Zappadan 2022

Yes, it is Zappadan. December 4 - December 21, every year since 2006 when it was initiated as a blogswarm by The Aristocrats, a now defunct blog.

Of course, blogs are less popular now than in 2006. There's some Zappadan celebration on Twitter, and Facebook, there's Fred Handl's lovely work on YouTube, and Aaron Pryor is still at it on his blog. But it is getting harder and harder to find much excitement around the holiday like way back in 2006-07 when things were new and Fried Green al-Qaedas, The Aristocrats and Mark Hoback were on the scene.

I haven't acquired any more Zappa music this year. It will be interesting to see what happens now that the vault has been sold. Hopefully Universal Music Group will handle things with some small measure of decorum. 

I have many years of past Zappadan posts here, and a slightly longer list of Zappa related posts (including Zappadan) here. 

If you're planning to celebrate, remember the rules. There aren't any.

Christine McVie 1943-2022

Christine McVie passed away yesterday. McVie was an excellent songwriter with a feel for a pop/rock melody, a singer with a lovely contralto voice, and a fine rocking piano/keyboard player. 

She wrote many of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits. On their 1988 Greatest Hits, McVie wrote eight of the sixteen songs. Her songs also helped keep the band afloat in the early seventies during the Danny Kirwin/Bob Welch years, when McVie's songs were frequent album highlights (Show Me A Smile, Spare Me A Little Of Your Love, Remember Me, Believe Me, Heroes Are Hard To Find, Come A Little Bit Closer). 

She retired from Fleetwood Mac in 1999 and mostly lived a quiet life in Kent, although she rejoined the band in 2014 and recorded and toured behind the Lindsey Buckingham Christie McVie album in 2017.

Even when the band was the fuel for personal controversies in the press, she kept her head up, never said bad stuff about anyone, and remained the consummate professional. 

A class act all the way. Godspeed Christine McVie.

Loggins and Messina Mother Lode 1974 Native Sons 1976

Loggins and Messina had a five year stint as a successful pop/rock/country duo in the early seventies. Over the course of five years they made five original studio albums, one covers album, and a two LP live set. More than just a duo, they were a solid band (assembled by producer/arranger Messina) that stayed together for most of their tenure.

I saw them live and they put on a good show. 

Jim Messina quit Poco to become an independent producer, and because he was tired of touring. That didn't last long when he was hired to produce Kenny Loggins' first solo record. To offset Loggins' penchant for soft folk, Messina wrote, arranged and sang so much of the record that it became Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In 1971. The follow-up was titled Loggins And Messina 1972, and included their biggest single the #4 hit Your Mama Don't Dance, and that was followed by Full Sail in 1973. I used to own all of their five original studio LPs, but those first three were purged from the stacks many moons ago. Loggins' syrupy ballads and Messina's light pop/rock just didn't hold up twenty or more years later. 

Recently I realized that their last two studio records were still in my collection, and I got them out to listen to them and see if they were indeed still worth having. 

The band included Messina on guitar and mandolin, Loggins on rhythm guitar, Larry Sims bass, Merle Brigante drums and percussion, Al Garth on violin and sax, and Jon Clarke on flute, saxes and horn. Their albums always included additional percussion and keyboards (Michael Omartin on the first three). If that doesn't sound like the line-up for a country band, you would be entirely correct. In fact, when they extended songs with lengthy instrumental breaks, they made some of their best moments.

Interestingly, Mother Lode 1974 was their highest charting album at #8. That seems right to me, as I feel it was their best record overall, even though the solid chart showing probably had more to do with the strong showing of their previous two releases. The record opens with Loggins' Growin', a snappy pop number that only got to #52 on the singles charts. Be Free is a strong pop number from Messina that features a lengthy instrumental section featuring flute, mandolin, violin and oboe. Changes is a syncopated rocker that shows off keys by David Paich (later of Toto fame). Brighter Days, a pretty Loggins ballad, and the jazzy rock of Time To Space round out side one.

Lately My Love is a mid-tempo rocker that features tasty lead guitar from Messina. Move On has another extended instrumental section that shows off some fine sax and more guitar. Get A Hold again features Messina's guitar, this time with chicken-pickin' wah wah style. Keep Me In Mind is a nice ballad sung by bass player Simms with another solid arrangement. Loggins' ballad Fever Dream rounds out the record with a good sax that almost saves it. With at least seven out of ten really strong tracks, it's a keeper.

Native Sons 1976, their swansong, comes sort of close to the quality of Mother Lode, but not quite. For this one, they added two more sax players, and Sanford and Townsend on back-up vocals and songwriting on two songs. But some of the songs are just not up to snuff. Both Loggins (My Lady, My Love) and Messina (Pretty Princess and When I Was A Child) toss out some too-sweet treacle, and Messina writes a good tune with insipid lyrics on It's Alright. Boogie Man is too lightweight, although the piano on the break is nice. The record is saved by Wasting Our Time, a solid pop tune from Loggins and John Townsend, Peacemaker, a political pop song with nice violin, sax and vibes, Fox Fire, the only song on the record featuring a sweet Messina lead guitar, and the opener Sweet Marie. So about half of it is good.

Messina went on to record quite a few mostly neglected solo albums, some of which featured his love of Latin music, and Loggins had a moderately successful solo career that benefited from a number of hits on movie soundtracks, including Footloose (the #1 title track, which he wrote) and Danger Zone (#2 on the singles charts) from Top Gun. They reformed for successful tours in 2005 and 2009, and hopefully they made a big wad of dough. Mother Lode might be a surprisingly fun find in a used record store.

Al Kooper Going Going Gone 2005

Al Kooper made a bunch of great music in the sixties and seventies. His solo records from the period are great finds in used record stores, and most of it is available on CD and streaming. I wrote about his work in a post about his 2008 outing White Chocolate. His finest solo work is probably Black Coffee from 2005.

Black Coffee contained Al's excellent Going Going Gone. I've been feeling nostalgic for the past lately, since the present seems so much, well, not so good as the past. Al summed it up pretty well with Going Going Gone. The YouTube video is here.

Going Going Gone

I went to put my old boots on this morning
They were cracked on the side and had a hole straight through the sole
I went downtown to the store where I first bought ‘em
They said Al, they don’t make any boots like that no more

And that’s the way my whole life seems to be goin’
Like the world is playin’ some big ass joke on me
You know they just tore down the theater where I saw my first movie
One day it’s there, next day you couldn’t tell where it used to be

Going Going Gone
The things we took for granted, that we always counted on
If you had a million dollars you couldn’t even try them on
Cause today you can’t find no boots like that cause there going going gone

I used to fall in love to that deep soul music
It was the voices of the angels and they never told you no lie
Now you got pimps, gangstas and big-time rappers
They make the whole damn thing disappear right before our eyes

Going Going Gone
The things we took for granted, that we always counted on
And now you only hear that music on some oldies marathon
Pretty soon it won’t even be there no more cause it’s going going gone

I used to think I had my whole life before me
And in some small way I could change things all around
But now I feel that most people just ignore me
I got one foot in the gutter and the other foot in the ground

Going Going Gone
The things we took for granted, that we always counted on
I’d rather play this old guitar than to strap some new one on
Guess I’ll play that song this way till I’m going going gone
Even that beat-up pillow I love to lay my head upon
Will someday be my tombstone when I’m going going gone

Spinning Vinyl - The Blues Edition

I'm certainly not a huge blues fan, but there's plenty to like when it wins me over. So a stroll through the stacks recently caught the theme and...

Alvin Lee is a bad-ass guitar player, and the band includes a driving rhythm section and a hot shot organist. Lee also has a fine bluesy scream and wrote seven of the eight tracks. Ssssh is a stomping blues-rock classic.

I listened to side 1, with Waitin' On The Bus and Jesus Just Left Chicago, my favorite ZZ Top moment. But I had forgotten how great the side ended with Hot, Blue And Righteous. I was getting into the blues for real now, so that meant it was time for Buddy Guy.

Guy's guitar playing isn't like anyone's, at least not anyone I've heard. His leads can seem to almost lose the rhythm, but it never really happens, and he leaves me stunned every time. This one from 1994 was the start of a string of strong outings from the indomitable Buddy Guy.

The harmonica drenched Too Many Drivers, Ronnie Barron's It's Getting Harder To Survive, Mose Allison's If You Live, and Bobby Charles' and Rick Danko's Small Town Talk make for one great side. The Better Days band was short-lived and always in the wake of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, but they had a nice organic sound and operated like a music co-op, with everybody getting some time, and making the most of it.

 

Southside Johnny has been through a fair bit, but he keeps doing it to death, and he's managed to produce more than a few solid albums since those first three classics between 1976-1978. Better Days 1991, Into The Harbor 2005, Pills And Ammo 2010, and this stone classic blues ball buster from 2000. Messin' With The Blues might be Johnny's best since those early days.

Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Vaughn was reverential, but he also came to play. King does Stormy Monday, and then Vaughn lights up Pride And Joy, on fat black 45 rpm plastic.

Bromberg's How Late'll Ya Play'Til? 1976 is another lost gem that more people should hear. A double album with one studio record and one live record, it might be the most stylistically sweeping statement of musical ability across genres available. On the live blues sides, the band is hot and Bromberg is having a ball.

These things have to end somewhere, and that somewhere this time out, is Savoy Brown, side one of Blue Matter 1969. The brief union of Kim Simmonds with Chris Youlden made for some fine blues from Savoy Brown. Youlden's solo career never really took off, and Simmonds has soldiered on impressively, but the two of them together were unique.

Frank Sinatra

 

As a teenager in the 1960s, I had little interest in Frank Sinatra. He was a singer from another time who was still around, doing the same thing he'd always done. He was a square from my father's generation. It didn't help much that his voice was beginning to change in a bad way, or that he tried in vain to seem hip by covering pop tunes of the day. I was listening to Beatles, Stones, and the whole raft of British Invasion groups, Motown and more gritty Southern soul, and plenty of American pop music from surf music to folk groups.

Later, as I got a bit older and began exploring jazz from the 1950s, I also began a reevaluation of some of the great singers of the 1950s, including Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Nat "King" Cole, and Frank Sinatra. And I began to realize that Sinatra was a singular vocal talent, a singer of enormous soul and depth, a man who could inhabit a lyric like no one else.

Of course the Sinatra catalog is a daunting thing of epic proportion, and he worked for several record labels that until more recently meant that a through overview was a challenge for the consumer. I'm not an expert on his work, and this is not the definitive buying guide, but I own a few CDs and a bunch of LPs that I mostly bought used, and some of them are really great. 

Sinatra first recorded for Columbia as the singer for the Harry James Orchestra in 1939-40, and for RCA with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra from 1940-42. He then began recording singles (78 rpm) under his own name from 1943-52 for Columbia. I have the 2 CD set Portrait Of Sinatra- Columbia Classics (1997) that covers this period, and it is some great stuff. His voice is strong and young, and he is already the nuanced singer that his work in the 50s and 60s reveals in detail. 

From 1953-1962 Sinatra recorded for Capitol Records, releasing a bevy of singles and a ton (23 actually) of LPs. This period, at least in my view, is the greatest era of Sinatra's career. His voice is still in great condition, albeit slightly lower in register than in the forties, and the material, arrangements, and recording technology are all excellent. And it is in this time that Sinatra records much of his most memorable material. One of the first "concept" albums, 1955's In The Wee Small Hours is well worth seeking out as either used LP or newly reissued LP or CD. It is themed around loneliness and heartache, and Sinatra's way with a ballad is as good as any singer, anytime. A single CD that might be almost all the Sinatra you need, Classic Sinatra His Greatest Performances 1953-1960 is worth having. It is the essence of Sinatra's greatness distilled down to twenty tracks, and every single one of them is superb.

 

 

 

 

Sinatra in the sixties is a mixed bag. Some of his most famous recordings happened in the sixties, and even if they weren't as great as his fifties work, there are still some fine performances to be had. When Sinatra went to Reprise, a label he owned, he produced some of his less well-reviewed records in the early sixties. But by 1965's September Of My Years, he was making a rebound. Strangers In The Night 1966 continued the hot streak. In the midst of all this came Moonlight Sinatra 1966. Released in March, by May, Sinatra's own Strangers In The Night made Moonlight Sinatra invisible. It may be the great overlooked Sinatra record. 

The late sixties and seventies were not kind to Frank Sinatra. His voice changed, and not really for the better. It's wrong to say he wasn't still a great singer, but his instrument was not what it had been. He was not to be the artist that ages gracefully in his voice, and he knew that mostly by the seventies, and his output waned significantly.

You might want to explore one of the single CD Reprise era collections, like Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years 1991 or Nothing But The Best 2014. But those fifties performances on Classic Sinatra will not be bettered, I assure you.

The Tutles Golden Hits 1967

If you've read this blog fairly often, you'll know I love a lot of sixties music and enjoy a good "best of" from the era. The Turtles seem like just the kind of thing I might really enjoy. But you and I would be wrong this time. 

The big hits are here, what there was of them. Of course Happy Together, their only number 1, is a classic of sunny and bright mid-sixties pop. She'd Rather Be With Me (think Cowsills or Buckinghams) got to number 3 itself, and is a good one. You Baby is OK in a Lovin' Spoonful sort of way, and Outside Chance, their rocking-est tune, is a b-side worthy of the Nuggets garage band compilation.

Most of the other songs managed to break into the high numbers on the hot 100 charts. So not really hits per se. So Goes Love is only so-so, and Let Me Be isn't terrible, and sounds like the Association. Grim Reaper Of Love, Is It Any Wonder?, Can I Get To Know You Better?, and You Know What I Mean are all just OK at best. Their first top ten hit, Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, is a saccharine version of the song.

4 of 11 is not great numbers. And this one came out before Elenore, so their closest replica of Happy Together isn't here. There are better, more recent compilations, although I doubt that a CD with a lot more tracks is the answer. I'd look for the CD with the least songs. Or just download Happy Together, Elenore, and Outside Chance and be done with it.

Of course the post-Turtles story is pretty unusual, and unusually successful given the overall quality of their original material. Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (as Flo and Eddie) went on to join The Mothers Of Invention for the least interesting era of that band from 1970-1971 (which, to be generous, was only partly their fault). They then sang back-up vocals on an unusual array of early and mid-seventies records, and recorded some comedy rock records as well. They managed to place their songs in movies with some regularity, and released several compilations of Turtles material. In the last 12 years, they've done the sixties oldies circuit with the mostly successful Happy Together tours, bringing many sixties acts of varying import along for the ride.