(1986)  A&M label.  Original release lyric sheet included.  Bought this record used in Santa Monica at a record store I cannot remember the name of– for the price of $2.  david + david were David Baerwald and David Ricketts.  They only released this album.  They had a hit with Welcome To The Boomtown and Swallowed By The Cracks.  I really like this album. The songs are reflective of the late 80’s– loneliness, addiction, and LA.

side one

1. welcome to the boomtown
2. swallowed by the cracks
3. ain’t so easy
4. being alone together

side two

1. a rock for the forgotten
2. river’s gonna rise
3. swimming in the ocean
4. all alone in the big city
5. heroes

I like buying one hit wonders.  If I like a song I will buy the album.  The lesser known artists that stayed that way didn’t start out with that in mind– at least I wouldn’t think so. Stories continue to be written about how tough the music industry was to be in.  From infighting between artists or bands, to development, production, writing, management, promotion– the road alone wiped out artists.  And if your albums didn’t sell…

I find it interesting that my children typically don’t hear new music on the radio.  They either hear it live at shows or by researching on the internet.  Today you can write a song, record it at home on your computer and upload it to the internet.  You can promote it yourself on some type of social media platform.  As long as you eventually get signed to a contract do you care if you ever actually make an LP or CD or tape?  Do music buyers of the new generation care to own that type of merch?  I don’t think so.

So the question can be asked, do new generation music fans still have the same passion for music as my generation?  I say yes they do.  They call it being a “fangirl” or “fanboy”. They share playlists like we shared mixed tapes.  They buy portable music players with larger gig capacity so that they can have all of their music in their pocket.  Illinois and I cannot hold all of our music in our pocket: we have to have a strategy on how to save the records in case of a fire.

 

(1988)  Atlantic label.  Original issue original inner sleeve with lyrics.  I bought this new at Tower Records in Westwood in 1988.  It is interesting that this is CSNY’s second studio release.  Deja vu was released in 1970 and this one in 1988.  Getting the four of these guys in the studio must require the perfect alignment of the earth, moon and stars.

ONE

1. American Dream  (3:15)
2. Got It Made  (4:36)
3. Name Of Love  (4:28)
4. Don’t Say Goodbye  (4:23)
5. This Old House  (4:44)
6. Nighttime For The Generals  (4:20)
7. Shadowland  (4:33)

TWO

1. Drivin’ Thunder  (3:12)
2. Clear Blue Skies  (3:05)
3. That Girl  (3:27)
4. Compass  (5:19)
5. Soldiers Of Peace  (3:43)
6. Feel Your Love  (4:09)
7. Night Song  (4:17)

My favorite tracks on this album are  American Dream, This Old House, That Girl, and Soldiers Of Peace.  There is a little too much electronic drum machines for my taste on a few of these tracks.  Guilty of doing what so many other artists were doing in the late 1980’s– trying new sounds with technology.  I don’t think it works for their voices.  The pop tune That Girl has a catchy hook and Stephen Stills’ voice sounds so strong.   Compass has David Crosby lamenting about relationships using nautical themes.  Graham Nash continues to write poignant songs about war, peace, and understanding.

(1971) Atlantic label.  Original issue 2 lps, gatefold jacket with original inner sleeves including lyrics.  Illinois has a copy of this.  When this copy arrived in a collection he acquired, he asked me if I wanted it.  Of course.  So we own two.  This is a live album recorded at the Fillmore East, the Chicago Auditorium, and the LA Forum in 1970.  So quiet is the audience during the quiet moments.  Triad is David Crosby vocals and guitar and you don’t hear a peep out of the audience.  Beautiful.

SIDE I

1. Suite Judy Blue Eyes  (0.45)
2. On The Way Home  (3:19)
3. Teach Your Children  (2:46)
4. Triad  (5:07)
5. The Lee Shore  (4:14)
6. Chicago  (3:03)

SIDE II

1. Right Between The Eyes  (2:19)
2. Cowgirl In The Sand  (3:50)
3. Don’t Let It Bring You Down  (2:35)
4. 49 Bye-Byes  (5:30)
5. Love The One You’re With  (2:57)

SIDE III

1. Pre Road Downs  (2:48)
2. Long Time Gone  (5:33)
3. Southern Man  (13:15)

SIDE IV

1. Ohio  (3:24)
2. Carry On  (13:06)
3. Find The Cost Of Freedom  (2:16)

I am reading the lyrics for these songs.  I ask myself how did we get to this place in American politics in 2016 if we have roots in these lyrics in 1970?  Look at the song Chicago— “we can change the world” and the song Long Time Gone— “you know there’s something that’s goin’ on here that surely, surely surely won’t see the light of day.”

I have a friend who owns a business.  She is a very smart business owner.  She works hard to make sure her business is successful.  No one has given her any hand outs.  However due to her sex and her skin color, she experiences hostility, bias, racism and inequality. She shares with me her stories.  Folks continue to speak out against these issues because they are still with us.  What is the answer?  Orange-faced conman candidates pouting like fat bullfrogs telling us to shut up and go home to mommy? I shout out a resounding NO WAY IN HELL is he an answer.

I read about how Americans are researching “move to Canada” in greater numbers.  In 1970 folks were moving to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War.  Do you get what I’m saying? The Chump and the Vietnam War are the same!  Building walls to keep people out.  That’s what 1%ers do.  They don’t want to get down in the shit with the real people.  No, they build walls and skyscrapers to remove themselves from the rest of us.  DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE WAFTING HAIRED MAD MAN.  His world is not my world or yours brothers and sisters. He has never bought socks on sale at Kmart.

 

(1970)  Atlantic label.  Reissue with gatefold jacket.  Purchased new at Licorice Pizza in Riverside in 1979.  So many days and nights playing this record in my lifetime. Challenging myself to sing each part of the harmonies.  I could usually sing along with Stephen Stills and David Crosby.  Singing the Neil Young and Graham Nash vocals proved more difficult– sometimes came out a little too screechy. In fourth grade, my teacher asked me to teach the class the song  Teach Your Children.  She didn’t know the lyrics and I did.  I am not sure how I knew the lyrics– I didn’t own the record nor did my folks. I suppose from hearing the song on the radio.  I remember sitting at my desk and repeating the song several times in front of the whole class.  I wish I had a recording of that.

SIDE ONE

1. Carry On  (4:25)
2. Teach Your Children  (2:53)
3. Almost Cut My Hair  (4;25)
4. Helpless  (3:30)
5. Woodstock  (3:52)

SIDE TWO

1. Deja vu  (4:10)
2. Our House  (2:59)
3. 4 + 20  (1:55)
4. Country Girl  (5:05)
5. Everybody I Love You  (2:20)

So much has been written about these musicians over the years.  Their discord and their harmony.  Their personal lives, their solo work.  Their politics, their musical moves within the industry.  Their drug and alcohol abuse and their recovery.  Each born in the early 1940’s it bothers me greatly to accept that we are all aging together.  It is so hard to imagine rock and roll without them.

My favorite tracks on this album?  All of them.  Opening the jacket and looking at the photos inside is such a joy.  Men looked like that!  Brother in the cowboy hat was bassist Greg Reeves. Great shot of Dallas Taylor on drums.  Credited on this album are Jerry Garcia and John Sebastian and they are photographed too.  The front cover shows a sepia toned photo making them all appear to be posing for a photo during the civil war– and since this album came out during a very turbulent time in the United States, it is spot on.  You don’t get that effect on a CD or a download.  The entire package makes this album one to own and treasure.

 

 

 

 

 

(1976) Lifesong label.  Original release original inner sleeve. Acquired this album in a collection Illinois purchased.  He did not have an interest– pop music is not his thing, but I was happy to add it to my collection.  I have written previously of listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40.  Jim Croce was another staple of that show.  He had several chart toppers.  This particular collection are love songs, so you won’t find Bad Bad Leroy Brown on this album.  I remember singing that song in a youth chorus and changing the lyrics from “Baddest man in the whole damn town” to “Baddest man in the whole darn town”.

Side One

1. Time In A Bottle  (2:24)
2. Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)  (3:45)
3. Salon And Saloon  (2:30)
4. Alabama Rain  (2:14)
5. Dreamin’ Again  (2:38)
6. It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way  (2:31)

Side Two

1. I’ll Have To Say I Love You In A Song  (2:28)
2. Lover’s Cross  (3:02)
3. Thursday  (2:20)
4. These Dreams  (3:12)
5. A Long Time Ago  (2:28)
6. Photographs And Memories  (2:03)

When I think of Jim Croce I think of the word troubadour. When I think of Jim Croce I remember his deep eyes, mustache, and guitar.  Several albums picture him smoking. I remember his performance on American Bandstand. He had a distinctive, singular voice– otherworldly and common man at the same time. His tragic death in a plane crash in 1973 at the age of 30, is one of those story lines that tugs at your heart.

(1968) Bellaphon label.  German pressing original inner sleeve. I have listened to this album since I was 7 years old.  I came to own it after my stepfather passed it along to me. He bought it brand new while serving overseas in the Vietnam War.  Every once in a while my folks would call me Suzie Q.  When I was little that was my favorite song.

Credence Clearwater Revival was Stu Cook on bass, Doug Clifford on drums, Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, and John Fogerty on lead guitar. The liner notes on the back of the album jacket are written by Ralph J. Gleason Consulting Editor for Rolling Stone.  In them, Gleason writes about Credence as the Third Generation of San Francisco bands.  He also tells of all the great places bands could play with great regularity in San Francisco in 1968.

This album features three cover tunes and five original tunes.

SIDE ONE

1. I Put A Spell On You  (4:25)
2. The Working Man  (3:02)
3. Suzie Q  (8:34)

SIDE TWO

1. Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)  (3:35)
2. Get Down Woman  (3:02)
3. Porterville  (2:13)
4. Gloomy  (3:48)
5. Walk On The Water  (4:16)

So much to say about this album.  This is the only Credence album I own however I do like this band a lot.  I used to stay up late and call radio stations to request Sweet Hitch Hiker– I love that song.  This debut Credence album is a classic– I hate to use that word as it is over used especially in terms of rock and roll.  For the time, for how the music evokes its time and place– it is a classic.  Side One is one of the best sides of an album ever recorded.

This particular album is seeped in memories of my stepfather.  I learned to take care of my records from him.  I learned how to properly hold a record, clean a record, and put a record away so it stayed in good condition.  I am a serious record collector to this day due in large measure to his interest in records.  He had a small (maybe 200 +/-) but much beloved collection.  I was NEVER allowed to touch his records as a kid. EVER.

There were days I would be in the mood to listen to this album and I had to wait until he got home for him to put it on– and hopefully he was in the mood to hear it.  He had a “stereo system”– all separate components– which was a very big deal in my mind. Before he was in my life, playing records at home was done on either a long cabinet style piece of furniture that sometimes included a TV screen along with a record player, built in speakers and a radio OR it was my little stereo with its record player and two little speakers.  I remember he had Sansui cabinet speakers, a TEAC reel-to-reel tape player, a PE turntable, and a Sansui receiver.

He brought many counter-cultural affects to our lives.  Waterbeds.  He had one.  When I was in the 4th grade I got one too.  I remember learning how to properly set up a waterbed and to make sure to fill it and get rid of all the air bubbles.  Incense.  He had a little ceramic mushroom which he would burn incense.  Motorcycles.  He had friends with really long hair and beards who rode choppers.  Black light bulbs.  He had a small globe that he would put a black light bulb in. We didn’t turn it on all the time. Scales. On the stereo receiver he had a set of scales that he brought back with him from the war.  They looked like a piece of sculpture to me.  Again, another thing I was NEVER allowed to touch. My mom never questioned why he had scales.  Of course now after the popularity of shows like Breaking Bad, finding a set of scales in someone’s living room would raise eyebrows. And maybe it should have for us as well– as it turned out.  But that is another story.

My stepfather had problems.  He was mean.  He didn’t like children.  He had no patience. But there were those rare times when our whole family would be listening to records and it was magical.  We would be listening together in the same room and no one was scared, no one was yelling.  We all found a common bond around rock and roll.

Many, many years later my mom divorced him.  He fell on hard times.  I wound up storing some of his things including his records.  The rest of his things remained in my garage. His records came into the house.  Eventually he told me to keep them.

 

(1988)  RCA label.  Original issue with original inner sleeve.  This is another album Illinois picked up for me when he was out.  He recalls finding it in the stacks at Rhino Westwood– probably in the early 1990s. This is not the first Cowboy Junkies record I heard. Black Eyed Man was the first– I owned it (on CD) and I played it constantly.  I was pregnant with our son and there was something about that album that made me relax and feel grounded.

This album is the band’s debut record in the states– but not their first release.  A Canadian band, this album was a big deal with college radio in the late 1980’s.  I like it for its slowness.  It is good rainy day music.  According to the liner notes: “Captured live at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto Canada on November 27, 1987.”

SIDE A

1. Mining For Gold  (1:34)
2. Misguided Angel  (4:58)
3. I Don’t Get It  (4:34)
4. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry  (5:24)
5. To Love Is To Bury

SIDE B

1. 200 More Miles  (5:29)
2. Dreaming My Dreams With You  (4:28)
3. Sweet Jane  (3:41)
4. Postcard Blues  (3:28)
5. Walking After Midnight  (5:54)

Favorite tracks include the a cappella Mining For Gold, Sweet Jane, and Walking After Midnight.

Illinois tells me albums released in 88-89 through 1995 are rising in value as the industry had released more CDs and fewer LPs during this time.  The “industry” has been poorly managed or guided especially through the digital revolution.  Quickly embracing digital technology resulting in CDs ushered in digital downloads and became its undoing.   Meanwhile record collectors demand LPs now and forever.

 

 

(1989)  CBS label.  Original issue with original inner sleeve including lyrics. Illinois picked it up for me probably at Rhino Claremont. This is her first album. It is folksy and sweet.  It is not the first recording of Shawn Colvin I heard.  I first heard Cover Girl and bought the cassette tape so I could listen to it at work.  I played the heck out of that in 1995, so much so I had to buy it again.

Girl with a guitar writing lovely, smart, melodies and clear voices.  I have quite a few of these albums.  Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, Indigo Girls, Shawn Colvin.

1

1. Steady On  (4:59)
2. Diamond In The Rough  (5:02)
3. Shotgun Down The Avalanche  (5:02)
4. Stranded  (4:03)
5. Another Long One  (3:46)

2

1. Cry Like An Angel  (4:52)
2. Something To Believe In  (4:12)
3. The Story  (3:59)
4. Ricochet In Time  (3:11)
5. The Dead Of The Night  (5:03)

This album won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.  This is simple music. It is songwriter music.  It is story music.  It does not assault your head; it rather speaks to your feelings.  It is music you want your kids to hear when they are little.  It is music you want on when you are in your home doing something like making a gourmet meal or sewing. As my daughter said it is the kind of album Phoebe from “Friends” would make if she could actually sing.

(1989) Atlantic label. Original issue with original inner sleeve including lyrics.  Purchased in 1989 at Tower Records Westwood.  By this point, Phil Collins has a formula in place to make a record: bring in Daryl Stuermer, Leland Sklar, the Phenix Horns, guest vocals such as David Crosby, Stephen Bishop, throw in Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood and voila! This record has a lesser amount of electronic music than No Jacket Required– which is a good thing.  My favorite tracks are Something Happened On The Way To Heaven and I Wish It Would Rain Down.

A

1. Hang In Long Enough  (4:44)
2. Thats Just The Way It Is  (5:20)
3. Find A Way To My Heart  (6:08)
4. Colours  (8:51)
5. Father To Son  (3:28)

B

1. Another Day In Paradise  (5:22)
2. All Of My Life  (5:36)
3. Something Happened On The Way To Heaven  (4:52)
4. Do You Remember?  (4:36)
5. I Wish It Would Rain Down  (5:28)

On the CD the additional tracks are:Heat On The Street and Saturday Night Sunday Morning. This is the last Phil Collins solo record in my collection.  But this is not the last time I will write about him.  When we get to Genesis there will be more…

 

(1985) WEA label. Original issue.  This EP has the bonus track We Said Hello Goodbye which appears on the CD of No Jacket Required but not the album– which is why I bought this. It plays at 45 rpm.

Side One

Don’t Lose My Number-Extended Mix  (6:35)

Side Two

We Said Hello Goodbye  (4:15)