989) (this CD is actually a compilation of all prior vinyl releases)
112. Jethro Tull- THICK AS A BRICK (1975)
113. Nick Drake- FIVE LEAVES LEFT (1969)
114. The Moody Blues- TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN (1969)
115. Beck- ODELAY! (1996) (the only one so far that I don't actually own-- I think...)
116. Joy Division- UNKNOWN PLEASURES (1980)
117. Traffic- THE LOW SPARK OF HIGH HEEL BOYS (1971)
118. Jane's Addiction- RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL (1989)
119. Jim Carroll- CATHOLIC BOY (1980)
120. Richard Hell and The Voidoids- BLANK GENERATION (1978) .....having covered over 100 artists without repeating any (I don't count solo members from bands or bands with common members as 'repeating'), I feel it's safe to go back and give second albums for bands/artists already mentioned.....
121. Pink Floyd- (2LP) THE WALL (1979)
122. Dead Kennedys- FRANKENCHRIST (1985)
123. King Crimson- LARK'S TONGUES IN ASPIC (1973)
124. The Ramones- END OF THE CENTURY (1980)
125. Talking Heads- SPEAKING IN TONGUES (1983)
126. Brian Eno- ANOTHER GREEN WORLD (1975)
127. David Bowie- SCARY MONSTERS (AND SUPER CREEPS) (1980)
128. Mott The Hoople- WILDLIFE (1971)
129. Elton John- CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY (1975)
130. The Wh♂- THE WHO SELL OUT (1967)
131. Patti Smith- HORSES (1976)
132. Lou Reed- GROWING UP IN PUBLIC (1979)
133. The Cramps- OFF THE BONE (UK compilation)
134. Frank Zappa- APOSTROPHE (1974)
135. Sonic Youth- (2LP) DAYDREAM NATION (1987)
136. Iggy Pop- AMERICAN CAESAR (1995)
137. Devo- Q:ARE WE NOT MEN? A:WE ARE DEVO! (1977)
138. Elvis Costello- ARMED FORCES (1979)
139. The Beatles- (2LP) THE BEATLES (1968) (aka "The White Album")
140. John Cale/Terry Riley- THE CHURCH OF ANTHRAX (1971)
141. Jonathan Richman- ROCK 'N' ROLL WITH THE MODERN LOVERS (1976)
142. R.E.M.- GREEN (1989)
143. T. Rex- any of a zillion hastily thrown together compilations that all feature the same A-sides repackaged over and over and over again-- he's been dead for twenty fuckin' years and they're still making them to this day!-- new ones every year as though no one's ever seen them before! Even the unification of the EEC couldn't stop them. Who the hell is buying these same songs over and over? He's already been licensed all over the world. Is he the only musician on the planet whose demand hasn't been undercut by Chinese piracy?!?.....Anyway, try to find one with "RIDE A WHITE SWAN" and "CELEBRATE SUMMER".
144. Roxy Music- SIREN: THE FIFTH ROXY MUSIC ALBUM (1975)
145. Wire- THE IDEAL COPY (1986)
146. Captain Beefheart- SAFE AS MILK (1967)
147. The Byrds- SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO (1968)
148. They Might Be Giants- FLOOD (1990)
149. Bauhaus- PRESS THE EJECT AND GIVE ME THE TAPE (1982) live
150. Laurie Anderson- STRANGE ANGELS (1989) .....and as long as I'm allowing myself to repeat artists, here's ten essential concert films.....
151. Talking Heads- STOP MAKING SENSE
152. The Band- The Last Waltz
153. Laurie Anderson- Home Of The Brave
154. Frank Zappa- 200 MOTELS
155. Pink Floyd- LIVE AT POMPEII
156. Various Artists- ANOTHER STATE OF MIND
157. Various Artists- THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (NOTE: It's important to get the original movie; ...PART 2:THE METAL YEARS is too polished)
158. Sex Pistols- THE GREAT ROCK AND ROLL SWINDLE
159. Nico- NICO-ICON
160. The Wh♂- THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT .....and ten excellent soundtrack albums (see #52).....
161. OMPS- EASY RIDER
162. OMPS- JUBILEE
163. OMPS- SHAFT
164. OMPS- THIS IS SPINAL TAP
165. OMPS- ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (2LP UK-only version)
166. OMPS- TANK GIRL
167. OMPS- ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
168. OMPS- THE BLUES BROTHERS
169. OMPS- TRAINSPOTTING
170. OMPS- VELVET GOLDMINE .....and finally, thirty random albums to complete the 200....
171. The Cure- (LP) STANDING ON THE BEACH or (CD) STARING AT THE SEA (compilation)
172. Motorhead- NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH
173. Various Artists- LIVE AT THE ROXY (1977)
174. T.S.O.L. (True Sounds Of Liberty) (EP) WEATHERED STATUES (1983)
175. Mike Nesmith- NEVADA FIGHTER (1970)
176. Them (2LP) THE STORY OF THEM (compilation)
177. Suzi Quatro- any cheap compilation that includes "DEVIL GATE DRIVE"
178. Yardbirds- (recently released collection of BBC broadcasts on Warner Archives whose name escapes me; I already had the two disc import version before the US one came out)
179. The Velvet Underground- THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO (1967)
180. Black Flag- DAMAGED (1980) or any of a number of compilations that include the EP SIX PACK (1978)
181. Eric Clapton- ERIC CLAPTON (1970)
182. George Harrison- (3LP) ALL THINGS MUST PASS (1970)
183. The Undertones- THE VERY BEST OF THE UNDERTONES (compilation)
184. The Buzzcocks- SINGLES GOING STEADY (compilation)
185. UB40- RAT IN THE KITCHEN (1984?)
186. Dead Boys- YOUNG LOUD AND SNOTTY (1978) (or, even better, the same album was released with the long lost proper mix under the title YOUNGER, LOUDER AND SNOTTIER-- same recordings, very different sound)
187. John Cale- FEAR (1974)
188. Jefferson Airplane- SURREALISTIC PILLOW (1967)
189. Stevie Wonder- INNERVISIONS (1972)
190. The Clash- LONDON CALLING (1979)

.....and I seem to have lost the last page. Leave ten albums I missed (before 1997, please) in the comments section and maybe other readers won't know the difference. Take your time; my next post is at least a week away.

Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday

.....Tomorrow is the first anniversary of this blog. I have something special planned to tide folks over until I post my revised suggested program for a Cramps compilation. That should take another week. Today I wanted to make note of the fact that it's Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday. I'm guessing that he's keeping it low key because next year marks his fiftieth year recording for Columbia (now part of Sony). I'm not sure what they could do to celebrate, since the last decade has been speckled with some very good examinations of his career, notably the Martin Scorcese documentary "No Direction Home" and the excellent 'official bootleg' series. There was also the first volume of his memoirs. That's just the cream of it. There was also the mono box for the early albums, the Traveling Wilbury's Twentieth Anniversary box, releases tied to his digital radio show, etc. A quick skim through an index of my first ten volumes reveals that I didn't use any Dylan recordings. That could be because in the mid-90's I also compiled a 90-minute cassette of Dylan covers called "Plowmen Dig My Earth". (Boy, now that I think about it, researching that one would have been a lot easier with the internet. Ouch.) Tell you what, if there aren't any plans announced by the end of the year for a Golden Anniversary at Sony, I'll dig it out and post the playlist.

Blogger failure, May 11-13, 2011

.....Well, let's never do THAT again. No sooner do I shake the dust off and try to get back to the five-day-a-week schedule I originally shot for last year, a mere three days later the whole Blogger system has a seizure of some kind. The post for Wednesday began late and I save it, incomplete, as a draft. Late Wednesday night/Thursday morning I went to finish it and one for the comic book blog I do and I kept getting rerouted to error messages. Then I noticed that my on screen name (next to my icon) had been changed to my personal name. My name's not really a state secret or anything like that, but the few people who read and enjoy this and don't think to bookmark it have a much better chance of finding it again by Googling "pblfsda" than my own, much more common name.

.....Long story short: the draft I was working on was lost, but the draft of the comic book post was not, probably because that one was started earlier. I'm going to have to check my archives to see if anything was lost, so rewriting the post will have to wait until tomorrow or the next rainy day. If I can manage to post the comic blog weekly and the music blogs each twice a week, that'll give me two days 'off' to put the house and yard in order. Or maybe find a job. For anyone else in Blogger, I recommend reading Blogger Buzz (I know, I usually don't either but this is one of those times it fills a real need) for the few, vague sketchy details we're ever going to get about this system suspension. For anyone just reading, don't worry too much about it. Even during the worst of it you should have been able to read any post prior to May 11th. Well, let's see if this post works.

Rockabilly Interlude/Cramps

.....I haven't posted (except for the previous note) in about three weeks for several reasons. I've been trying to establish a backlog of material on the Christmas blog (350th anniversaries don't come along every day), the current incarnation of the Doom Patrol comic book will likely be cancelled in a few months, impacting my first blog, and finally I've been uilizing my often neglected Livejournal account to write a detailed annotated Cramps discography for the purposes of a renovated compilation. Longtime readers of this blog may be aware that it is all just an enormous set of liner notes for a set of mix tapes compiled in the 1990's. That set of tapes was both an answer to the often-asked question that makes up the title and a way for me to reconnect with the odd bits and pieces in my collection that didn't seem to have any place among the single artist/act compilations I more commonly made for myself at the time.

.....One cassette I put together then which I continued to routinely listen to was a 90-minute Cramps selection which I called "Highlights For Lowlifes", but which only covered their career up to 1991. They released new material slowly but regularly, about an album every three years, but still toured in between. I posted about them recently here and since then have been in touch with a personal friend who wanted to dig up whatever I might have available. That sounded to me like a good reason to renovate the compilation. The Livejournal entries are essentially my scratch pad for the project. I'll note every recorded I've ever learned about there, select the best and /or most representative tracks and plot workable cassette and CD configurations, which I may post here between the end of Volume 4 and the start of Volume 5, not unlike taking time out for Halloween last fall, but with more advance planning.

.....If you want to follow my notes, perhaps learning what holes there may be in your own collection, Google my screen name, pblfsda, and the name livejournal. It should be the top of the list, or thereabouts.

.....I hope to complete Volume four in March.

Update on Volume One

.....Last year I got an e-mail about one of my posts asking for an mp3. Generally I don't embed these because: (a) I don't own publishing rights to any of this music; (b) my computer has limited capacities that I have to use economically; and (c) it's really just a blog, not a full blown website, and the purpose is to organize all of these loose notes I have piling up and loose memories that dim with age and put them into a more manageable and maneuverable form. I admittedly invite millions of strangers to watch, even comment and contribute, but ultimately it can never be anything more than a personal endeavor.

.....That being said, I am not averse to connecting interested parties with hard to find music. In a sense, this blog has always done that by the mere fact of its existence. It doesn't help anyone for there to be millions of uploaded songs online available to be heard if no one knows they exist or knows what their names are to search. As I've said before, there are quite a few songs I blog about that were rare or underexposed back in the mid-90's when I made most of these compilations, but which have become more common since then, often making it to CD for the first time as bonus tracks on remastered albums or incentives in a boxed set. Some just haven't. So when a commenter requested a copy of the punk version of the Mr. Rogers' theme song by P.B.S. (originally on a Troubled Youth 7") I thought I should contact the band (we had friends in common a lo-o-ong time ago) and ask if they had any objections to posting it. Google searches got pretty frustrating pretty quick. I don't normally track down people often enough to make it worth subscribing to sites that do so routinely and I found far more people than I expected to with the same names (complicated by the fact that both the band name and the song title are famous for many more reasons than the record). Then I started developing technical problems, which, when fixed, required me to work through backlogged plans for my comic blog, and if you've been reading for any length of time, you know the rest.

.....Well, it seems the question has been resolved for me. Better than a fourth generation mp3, the band (or a former member) has posted the actual original 1980's video on You-tube. You can find it at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ad8PkYZzqU

...and you can find the band's page at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsoww

.....So, if anyone has been attempting to patch together their own compilations following the play order, this shouldn't be quite the obstacle it once was. I should also give the band proper credit.

• Mike Bourque: Vocals, Guitars
• John Saylor: Vocals, Bass
• Peter-oww-Oldrid: Drums
• Produced [actually, "Prduced"] by Hirsh Gardner
• Engineered by Bruce Macomber
• Recorded at Sound Design Studios

.....There are also photo credits and thanks to friends and family members not relevant to most readers. One curious detail I hadn't noticed earlier is that both sides (TR-001-A and TR-001-B) have the same mastering number (23445) both on the labels and in the trail-off grooves. Hunh. Oh, well, small labels have all kinds of quirks much stranger than that. We'll see what I can remember (and how accurately) in the new year.

Happy New Year!

.....Well, what started as a near-daily blog got derailed, I admit, and while that was beyond my control I really should have pushed myself more to return it to regular posting. Toward that end, I have decided to set a slower pace and keep to it. Beginning Monday this blog will post three days a week. But the big news is that the alternating days will be spent exclusively on Christmas music at my new blog, lgcmusic02.blogspot.com , the name of which will be revealed Monday. Hold tight.

NOTE: THE ABOVE LINK IS DEFECTIVE AND CANNOT BE CORRECTED BY BLOGGER'S EDIT MODE. Regardless of what correction I type in, regardless of what you see, the same non-functional URL is always deployed. Simply use the 'LGC: New Carolls' link on the right. Sorry.

Updates and maintenance

.....Since I've put in some time recently with end-of-the-season lawn care, the last of the heavy duty cutting and clipping before the raking begins, it has occured to me that with the kids back in school and new shows on television that any readers of this blog might be going through their bookmarks and trimming anything that seems abandoned. I've suffered delays here, largely due to work I've been doing on my more research intensive LGC:Doom Patrol blog, but I never intended to abandon these capsules of musical nostalgia, it's just that since it had previously been posting almost daily the delays seem much more dramatic in comparison to the other, where delays and gaps have been chronic.

.....The first step towards being a more responsible inter-neighbor has been to check each and every link on the right side of the page, which you'll find under the heading "Lather, Rinse, Repeat...". I'm happy to report that none of those websites or blogs have been taken down (although a few haven't been updated in a while, either, which made me feel a little less guilty). Only the link for original period instruments, which is actually just a page for the label L'Oiseau Lyre, did not allow me to 'back space' back to this blog. I'm assuming that this is because it's part of an enormous commercial interest (Universal Music) that doesn't want its web designs imbedded in their entirety in some online retailer's site trying to pretend that it's their own. (I've seen this happen to Amazon.) Still, everything works. And if I can get myself back on track I may be adding to them soon.

Technical difficulties, please stand by

.....And it was going so well. This blog was very nearly daily for a few months, and a labor of love I can assure you. Almost a month ago my hard drive blew and I've had trouble repairing/replacing it. At the moment I'm relying on the rationed access at our local library. If I can find transportation more frequently I may stop in for quick posts when possible. If that isn't an option then this brief note will at least let you know that I have not abandoned the project so early in its stages. I hope to post regularly (if not daily again) by the end of August.
.....Anybody stumbling across this blog recently can of course avail themselves of what backlog of entries I do have. If you specifically sought out the blog because you were looking for off-the-main-road listening suggestions then I could recommend the list of links on the right side of the screen. As I posted I would occassionally add to it, but for obvious reasons that is on hold for the moment as well. They should all still work though. If you find any problems with any of them, leave a comment with this entry and I will (eventually) make time to look into it. I use them occasionally myself, after all.