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.

The Pefect Space

Traveled to Lehigh University yesterday with my just eighteen year old son to see a favorite band of ours, The Avett Brothers. The I-Pod was cleaned and refreshed for the ride. The weather was bright and sunny. The mood was set for that "you're off to college in a week" bonding. As we headed down the highway my head swirled with great expectations. I set the cruise, settled in, and looked over to my passenger for engagement. There he sat, half asleep, receiving text after text from his social network.

I swallowed my expectations and relaxed. Even when he said let's have it quiet for awhile and not listen to the i-pod right now, I smiled and said "sure." He sleepily texted. I watched the road rush under us. Wonderful memories of his life raced through my mind. Wishes for his future floated in. A quiet peace set upon the car that was comforting. The space began.

An hour or so into the trip the I-pod was shuffled ( first shuffled five; I Love My Label - Nick Lowe, Nineteen -Old 97s, Up The Junction-Squeeze, Accidents Will Happen - Elvis Costello, Pulled Up -Talking Heads). Songs were song. Talk was cheap. Worries were light. The space was good.

Our directions were dead on, and we pulled into the theater's parking garage entrance right next to the band's bus. As the Avett nation trickled into the site our excitement began. It was a beautiful mix of young and old hippies, young and old hipsters, and young parents with young kids and old parents with old kids. We fit right into that space.

We browsed the merch table, and picked out shirts. I got a couple of call outs for my "Q" shirt. There was time to grab a drink before we headed into the sold out theater. We sat way up in the center of the balcony. The view of the stage was beautiful. We waited the last few minutes sharing "the" song we wanted to hear from the brothers. From the first twang of the banjo, plunk of the stand up bass, and blending of the harmonies, we were lost in space.

Our smiles were non stop as we stomped our feet, clapped our hands and sang along with song after song. And as I took a breath between songs I thought about the perfection of sharing this moment with my soon to be away at college son. Then the band launched into his wish song; "The Perfect Space."

The Perfect Space, by the Avett Bros.

I wanna have friends that I can trust,
that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was.
I wanna have friends that will let me be
all alone when being alone is all that I need.
I wanna fit in to the perfect space,
feel natural and safe in a volatile place.
And I wanna grow old without the pain,
give my body back to the earth and not complain.
Will you understand when I am too old of a man?
And will you forget when we have paid our debt
who did we borrow from?

Okay part two now clear the house.
The party’s over take the shouting and the people,
get out.
I have some business and a promise that I have to hold to.
I do not care what you assume or what the people told you.
Will you understand, when I am too old of a man?
Will you forget when we have paid our debts,
who did we borrow from, who did borrow from?

I wanna have pride like my mother has,
And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad.
And I wanna have friends that I can trust,
that love me for the man I’ve become and not the man that I was.

Kids These Days

Hello

I don't remember connecting musically with my elders when I was young. My mother had, and still has, a love a music, but we never shared the same music. I do have to say I pilfered some very cool LPs from my older (ten plus years) siblings; CCR on that heavy gauge vinyl, early Billy Joel, Love, CSN, etc. I never had shared musical experiences with them though. It has been a different story with my own children,

I have been broadening their musical horizons since they could hear. I am sure growing up with a music snob has not been easy for them. The other day my eight year old was in the backseat of the car with her new friend explaining that her favourite band was Fountains of Wayne. Her friend seemed perplexed, and asked "Don't you know who Michael Jackson is?" Then my daughter asked me "Dad is he one of the ones our family doesn't like?" I started to worry I was raising another music snob. I went PC and told her MJ was ok, but that I just didn't listen much to his music. Then the little girl asked my daughter about the Beatles, and I had to defend why they weren't the bees knees in our family.

Not to worry though, my children haven't turned into little music snobs like me. They turn me on to the new sounds kids listen to these days. Like that new TV show craze "Glee," and the wonderful new songs they have introduced to my children; "Don't Stop Believing," "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and some Barbara Streisand song I don't even want to think about. I have so enjoyed remembering why I hated these songs the first time round. My children just love this. They love to play the game of let's find the old songs that drive dad crazy and load up our i-pods. Songs like "Eye of the Tiger" and "We are the Champions." So far I have succeeded in hiding the band Boston from them.

Then there is this phenomena of Broadway taking pop collections and making shows out of them. They've done it with Billy Joel, Queen, and now even Green Day. But I will never forgive them for making me re-live all those Abba hits on my daughter's musical theater heavy play list.

There is a huge upside though of my my musical influence on my children. Yeah they like a lotta crap, but they all thoroughly enjoy music in their lives and are passionate about what they like and don't like. They have wide and varied tastes, and have the smarts not to just like what commercial radio, or their dad, says they should. Despite my efforts, or maybe because of, they have developed their own musical styles. Luckily that includes great new music I can experience with them, like Rhett Miller, Dar Williams, and yes Fountains of Wayne. Now if I can just get them to let me listen to Jonathan Richman when they are in the car. "Ice cream man, comin' down the street......."