45 Number Nine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE79UxDu7Xc&feature=related

There are many things you don't appreciate when you are young. It's one of those things adults tell kids, and damned if their not right. Well, at least right about Steve Forbert. In 1979 my friend Ed played this song for me from the Jackrabbit Slim album. Ed sang along with all his soul. I thought it was a good song, but nothing to get worked up over. Then in the 90s I happened to hear Steve Forbert's American in Me album, and was blown away ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1SIdV3JXvI ) . I worked my way through his back catalogue right to Jackrabbit Slim. Then I worked my way forward to all of Steve's current work. He is certainly a man who sings with his soul. I wish I was in contact with Ed to tell him he was right way back there in 1979.

45 Number eight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UejelYnVI3U

Takes me right back to sitting in the Copper Fox in Oneonta NY, with a Genny Cream and listening to the jukebox. Come on sing along: " Crossing the highway late last night, he should've looked left, and he should've looked right, he didn't see the station wagon car. The skunk got squashed and there you are. You Got your dead skunk in the middle of the road .......stinkin' to high heaven."

I have a college buddy, Geoff (see 45 # 6), and he was somewhat of a world traveler when I met him. Still is. But anyway, one weekend in college he and I took a road trip from DC back to my home town, the aforementioned Oneonta, NY. At the time he was enamoured with things country. You know: diners, spitting, and long neck beers. So he was looking forward to gettin' out of the city. We were almost to our destination, somewhere along a lonely stretch of I-88. All of a sudden Geoff says, "What's that smell?". Not necessarily in a bad way, but an "Oh My God!" way. I told him it was a skunk, that had likely been hit crossing the road. He hooted and hollered like he had just smelled his first apple pie. Not sure he remembers this, but it made his day, and I haven't forgotten turning him on to skunk.

Loudon Wainwright sporting a Sex Pistols shirt

Loudon has a long creative history. I remember him as the singing surgeon on MASH. He has written many great and funny songs over the years. A recent favourite was a beautiful song he wrote about visiting Hank Williams' grave the day Fred Rogers died, "Hank and Fred." (Yeah, Mr. Rogers.)
( http://www.lwiii.com/videoplayer.php?flv=Hank_Fred_496x285.flv&width=496&height=305&title=Hank+and+Fred )
I also love Johnny Cash's version of Loudon's "The Man Who Couldn't Cry,"
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgK-1mpSljI ) on Johnny's first American Recordings album.

Loudon has quite the musical family as well, having married two different musicians: the late Kate McGarrigle, and then Suzy Roche. His offspring have some great musical blood. Several are musicians, including Rufus Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright. Rufus does my favourite version of "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen) ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0DKOGco_o ) which was featured in the Shrek movie, but someone else's version appears on the soundtrack. And I have to mention Lucy's song "Chicago"
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fhXWHA0kn8 ), which my children love.

I am ashamed that I don't have many of Loudon's albums. He is one of those artists I've wanted to hear more of.

45 Number seven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Bill Withers. Probably best known as the "Lean On Me" guy. I love his voice. I could listen to it all day. I think this song has the record for a phrase repeated the most times in a row. Click on the link and you'll hear it. I know you will. Also check out the drummer in this video. These guys are beautiful. My favourite Withers' song is " Use Me" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hBYTkI-sE ). Some funky organ and Bill's soulful voice.

Beginning with this 45 you'll see I have links were you can hear the song, as well as others that are mentioned. A nod for the inspiration from my musician friend Danny Maloney. I have edited all the old posts so they now include links to hear the songs. Those of you reading this by e-mail, I encourage you to visit the blog site when you have 3 and half minutes or so to hear the six 45s that have been spun, as well as other songs that were mentioned. If you can only check out one, click on the link to the Joe Jackson song "Got the Time" on the 45 number two post. Vintage footage to a live version of a rockin' song.

45 Number Six

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOVv1nb9-N8&feature=related

Not your usual Dire Straits' suspect. This comes from the "Twisting by the Pool" EP, and although there are no letters on the label, I am sure it is the B side to "Industrial Disease." But I tend to be comfortable on the flip side, and was thrilled when I found this song. It has a jazzy, swinging guitar, with Knopfler, in his best slightly cockney English accent, providing the dialogue of a fan/groupie meeting his favourite band backstage. The whole thing is spoken rather than sung.

I always think of my friend Geoff when I hear this. Geoff is a big Knopfler fan, but more importantly, it's the part that goes like this (OK get your English accents ready);

" Me and my mate like AC/DC, hot and sweaty, loud and greasy, .... Can I have one of them lagers? .... Can he have one?.... Got any badges, posters, stickers or t-shirts?"

45 Number Five

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOuWnlTJ7Y

I played the B side on this one. Neither of these is a favourite of mine, but I like the picture sleeve. Whenever I hear this song I have this image of some poor roadie left to please himself for the night, while the beautiful young woman heads off to the hotel with Russ Kunkle. Recorded backstage at Saratoga Performing Arts, which is kinda neat as this is the first place I ever saw Jackson.

I started this project of 100 singles five days ago. On the same day I started reading Patti Smith's memoir "Just Kids." It chronicles her early life in NYC and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. I am really enjoying her description of the late 60s, early 70s, art scene in New York, as well as the musical references. Anyway, last night I am about half way through the book and this appears:

"A few evenings later Matthew appeared out of nowhere with a boxful of 45s. ....... 'Do you have any singles' he asked anxiously. I got up and rummaged through the laundry and found my singles box, which was creamed colored and covered with musical notes. He immediately counted our combined collection. 'I was right,' he said. 'We have just the right number.'
'The right number for what?'
'For a night of one hundred records.'
... We played them one after another,...."

I don't even own a Patti Smith record, but I will soon.

45 Number Four

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM

What a great label. One of my all time favorite Salvation Army finds was a Johnny Cash, Sun Record label, t-shirt. A black shirt with the yellow Sun Label for "I Walk the Line."

Jerry Lee always makes my feet move. I saw him right here in Elmira on August 6th, 1999. I remember Jerry Lee had really black eyes. Kinda like Keith Richards. And he was real pale. But he rocked that piano, and stood up and knocked over the piano bench just like in the old black and white videos.

I went with my father in-law to that show. That's what I like about music. You can enjoy it with all kinds of people; old/young, related/strangers, straight/crooked, or diner lover/snob.

Love to find Jerry Lee on a juke box, although just finding a juke box is a challenge these days. Some digital ones around, but other than the one in my basement, I'm not sure there is one with records within hundred miles of here. I think my favourite Jerry Lee song is "Breathless." I love X's version of that song as well ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOdMYZa3dA4 ) , but my favorite Jerry Lee cover is the Blasters doin' "High School Confidential" on their live EP. The Killer is still goin'. I think he had some sort of duet record out within the last five years, and I hear he was shaking up in Rochester NY just last year.

45 Number Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oP-2y5_UfI

"I know you wanna leave me, but I refuse to let you go!"

I love how this record begins. I have always enjoyed how Mick phrases and articulates the lyrics of a song. I had a chance to see the Stones on September 26th, 1981 at JFK Stadium in Philly. I can't remember who went with me, but I drove up from D.C. with a car load of people. First was George Thoroughgood, then Journey (which makes my kids laugh), and then Bill Wyman's bass line for "Under My Thumb" opened the Stones. It was way too many people and only memorable to say I was there. I saw them years later at the Dome in Syracuse, or maybe I should say I watched them on the big video screen that was smack dab in front of me. I enjoy the old black and white TV footage of them best. I like the early pop they did like "I Want to be Your Man", "Spider and Fly", and " Off the Hook " ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMeNC1IPUnQ ) . Saw Mick on the Grammys last week. Reminds me I just turned 50, as did or soon will most of my childhood friends. I thought I'd die before I got old, but probably so did Mick. Along those lines I just went to check out the new Keith Richard's biography from the library and found the only copy was in large print. How fitting!

45 number two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C-xazgqpPc&feature=fvsr

I really liked this song when it first came out in 1982 on the Day and Night album. I am not sure it holds up well after all these years. I remember the first time I heard Joe Jackson on WONY, the Oneonta State radio station. It must have been "Is She Really Going Out With Him' or "Sunday Papers." I thought it sounded like an Elvis Costello rip off. But I liked Elvis, so I liked Joe too, and he proved to be his own guy, putting out many great and diverse records. I have recently been listening to more of the power pop, rather than his slower, jazzier or ballad type songs. One song I over looked the first time around was "Got the Time" from the Look Sharp album ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlaAG2XmKUo ). It is really neat. If you have the album, dig it out and loudly listen to that one. Many great songs on that debut album. I also always dug "I'm the Man" and "Kinda Kute" from his sophomore effort I'm the Man album. In 91 he had a song called "It's All Too Much," from the Laughter & Lust album. It's a song I really related to about too many choices in the world. I like Wegmans, but man it's a bit too much sometimes.

45 number one

My family has started a project, or perhaps a challenge. Each of us is doing something one hundred times in one hundred days. I have chosen to open one of my many boxes of 45s (you know, the rectangular or square ones, with the handle on top, and the gold clasp on the front) and randomly select a record to play each day. Most of these have come from garage sales and thrift shops, and have been played rarely. Why do I keep them? Because someday I'll need to play a hundred of them.

Record # 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkb31atC8M4&feature=fvst

This was the first Robert Palmer song I ever heard. I remember a friend of my brother back in the spring of 1979 telling me how great Robert was, and that he had collaborated with the members of the band Little Feat. I searched out his early albums and bought them all up. I really liked the songs "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley" and "Some Guys Have All the Luck" (which gave Rod the Mod a minor hit), and later his version of "I Dream of Wires." Eventually Robert gave us "Addicted to Love" and it's famous MTV visual. I think that is when I stopped paying attention to him.