A Bunch of Bishop
By Fusion 45 | August 25, 2008
Hey…been away for a little vacation. Came home to find the latest copy of Blues Revue in my mailbox. The review of Elvin Bishop’s The Blues Rolls On was written by yours truly. Here’s a cut from the album (a remake of Struttin’ My Stuff that features Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes) along with a few other Elvin’s:
Elvin Bishop - Fannie Mae
Elvin Bishop - Struttin’ My Stuff
Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around And Fell In Love
Paul Butterfield Blues Band f. Elvin Bishop - Our Love Is Drifting
Topics: Props and Missives | No Comments »
Sinking Ships and Sandy Shoes
By Fusion 45 | August 21, 2008
Actually went 48 hours this week without looking at a computer, hanging at the beach with the family (in a nice little chalet loaned to us by most generous friends).
Dark clouds and wind-driven rain most of the time (until this afternoon). But that didn’t stand in the way of our fun (as you see from the picture).
Should probably be posting something from Laura Marling (for alas, she cannot swim). But the best I can do is this classic slab of salt water taffy:
Topics: Sal's Boutique | 1 Comment »
Watch Me Pull A Rabbit Out of My Hat, A Jukebox Out of My Trunk & A Hit Single Out of My….
By Fusion 45 | August 18, 2008
In 1968, Larry Norman and his band, People, scored a fluke Top 20 hit with a cover of a Zombies B-side called I Love You.
Not long after that, my college-aged brother came rolling into the driveway with a jukebox in the trunk of his car. I’m not entirely sure where he got it (or why) but I Love You was among the songs that came the machine.
I wasn’t allowed to “mess around” with it so I was constantly dragging my brother out to the garage, asking him to plug it and playing the songs over and over. That may well be the reason why my Dad got rid of it when my brother went back to school.
Norman, quoted on All Music Guide as an equally devote follower of both Jesus Christ and Elvis Presley, never saw fit to try and duplicate his success. Instead, he went on to become the “godfather of Jesus Rock”.
On the flip side of I Love You is this cut, which is no longer available except on the single.
People - Somebody Tell Me My Name
Topics: Sal's Boutique | No Comments »
A Shoe-In For Performance Art of The Year
By Fusion 45 | August 15, 2008
Mama asked the boys to put the shoes back on the shelf. This is what she got. My 8-year old asked me to take a picture and “write an article about it”. I think it speaks for itself.
Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles of Her Shoes
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes
Lyle Lovett - Flyin’ Shoes
Chuck Willis - Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes
Joe Ely - Baby Needs A New Pair of Shoes
Kirsty MacColl - In These Shoes
Topics: Props and Missives | 2 Comments »
Anatomy of A Discovery
By Fusion 45 | August 14, 2008
Throw Her Off By Actually Asking Permission
“I have a confession,” I said to my wife as she sat at the kitchen table, writing out the kid’s morning chore list. “I’m a sick man”.
She looked up from her yellow pad and scratched the top of her head with the pencil, giving me her is-this-going-to-be-a-confession-about-an-old-girlfriend look. I took that as a cue to go on.
“I was looking at the classifieds,” I said, “and saw there’s a garage sale going on about 10 miles from here. It starts in about 15 minutes, ” I continued, “and, um, they have records”.
The look on her face went from old-girlfriend to new-kitchen (with-the-money-he-spends-on-music). I figured I’d better keep things moving.
“C’mon,” I said, “it’s fun for me. My cavemen ancestors hunted wild board. I look for a mint-condition copy of the first Talking Heads album.”
“Well,” she said, closing with her I-can’t-win-this-one look, “boy have to have their fun.”
“So I can go?” (It’s not my typical M.O.; usually I just leave and answer questions later).
“Of course, you can. You’re a grown man; you can do whatever you want to do”.
Having accomplished my goal I decided to save my own favorite facial expressions (the who-are-you-trying-to-fool look) and thought better to simply wheel and head fro the door.
“But take your son with you,” she said, “I want him to witness first hand why they’re going to put you away.”
Me and You, Boo
“This is one of my favorite things to do,” my shaggy-headed boy said, as we got into the car.
The night before, when we were walking the dog, he said I was his favorite person in the whole world. He’s 10, about 5′2″, with enough curly blond hair for three kids and a winning smile. He’s firmly planted in a world where he still loves Legos but is aware of girls (and is thoroughly confused as to why anyone would want to be sexually active). He plays baseball like a teenager and still sleeps with stuffed animals.
But today, he justs wants to hang with Daddy at garage sales.
Stop #1: I Kinda Wish I’d Haggled for That Baseball Glove
Our first destination proved worthless. There were two boxes of 78’s but I’ve no interest in that action. The 33’s were all bad Christian music. (Note: For those who are wondering, by that I mean bad music made by Christians, not music made by bad Christians).
There were a couple of leather baseball gloves for which they wanted $15 apiece; I probably could’ve gotten the pair for that but I wasn’t in the mood to haggle (and now that my cheap lost-and-found Louisville Slugger pleather softball glove is torn, I regret it. Oh, to find the 1985 Rawlings Dale Murphy that was stolen last fall).
Stop #2: The Long And Winding Road
After spending a few minutes looking at 5 cent juice glasses and a $50 commode (like I’d spend 5 cents on a used toilet), we decided we’d take the back way home and see what we could find. Stop #2, down a long winding road off the highway, we hit paydirt: Bill Withers Just As I Am; Otis Redding The Dock of The Bay; Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now and Kenny Rogers & The First Edition Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town.
Stop #3: The Yard Sale Motherlode
Once a year the mobile home park people get to have a rummage sale. No music but a 25 cent watering wand for the Buddha Garden and a 50 cent copy of A League of Their Own (and an interesting conversation with the boy about the relative merits of living in a mobile home. He determined there are very few).
Stop #4: Homeward Bound
A $3 copy of a 6-year old Indiana Jones video game he’s played once. Used his own money, though, and was quite proud of his purchase. Total spent between us: $5.75. But, as they say, it was priceless.
Some select cuts from our haul plus a few I mentioned in my Vinyl Record Day post.
Isley Brothers - Vacuum Cleaner
I had to laugh when I saw this title.
The Impressions - This Is My Country
Biting sarcasm from Curtis Mayfield and Company from the album cover down to the last song.
Otis Redding - I’m Coming Home
A great one from a great great set.
Johnny Nash - Ooh Baby You’ve Been Good To Me
Probably did more to bring reggae to the masses than Bob Marley himself.
Kenny Rogers And The First Edition - Once Again She’s All Alone
Most interesting thing about this album is that the drummer is credited as being Mickey Hart. That one sent me scrambling to the wikipedia. Turns out his name was Mickey Jones. Someone smokin’ a little too much of the wacky tabacky over there at Reprise. Good thing Sinatra didn’t hear about that.
Dwight Yoakam - 1000 Miles
I like Dwight.
Topics: Mixes, Rock & Roll Hit & Lit, Sal's Boutique | 2 Comments »
New York City, A Tacky Hotel & Isaac Hayes
By Fusion 45 | August 12, 2008
There’s a lot being written around the music blogosphere about Isaac Hayes and rightly so.
Like a lot of white middle-American teenagers growing up in the 1970’s, my first encounter with his music was the Theme from Shaft. Fortunately, I heard more of his music beyond Shaft thanks to Street Stryder, the all-night DJ I’ve mentioned in past posts, who brought R&B records from NYC and played them on little old WENY radio.
In 1980, I was among the soon-to-be graduated disco kids who would sneak into the local club, Inside New York, and act like a bad John Travolta imitation. Don’t Let Go was one of my favorites (and still is).
Around that same time, I went on a field trip to NYC with the high school choir. I clearly remember dancing around a tacky hotel room with my friends Angela and Theresa, listening to Don’t Let Go (and a disco-mix of What A Fool Believes!) on the radio.
Today, I’m suffering a little from the “but-I-just-saw-him” syndrome. That is, I just saw him perform at the Waterfront Blue Festival last month. I wasn’t more than 10 feet from him as I shot a number of photos, including this one.
May he rest in peace.
Isaac Hayes
1942-2008
Topics: Props and Missives | 3 Comments »
My First, My Last, My Everything
By Fusion 45 | August 11, 2008
Wherein Fusion 45 Contemplates The True Meaning of Vinyl Record Day
Tuesday, August 12 is Vinyl Record Day. My wife laughed when I told her this. She seemed to find it funny (though not nearly as funny as Vinyl Pants Day, which got a real laugh out of her).
Within the singularly obsessive community of music bloggers who dabble in vinyl - that is, old folks, mostly old guys, who think a musty box of records at a garage sale is nirvana - the fact of Vinyl Record Day is something like Gay Pride Day: a chance to come out of the closet (or perhaps the basement) and put an OFFICIAL stamp on an unofficial obsession. For those us who decide to do it wearing pumps and a feather boa, it could very well be a dual coming out party.
It’s a chance to consider the pros and cons of this fixation we have with these 12″ circles of black polyvinyl chloride, to account the many dollars spent, to exhalt in the many hours indulged, to witness the broken relationships over music tastes (her: the Ramones; me: Van Morrison). It’s a time to “see the big picture,” as they say, which, given the demise of decent album artwork since the advent of the CD, seems a rightful way to put it.
It all started somewhere: I can’t say for sure but I think my first album purchase happened in the summer of 1970, just before I turned seven. There was a place about 3 or 4 miles away from my house called Danny Discount. My family patronized Danny Discount not only for the extremely cheap vinyl shoes but for the fact that Dad was an advertising salesman and Danny was one of his customers.
To this day, I can still bring to mind the smell of the place as I walked up the ramp to the modified wearhouse where it was located: like a badly mixed Kiss album, it smelled of stale popcorn, cotton candy, mildew and formaldehyde (from all those vinyl shoes, which I believe deserve their own day, as well).
I bought a lot of records from Danny Discount over the years: my copy original copy of Takin’ It To The Streets, which I still have, was purchased there. I distinctly remember pondering many times whether to purchase Neil Diamond’s Hot August Nights as my parents hauled out cases of Diet Rite soda and car batteries. (I didn’t buy it…and still don’t own it….yet).
But the very first purchase was the Partridge Family album. I would later become extremely jealous of that holy triumvirate of pre-teen-girl-attention-stealing pretty boys (David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and Tony DeFranco) but, at seven, it was not an issue. I Think I Love You, sung in such a desperate voice, was actually something I related to back then.
To say I’ve lost count of the records that’ve passed through my hands since the David Cassidy years is quite a statement since I’ve spent many hours doing just that: counting and cataloging and organizing. Alphabetical by artist is always best (with Steve Miller Band under “M”, bonehead); by genre is easily the worst (where the hell do you put Living Color?).
At the peak of my record collecting obsession, I owned somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6-thousand records. Tons of promos from radio stations where I worked, tons of stuff inherited from format changing stations, some never pulled from the jackets. That was fine while living in one place but once I started moving around I had to seriously consider the value of hauling around a complete library of Switch records.
Sometime around 1995 or so (gasp!) I dumped a few thousand on a used record store somewhere on the east side of Syracuse, New York. Those that were left have been torn from each other like brothers in separate foster homes: half of them are here with Dad in Washington, living well in the nice cool confines of the Buddha Barn while the other half are staying at Grandmom’s house.
I’ve considered taking PayPal donations here on the site for the purpose of uniting these sadly separated siblings, kind of like UNICEF for the vinyl generation. Bring The Records Home! Perhaps yellow magnetized ribbons for the back of your car. Why should the military be the only one to co-op Tony Orlando? We loved him first!)
My last purchase was a quartet of albums I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago: the very first Isley Brothers record onT-Neck (The Brothers: Isley); a scribbled-upon copy of Dwight Yoakam’s Hillbilly Deluxe; a hacked up version of the Impressions‘ This Is my Country and a copy of James Brown’s Sex Machine (Recorded Live at Home in Augusta, Georgia With His Bad Self).
My daughter and I had gone off for our weekly pony ride at my friend Julia’s farm. Whenever we’re together on the way to visit Texas and Daffodil, the floodgates open for her and she talks almost constantly about everything that’s on her mind. I don’t remember much about what she says — there’s so much of it — but I hear the rhythm of her speech in my dreams. It’s our time together in the mix of soccer games and baseball games and violin lessons and school work.
We were on our way home when we found this sale: she got a few stuffed animals, I got a few albums and we got two hours together.
The memories that go with the music and the records has more impact, sometimes, than the records themselves. And, in the end, that’s really what all this is all.
With love for the Car-Dog.
The Partridge Family - I Think I Love You
Topics: Props and Missives | 8 Comments »
