Beware, This Cougar Can Rock'n'Roll...Better Than You Think

Let's talk a little bit about some perception and misperceptions of John Mellencamp.

One common perception is that Mellencamp is a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type, and that perception seems by and large correct. Thing is, mellencamp has been a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type since he was about 30 years old. Then again, wouldn't you be grumpy if your manager dubbed you - more or less behind your back - Johnny Cougar? Sure, young John probably could have picked a better manager than notorious Tony DeFries, fresh from losing David Bowie as a client due to numerous shenanigans by DeFries and cocaine-added paranoia by Bowie. Still, DeFries' Mainman connections helped out Mellencamp years later, when fellow MainMan client Mick Ronson came in to arrange "Jack & Diane" and turn it into the hit it woud become. But that's already years down the line for the man they would call - much to his happiness I'm sure - "The Coug". 

One common perception of John Mellencamp is that the music he issued as Johnny (and then John) Cougar is mostly utterly worthless crap, only starting to be redeemed around the time of the last album issued under the John Cougar name, 1982's American Fool. Now that is, as far as I'm concerned, a huge misconception, and one that today's One Buck Record of the day will try to dispell. I mean sure, there's a bunch of crap and worthless filler on those early years from when Mellencamp was a Cougar, but the music isn't the totally worthless stuff that, say, the Allmusic Guide would have you believe. His first three albums get astonishing one-star-ratings, the self-titled John Cougar gets upgraded to two while Nothing Matters And What If It Did makes it to three. Honestly, there isn't a lot of good stuff on those first three albums, that's why the first two MainMan-led releases get two ongs each, A Biography gets three, and John Cougar is back down to two. But the stuff that made it onto this compilation is pretty good - there isn't un unspeakably wide canyon of quality between the best songs of those first four albums and, say, everything from American Fool onward. At least not to the extent that the one-star-demolitions would suggest. 

"I'm A Wild Cougar, Y'all. Groaarr! Growwwwl!"

Mellencamp simply did what you would expect a young singer/songwriter to do: he got better at his craft and he got better at separating the wheat from the chaff, to stay with his farmboy image. The number of weak songs slowly diminished, while the number of good songs slowly rose. Allmusic is at least right in identifiyng Nothing Matters And What If It Did as the first breakthrough in Mllencamp's career, calling it a prototype for American Fool I think Allmusic is even underrating that album, which I think is the overall strongest and most concistent of the Cougar years, even more so than American Fool. The fip side of the evolution that I just described is that Mellencamp didn't all of a sudden write and compose unimpeachable masterpieces - even highly popular and celebrated releases like American Fool, Uh-Huh and Scarecrow had its number of mediocre filler. I think his first completely consistent album is The Big Jubilee, also one of the singer's favorites. 

Anyway, so Nothin' Matters does matter, as it gets the lion's share of songs on When I Was A Cougar with a record breaking eight tracks (well, "Cry Baby" is a 25 second trifle, albeit a really nice one), while American Fool has to do with five, including the three big singles, "Hurts So Good", "Jack & Diane" and "Hand To Hold On To". 

So, what about that Cougar music you say? Well, Mellencamp doesn't have the songs yet throughout the six albums that form the basis for When I Was A Cougar, but the Stones-y rock attitude is already there, as is a voice that can get these rockn'roll songs and ballads over (and sometimes betrays a similarity to Bruce Springsteen, as well as Bob Seger on some cuts), and the heartland attitude for which he became known starts to seep through these songs as well. I think the whole Johnny Cougar thing got some stink on these albums that diminished the perception of the music, while fully agreeing with the fact that most of the songs aren't worth a second or third listen. That's why I think a comp like When I Was A Cougar is really useful. For some artists it's worth searching through their (relatively) underachieving early records and finding some treasure in deep cuts, but with Mellencamp you won't find treasure, because what's to be treasured is here. 

I did the hard work for you, so that When I Was A Cougar basically supplants the necessity of listening to those first records up to American Fool almost entirely. If you have a personal favorite that's missing from this comp, then it's likely you are a Mellencamp superfan and find a ton of worthwhile stuff on thise records. But if you are just a casual fan of Mellencamp, or not familiar with his work at all, then I think you'll find a ton of worthwhile stuff on When I Was A Cougar and none of the crap, so you'll get the most interesting moments of an artist evolving before your eyes and ears without any unwanted distraction. I'm also really happy with the cover art that came out pretty much exactly like I imagined it (useless to add that that's not always the case, unfortunately, with my limited visual editing skills and software). 

I think When I Was A Cougar is a really good listen. Hope you'll agree. And now I let the Cougar take over...

We've Got You Covered Again, Geno, Even If It Took Some Time...

While I was busy compiling and sequencing and recompiling and resequencing new volumes of the Bowie-We've Got You Covered series, I realized that the series that had started it all had been stuck in neutral for a while again. The second volume of We've Got You Covered - Gene Clark followed the first one by a month and now it has been *checks notes* seven months?!? Thank god these things don't have cliffhangers...(and don't fear, All Pearls, No Swine fans, that series hasn't been forgitten either...coming soon with a new, bold volume...)

Anyway, so time to get back on the horse with folks covering Geno, especially since there are still too few covering too few different songs. I can probably fill up a disc or two with covers of "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better", much like, as fellow Little Feat compiler Jonder pointed out, you can make a whole disc out of "Willin'" covers alone. The entire point of this series, though, is both discovering artists you wouldn't otherwise (or see some old musical friends you haven't seen in a while) and also discovering the Clark songs that not everyone knows. 

So, this is where Vol. 3 picks up. Of course, there's another "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better", this time courtesy of British 60's jingle jangle revivalist The Coral. "Eight Miles High" is covered by fellow folk veteran Leo Kottke.(a solo acoustic version, not the band version from 1971's Mudlark) and Gene friend and duet partner Carla Olson covers "She Don't Care About Time", here in a duet with Richie Furay (and Clark's mid-80s running mates John York and Pat Robinson). But that's pretty much it in terms of huge classics, unfortunately, because the general public's memory covers those songs and not much else. 

Several of his too little known 60s classics are here:  underrated Dillard & Clark single "Why Not Your Baby?" as faithfully covered by Saville, minor Byrds classics "Here Without You" covered by Reigning Sound and "I'd Want You" as covered with a tinge of garage rock by Thin White Rope, "So You Say You Lost Your Baby" as covered by Thistill, and orchestral experiment "Echoes" as covered decidedly more rustically by Leo Koster. 

What Gene Clark comp would be complete without superfan Sid Griffin (who often takes over liner notes duty on Clark reissues)? Here he is covering "Silver Raven" with his band The Coal Porters. Another Clark superfan is Italian musician Marco Zanzi, showing up with a superb version of "Full Circle". Chris & Rich Robinson, the brothers behind The Black Crowes played concerts as an acoustic duo as Birds Of A Feather (before the inevitable band reunion), where they covered "Polly". My personal favorites on this volume are Bob Holden's delicate acoustic cover of Clarks's last classic "Del Gato", The Mother Hips' great take on "Out On The Side" and Carrie Ashley Hill's dreampop_ish version of "Dark Of My Moon", a late 80s demo that Clark never got to cut in the studio. 

Of Clark's contemporaries, there's Fairport Convention covering "Tried So Hard" for the BBC and of course ever loyal Ian Matthews, this time delivering a beautiful version of "For A Spanish Guitar" with Plainsong. 

As for the surprises that come up with each volume? Well, I wouldn't have had Depeche Mode-front man Dave Gahan on my 'most likely to cover Gene Clark' shortlist, but here he is with The Soulsavers, covering the relatively obscure White Light track "Where My Love Lies Asleep". Red Feather, of which I know next to nothing, are a sludgy psych noise rock outfit, not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Gene Clark's music. They played an ultra heavy, ten minute slow metal crawl version of No Other. I edited several shorter versions, and finally decided to keep the longest one at around six and a half minutes, which gives you a good impression of what they are doing with the song, without the squalls of pure noise they also produced. I programmmed this as the album closer, so if this admittedly unusual take isn't your cup of tea, you can simply delete it without retaging or other hassles.

So, there's again tons of great covers herewithin, and a bunch of unknown or little known artists to discover. Without further ado, We've Got You Covered Vol. 3 for the songs of Mr. Gene Clark...

If you want to complete your collection, links for volumes one and two have been updated. 

Step On Board Of This Vessel with Your Captain, Gordon Lightfoot

When Gordon Lightfoot died almost exactly two years ago, I didn't have much to say. This blog didn't exist yet, but even on the music blogs I visited there was no mention of him, and when I wanted to post a short eulogy in a comment section I didn't know what to say either. Lightfoot is the kind of artist who doesn't elicit much passionate discussion either way. If you even do remember Lightfoot, it's probably for one of his three hits ("If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown" and "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald") which probably still turn on classic radio. But general opinion and appreciation of Lightfoot probably tops out at 'pretty nice, but not essential', which I can't really argue with. 

So I'll quickly tell you why Gordon Lightfoot means more to me than that general opinion (on which I would be happy to stand corrected). Gordon Lightfoot was the first singer-songwriter I discovered. Not a guy my father played a lot (although I didn't find his first album in his collection), but I found a Warner Brothers Singer Songwriter label comp that had "Sundown" and "If You Could Read My Mind" on it. (Since Dion's "Josie" was sequenced right after the latter, I always figured it was a latter-day hit, not the album track it turned out to be. It's great by the way, but that's another story for another post). I don't know what dre me more to Lightfoot than, say, Stephen Stills or Tom Paxton or any number of royalty also on that album (Van Morrison! Tim Buckley!), maybe the warmth and gentleness of his voice, but Gordon Lightfoot was it for me, so I slowly but surely bought almost his entire 60s and 70s output, which happily for a teenager was available as mid-price selections (hey, remember those?). 

Gordon Lightfoot was never particularly hip, but he certainly wasn't hip to teenagers in the early 90s. So I had that man and his music all to myself, and I only shared him with my first girlfriend. Sure, I'd discover all the great ones - Dylan, Newman, Zevon - in time, but first there was always Lightfoot and his tales of nature and romance and history and a bunch of other things, all very romantic bard type things, which no doubt appealed to me, the constantly forlorn in unrequited love teenager (but then, isn't that most of them? It didn't feel like that at the time, though...). But Lightfoot also opened up my mind to the idea that lyrics could be more than vehicles to move a song along, or to be catchy as a chorus. Ligtfoot was the first artist I listened to that seemed to love words as words. I can 100% say that I would have nver become a lover and reader of poetry without a little assist of Mr. Lightfoot.  

I generally liked tons of ongs from Mr. Lightfoot, but other than the lovelorn, romantic and sad ones I really liked his tales of the sea. Lightfoot, an avid hobby sailor on the Great Lakes, was fascinated by the sea and , more importantly, could translate that fascination to the listener. Most recognizably, and arguably as his finest piece of storytelling, on the aforementionesd "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". But what he also often could impress on the viewers was the sense of adventure and wanderlust of seafaring, in song ssuch as "High and Dry" and "Christian Island", the two upbeat side openers of the accompanying Shanties album, our One Buck Record of the day. "The Ghosts Of Cape Horn", with its little whistling section of the chorus is another favorite.  

The Golden Goose, one of Lightfoot's sailboats...

The line-up concists essentially of odes to seafaring from across Lightfoot's discography - and tales of two tragedies involving ships, both the side closers of the album.  It's interesting to contrast these two songs about the sinking of ships, "The Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle" and "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". 

"The Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle", about the burning and sinking of the cruise ship of the same name, is sort of an odd duck in Lightfoot's discography, a protest/story song that Lightfoot wrote right after the catastrophe occured - the version I kept is from a concert in Toronto end of January 1966, so  it's been barely two months since the sinking of the Yarmouth Castle. But that song, after premiering thus in early 1966 never made it onto any of the Lightfoot albums that followed, finally surfacing on Sunday Concert, the record-fulfilling live album at the end of his tenure with United Artists. One suspects that it was taken out of mothballs three years (and three albums later) to assure a number of original songs on that album. But I'm not a big fan of the Sunday Concert version, with its echoey and slightly distant sound. I much prefer the version I used, which surely must be one of the first public airings  - if not the first ever - of the song, which has a warmer, friendlier sound that jibes better with the other songs around. The sentiments, however, weren't warm or friendly. 

"Yarmouth Castle, shes a-dying and don't know it..."

The fact that "The Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle" was not issued for three years also highlights Lightfoot's odd positioning in the folk singer community. Unlike most of his brethren, he wasn't having particularly leftwing views, he in fact supported the Vietnam war and at least privately complained about American draft dodgers invading his home country. As a sign of the time maybe, he did have the occasional protest song - "Black Day In July" about the Detroit riots from Did She Mention My Name comes to mind - but he is sort of weirdly uncommitted on these songs in a sort of 'just reportin' the facts, M'am' way. 

"Yarmouth Castle" thus isn't really direct as a protest song and avoids fingerwagging, just pointing out how the captain (and his crew) abandoned the ship and consequently left dozens of passangers to die ("The captain on his lifeboat is a-leaving") or how the paint used on the ship accelerated the spread of the fire and how the safety features were outdated and inadequate ("For the ragged hoses in the rack / no pressure do they hold"). He also makes really interesting use of personification, telling the story partly from the point of view of the ship."The Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle" is one of his best offerings of Lightfoot's early years and certainly beats out some of the fluff on the albums that didn't issue it, again pointing out how the song got the short end of the stick, for whatever reasons. 

By contrast, "Edmund Fitzgerald" is decidedly mythologising from the get-go, establishing an ominous atmosphere, both musically and lyrically, that depicts the boat's sinking as an almost unvaidable fate "when the witch of November come stealin'". Atmosphere is the key word here, as the brooding rhythm of the song, that Lightfoot based on old Irish folk song "Back Home In Derry", depicts the beginning of the Edmund Fitzgerald's fateful last journey, before thes slashing guitar lines by Red Shea and terry Clements and the equally slashing steel by Pee Wee Charles really bring the sentiment of gales whipping across the ship's deck alive.

It's a testament to that sustained atmosphere and Lightfoot's evocative lyrics that an almost six and a half minutes long song without a chorus could make it all the way to no. 2 in the charts, only held off by - urgh - Rod Stewart's disaster song of another kind, "Tonight's The Night". Lightfoot wasn't one to let a good riff go, so perhaps unconsciously, when he wrote "Sea of Tranquility" for 198's Dream Street Rose he seemed to reuse some of the licks from "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". As a sort of 'prelude' I sequenced "Sea Of Tranquility" right in front of "Fitzgerald".

Shanties is a relatively short album - only eight songs, but as three are quite long, it has vinyl album length. I had some other vaguely nautical themed songs on the short list, but decided to just use these - all killer no filler, something Lightfoot didn't always manage on his original albums. Put this on, and set sail with captain Gordon Lightfoot... 

"I'm sailin' down the summer wind, I got whiskers on my chin, and I like the mood I'm in..."

Leo's Linkage Leads...To A Public Service Note

 

Welcome to new One Buck Head Leo, who does what I always advise folks to do...you found something interesting on this site, just ask for a link!

Leo did, and so there are updated links for Kate Bush's "A Sky Of Honey" Suite, everything Neal Casal on this blog, as well as the two Yes posts. Elvis Costello has also recently been upped. And this just in: The Prince/Miles Davis concert has also been upped...

So folks, do like Mr. L up there and ask if anything here sounds interesting to you but doesn't have a download link anymore...

As ever at your service, 

sincerely,

the One Buck Guy

PS: Always remember...

This Van Occupanther doesn't need taming, but a bit of resequencing would help...

I came to this, Midlake's second album and breakthrough, without much knowledge on band or album. It's likely that I had read a short write up in Rolling Stone on them, and I might've heard one song on a CD sampler that were popular with music magazines at the time. But other than that, pretty much a blank slate. I just felt like buying a CD on my way back from work, even in this big box type electronics store someone had put Midlake up in a 'recommended albums' spot and the album was at mid-price, so who was I to refuse a date with Van Occupanther? Upon listening to it, I was blown away by the album, especially since I basicallly had no expectations. But from the moment the first notes of "Roscoe" started, this album had me. Then, "Bandits", great. And so on and so forth. 

Midlake's rather idiosyncratic take on folk on The Trials Of Van Occupanther was a true breath of fresh air, especially since at the time one of the hypes was so-called Freak Folk, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, whereas Midlake combined some unique, sometimes rather impenetrable lyrics (seriously, even with the lyrics sheet, sometimes you're not sure exactly what Tim Smith is on about...) with a rather interesting mix of acoustic folk and accompanying beautiful harmonies, mixed with some surprisingly crunchy, fuzzy guitar outbursts and, even more uniquely, some really chunky keyboard sounds that seem to have escaped straight from the 80s. Some critics called it close to the Laurel Canyon sound, though I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. This isn't Beachwood Sparks, even though they share their penchant for psychedelia. 

This rather unique mix made it such a disappointed that for the highy awaited follow-up The Courage Of Others Smith led the band toward straditional British folk, with little traces of what made the band unique. This also led to one of the most boring concerts I've ever attended, but that's another story. Then Smith left the band, with guitar/keyboard player (and backing vocalist) Eric Pulido now elevated to lead vocal duties. Which, on Antiphon, actually worked great. But still, the best album of Midlake remains for my money The Trials Of Van Occupanther. But what I realized during one of my many relistens is that while the album is great, and there is a the sum is greater than its parts element to it, there was one issue with it: a sequencing that didn't work as well as it should. 

There were two related, interconnected problems: Starting with "Young Bride" right after "Van Occupanther", we get a trio of slower songs (some, admittedly, with uptempo intervals) and they are all long songs, each clocking in at over five minutes. The album had nicely picked up steam, only to then completely lose that momentum on this triptych in the middle. And when you then skip to "We Gathered in Spring", there's the thick 80s-style keyboard sound that shows up here and in the next song, "It Covers The Hillsides". At the time, it was a shock to hear these keyboard swathes coming seemingly out of nowhere,. But there was another issue: Having these shorter, synth-adorned songs clustered at the end, after a cluster of slower, longer songs, inadvertently made them come off as trifles.   

Yes, song for song, pound for pound, The Trials Of Van Occupanther, is a great album, but it's a great album with a less than ideal sequencing. So, the mission was clear: uncluster the middle, introduce that keyboard sound that set Midlake apart from other neo-folk outfits earlier in the album, and balance the shorter and longer, slower numbers better. Which is what I did. 

It's almost shameful to tag this as an alternate album, as I didn't add or delete anything, just shuffled these numbers around. But maybe, hopefully, that's all it takes. Either way, if you know this album, give it a spin to see whether it does run better for you as well. And if you don't know it, well, then you need to get The Resequenced Trials Of Van Occupanther asap, as it's easily one of the (semi-) hidden treasures of the 2000s. 

Relive The Sprit Of The Eighties...No, Not That One, The Other One...

Time to get back into the Spirit of things. Ahem. So, while a last alt album of Randy California and his Spirit bandmates is laying in the vaults, I decided to do this first, the successor to the Free Spirit Of The 70s compilation that tried to put the increasingly incoherent output of pirit into a more coherent and enjoyable whole. This album tries to do the same for te following decade, where the output from Spirit and/or California became even more erratic as well as more spaced out in terms of recorded output. California & Co. toured relatively tirelessly though. As with that 70's set volume I envisioned to make something eminently listenable out of the, uh, rather uneven music from the band throughout the decade that generally speaking wasn't kind to this type of 60's rock band. And, dare I say it, In think I suceeded. When assembled this flowed better than I imagined it would. 

When last we quit Spirit, California and bandmates were gearing up to put the shelved Potatoland mayterial into shape for a release, after fans had badgered them about hearing it. They reworked and rerecorded songs, as well as overdubbing some of the 1973 material. Five tracks from the 1973 configuration already figured on Free Spirit Of The Seventies, and a version of the rerecorded "We've Got A Lot To Learn on Radio Aqua Blue, this compilation adds the Potatoland '81 versions of "Fish Fry Road", "Morning Light", "Turn To The Right" , "Open Up Your Heat" and "My Friend", edited to go without the gibberish 'concept album' dialogue and other nooks and crannies that stopped these tracks from flowing correctly. "My Friend", with its Byrds-ian jingle jangle opening is a clear One Buck Guy favorite. 

Ladies and gentlemen...Carlos Santana...oh, hold up, nope, that doesn't seem to be correct... 

I said a little earlier that the Eighties were generally not too kind on late 60's era bands, but they did reignite interest in them nonetheless, as fans in the music industry wondered aloud what would happen to these classic bands in modern sound. And Spirit were one of the first to profit from, uh, that kind of spirit, reuniting the original band for The Thirteenth Dream (Spirit of '84 in the U.S.) in 1982, way before Jefferson Starship or Poco got their 80s reunion/makeover. But it wasn't a particularly successful reunion, creatively, capturing the original five-piece live in the studio remaking their classics and attempting only three new songs. Of those, I didn't like Jay Ferguson's songs much, so I only kept Randy's "All Over The World", plus four of the remakes of old Spirit classics, which maybe aren't a patch on the originals, but a welcome reminder of how good these songs are. 

What holds maybe most interest for fans of the band are the at-the-time unreleased songs. Two similar-sounding atmospheric synth-and-guitar ballads ("20 Years", "Who Are You") form the album's bookends, setting the deliberately calm pace. There are some very Californian noodles like "Storm In The Night" and spirited rockers like "The Prophecy", while the Vietnam war tale "Son Of America" is proof that California could write and fully produce story-songs if concentrated. The line-up is completed by a couple of acoustic tunes played in concert ("In A Young Man's Eyes/Life Has Just Begun", "Darlin' If" and "Logical Answers") and an early version of  a track later released on California's 1986 solo album Restless ("Childhood's End"). 

No, for the fifteenth time, it's not a white flag, and no, I'm not giving up...

So, is Spirit Of The Eighties a rival for the bands work from the 60s or 70s? No, it isn't, but in this compilation I'd say it's better than what a lot of folks would think of a band that was starting to tour the oldies circuit in several band packages and didn't have much juice as far as studio albums are concerned. But some of the best of the juice that they did have is here on Spirit Of The Eighties, so go on, take a sip or two... 

If Music Were Only Made By Nice People...

 ...we would all have a whole lot less music around than we can enjoy now. I think it might have been Jonder who mentioned that it's better not to read musician's biographies (or, for the honest ones, autobiographies), because most simply aren't very nice people. Having read I'll Sleep Shen I'm Dead: The Dirty Life And Times Of Warren Zevon I can heartily concur. Though, really, to me Zevon never came off as a particularly nice person, so anyone who expected something different was probably always going to be in for some uncomfortable truths. For some people you don't even have to read a book to know that they're not a nice person, they'll gladly show that to you.

Glenn Frey was a lot of things - boisterous frontman, songwriter, vocal arrangement specialist, part-time acctor - but most of all he was a colossal dick most of the time. And he was proud of that fact, too. If you listen to him explain things in The History Of The Eagles Vol. 1 - hands down one of the best music documenaries ever - you are often amazed at how unabashedly awful Frey is (this is probably even worse in the otherwise forgettable Vol. 2, cf. his comments on the Felder royalties dispute or his pride in getting a tiny role in Jerry McGuire), while he no doubt  thinks he's the coolest shit on God's greeen earth. As Bill Simmons pointed out in his fabulous review of the doc it's fantastic to see Frey and Henley stage "a Pretentious Douche-Off", with both having clearly defined roles, seemingly spun out of their high school experience: Henley is the sneering pseudo-intellectual, who always has words for the unwashed masses, even if they don't deserve his wisdom. Arrogance, thy name be Henley! And Glenn Frey is the jock, the bully who gives unpopular weaklings wedgies and swirlies - loud, obnoxious, doesn't know when to shut up (until Bernie Leadon gives a strong hint while pouring a beer over his head). Bonus points in Frey-ness: The Eagles technically don't have a 'The' in their name, because Frey insisted that would make them sound more like a tough Detroit street gang...uh, Glenn, about that...

Frey's impression of what a Detroit street gang looks like (artist illustration)

But I digress. A nice guy he might never have been, but a decent musician he certainly was. And even if his solo stuff could never touch the best things he brought to the Eagles (no doubt because, as awful as these two are, as a musical duo they were really good), there's still some fun to be had with a collection of Glenn Frey solo stuff, which is our record of the day. I stole the artwork froman existing comp, but this collection was selected and sequenced by the One Buck Guy. Generally speaking, Frey's career was a disappointment - and he was probably very unhappy that Henley got all the sales, accolades and Grammies - but to be fair, Frey often treated his solo career like an extravagant hobby rather than a career or a calling. Whenever Jack Tempchin had a couple of songs (or half-songs), he would go and polish these up, get in the studio and record these. But Frey never was much of a writer or composer during these years, which made his sudden jump into some (mild) social commentary on Strange Weather even stranger. Amid all the middling pop rock songs, there's usually one or two songs per album that are worth keeping, all in a breezy Top 40 airwaves spirit. 

Of the hit songs, I always liked "The Heat Is On", having picked up the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop as a teen after seeing the movie, while "You Belong To The City", written for Miami Vice never did much for me (it's still here, can't leave it off any honest career overview). This comp has been sequenced around three short atmospheric instrumental doodles from Strange Weather, serving as a prelude, an interlude and an epilogue. The comp has songs from all of his solo albums, including his 'old man does pop standards' album After Hours, though I specifically chose the two that best went with the sound of his earlier recordings: country number "Worried Mind" and his take on the Beach Boys classic "Caroline No". 

"You ready for your wedgie, boy...?"

Glenn Frey may not have striven to make great art as a solo artist - and he didn't. But he made some very fun pop songs, which you can now all have under one roof with the One Buck Guy's special Solo Collection.

Don't Back Down: Bruce Springsteen's OTHER DIY record!

Well, I'll be damned if the Boss himself beats me to this. I just read this week about the release of the Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set that is set for the end of June. Judging from the track list there is definitely some unheard material on there that was never bootlegged and will be new to Springsteen fans. The one thing that definitely isn't new to devote followers of the Boss is the first disc, dubbed somewhat prosaically L.A. Garage Sessions '83. Considering that this was one of the most heavily bootlegged era of the Boss, almost everything on there looks like it was already out on boots before. I'm not sure about the track called "Black Mountain Ballad", but everything else definitely has shown up before. And, like any good Springsteenophile (sic?!), I have of course tried to put some of this material into album form. And before the Boss himself drops the motherlode, it's time I get these out before, as a sort of unoffical preview for the official release in a month and a half. 

Don't Back Down is one of the possible albums from the period that I came up with. These tracks are Springsteen toiling away in his home studio Thrill Hill West, somewhat still in the thrall of the downtrodden acoustic tales of Nebraska, while also discovering the joys of a drum machine and a synthesizer. The latter's introduction is especially noteworthy. 

The newly minted title song "Don't Back Down" is amazing, it sounds like Springsteen fronting Depeche Mode! That no doubt sounds like a total nightmare to old school Boss fans, but damn, if it isn't intriguing. The huge, insistant keyboard hook is fantastic, even if Boss fans of old would've probably had a huge amount of trouble accepting him as a synth rocker. Personally, I love it, and I say, bring on the synths, Bruce! (It also isn't clear whether this track will show up on Tracks II, because the Boss wrote an entirely different song - different melody, different lyrics - that is somehow also called "Don't Back Down", so we'll see which "Don't Back Down" won't back down!) "The Klansman", which - as you can imagine from the title -  has some interestig lyrics uses an almost identical synth melody. The other synth rock track is "One Love", again with a chunky keyboard rhythm and drum machine giving the Boss a synth rock makeover.  

The other thing still very much on Bruce's mind is rockabilly. Almost half of Don't Back Down is a rockabilly album, albeit a heavily synthesized one (and, maybe not coincidentally, at a time where ZZ Top were playing their heavily synthesized version of , erm, the Blues). Four tracks, "Betty Jean", "Little Girl Like You", "Sugarland" and "Seven Tears" are clearly influenced by rockabilly, synth-fitted for the 80s. This shows in the running times, with only "Betty Jean" and "Sugarland" (barely) cracking the two minute mark. The Boss was experiencing with rockabilly around the time of The River and had clearly not gotten it out of his system. Speaking of things not quite out of the system: "Richfield Whistle", Don't Back Down's first side album closer sounds like a track that could have fit on Nebraska, thus its placement. In my typical mirror fashion, the second album also ends acoustically and low key, first with the ballad version of "Fugitive's Dream" and then an acoustic reprise of "Don't Back Down". 

You can argue about which Springsteen material (and production choices) will stand the test of time, but I go out on a limb here and say that this DIY stuff - clunky keyboards, drum machine a-go-go et al - comes off better than some of the stuff Springsteen labored over endlessly in the studio. There is a freshness to it that simply can get 'played away' after one too many times in the recording studio. And what sounded rudimentary and garish in 1983 sounds almost charming when sets against the ultraprocessed sound that has crept into theBoss' albums in the last deaced and a half. 

Again, almost all of these tracks will be available officially and no doubt in better sounding versions than what I have here, but Don't Back Down might still have its tiny place at the table. L.A. Garage Sessions '83 with its 17 tracks doesn't sound like a real 'lost album' - and certainly not an album from 1983 - more like a rarities clearing house. The idea of Don't Back Down was to program these demos into something that would have the flow and feel of a real album. Which I hope I suceeded at, but let the public (yes, that's YOU!) be the judge of that. So, don't back down and bravely face Bruce, the one man band!

  

You Better Call Somebody, There's A Lot Of Casalties Here!

Alright, alright, Billy Ray Cyrus was maybe a bridge too far, let's go back to some certified value from a beloved commodity, shall we? It's been a good long while that we had some Neal Casal on these here pages, so here comes part two of the three part series or rarities and stray tracks that I have assembled. Casalties Volume One chronicled Casal's early days, from songs cut before his dbut album to 1998's Basement Dreams. Volume Two, our One Buck record of the day, jumps right in at that moment, as a matter of fact there is one escapee from the Basement Dreams sessions, "Junkyard In The Sun", preceded by ripping rock'n'roll opener "Twilight On The Floods", a stray track issued on a couple of music magazine compilations. 

From there we move on to a couple of collaboration projects: a duet with Angie McKenna (released posthumously),  tracks from an album Casal recorded with Kenny Roby (including a beautiful live take on "Maybe California") and from an EP he did with Shannon McNally. I chose the songs on which Casal sings lead, is sharing lead vocals or otherwise prominently featured. And the back half is then comprised of live tracks, covering the period from Anytime Tomorrow (probably my favorite Casal album) to No Wish To Reminiscence. Tracks are sourced from various live concerts (or live in the studio for the album-closing "You Don't See Me Crying"), as well as odds-n-sodds comp All Directions. 

I don't think I have to tell you what to expect: very fine mostly acoustic music, beautifully played and sung, as per usual for Mr. Casal. If you still haven't been converted, by this blog or another place, then dive into some further Casalties for that sweet 70's Westcoast vibe that Neal Casal could conjure so magnificently and effortlessly...

It's A Labelling Error! Really! Billy Ray Ain't That Bad!

 

Billy Ray Cyrus is responsible for a lot of crimes against humanity: Achy Breaky Heart, linedancing doofuses everywhere, the improbable pompadour-mullet combo, Miley Cyrus. Most of his music – at least from his earliest days, way before he bcame a country-crossover star again due to Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” – strangely enough doesn’t fall into that category. As a matter of fact, it is quite a bit better than its extermely feeble reputation. His debut album Some Gave All, still the best-selling debut album of all time by a male artist has its moments, follow-up It Won’t Be The Last was a bit of the famous sophomore slump, but Billy ray then bounced back strongly with Storm In The Heartland, our One Buck record of the day. 

Cyrus isn’t a particular great singer, nor songwriter, but he knows his lane, and his lane clearly is country approached from a rock perspective. He decided to included a fake sticker on the back artwork that announced 'This album was made LOUD to be played LOUD', and you know what, he's not wrong. While his first two records filled the mainstream country with as much rock attitude as the record-buying public would allow, Storm In The Heartland is easily the heaviest of those three records. Not Black Sabbath- or Pantera-heavy, obviously, but as much a rock record as a country one. 

Oh look, it's young Billy Ray and very young Destiny Hope a.k.a. Smiley a.k.a. Miley Cyrus

That's what the labeling error in the title alludes to: Since he is known for mainstream pop(-pish) country, Billy Ray got a bad rap, but if this album would be labeled Southern Rock no one would bat an eye. Because Storm In The Heartland is, for major parts, exctly that, a countryfied take on Southern Rock. It even has a theme song of sorts in "Redneck Heaven", where "my southern roots are burid and Van Zant still lives on", as Cyrus intones. 

Now, to be fair, there is a number of ballads on here, but apart from "Only God Could Stop Me Loving You", which I relegated to album closer duty is maybe a little too cloe to the AOR power ballad format (Bryan Adams called and wants his song back...), these are nicely done and keep the 'sweet and icky' factor at bay. The title song seems to start out as a ballad, before drums and guitar take up a lot of space, the same is true for "The Past", the only song Cyrus wrote entirely himself here. Both songs also have some slight gospel influences. And there is real rock grit to "Enough Is Enough" and "Geronimo", two pounding stompers. and the fittingly rollickin' "Roll Me Over", while "Casualty Of Love" dips into a blues rhythm, another obvious marker for the Southern Rock bonafides of this album. 

The Mullet Maketh The Man...

As is sometimes necessary, I tried to improve the album with the old addition by subtraction formula, and here I cut the knife in deep to get rid of the fat of this CD era album: I tossed no less than four numbers from the line up, for a lean, mean, old school vinyl era record: ten tracks, a little under forty minutes, all killer (well, almost), no filler. 

So, don't be a snob and check this out, it may surprise you! 

These Slow Riders Bring You...All Pearls And No Swine!

Welcome to the second themed edition of an 80s set version of All Pearls, No Swine. Much like Vol. 19, the countryfied edition, his one was borne out of necessity. When I started to assemble the 80s volumes, I realized that I kept pushing off certain songs of the editions, mainy because they didn' fit in with the rest of the line-up. I had songs like Katy Feeney's very trad-folk "Shepherd Song", Dave Keir's "Last Night" and Turiiiya's "Thread Of Gold" early on, but kept putting them onto the 80s set volumes, then quietly replacing them with other songs better fitting with the 80s aesthetic these Pearls had. So, as in the case of Vol. 19 I realized that these tracks would never find a home, until I created one. 

Fortunately, at around the same time, I laid my hands on a bunch of tracks that fit the new assignment: A bunch of slower songs, mostly folk, with some dipping a toe (or horseshoe) into country. The title of the collection - a first in the series! - comes from the opening number from Stetson, a resolutely DIY private press country folk outfit from Bellevue Idaho. "Slow Rider" with its rural slow motion rhythm embodies the theme and sound of this compilation. Slow and introspective are the key words of the day. 

Well, they're a friendly looking bunch of folks...and one is even wearing the titular Stetson!

True to the series' roots, almost all here is obscure and comes from private press or mini-label sources. The biggest names on here are probably Bob Weston, short-time member of Fleetwood Mac (then fired in short order for sleeping with Fleetwood's wife) and perennial One Buck Records favorite Gene Clark. Weston's album Studio Picks, from which "If I Knew" comes, seemingly was only ever released here in France, of all places. And Fleetwood seemingly doesn't hold grudges for long, as he provides drums on one of its tracks! Gene Clark's number is an early version/elaborate demo of, in my opinion, the last classic song he cut in the studio during his lifetime, So Rebellious A Lover's "Del Gato", sung as a duet with Carla Olson. This version features a tentative keyboard arrangement, that didn't make it into the final version, and it's definitely an interesting, if ultimately superflous, addition. 

Paisley Park fanatics will of course also recognize Rainy Day, here with Kendra Smith instead of Bangle Susannah Hoffs on lead vocals, covering Neil Young's "Flying On The Ground Is Wrong", that fits in well with the rest of the slow riders around. Such as Chuck Dunlap's "Wander On'", from the Stillwater, Oklahoma native's only album Daze Gone By. From the same year, 1980, comes folkie Stan Moeller's "Changes" (not the Phil Ochs song), also from the single full album he completed. Dave Keir is already an All Pearls, No Swine veteran, having been featured all the way back on APNS Vol. 3, the first 80s set volume of the series (and arguably one of its best...), he's leaving lead vocals here to Mandy Carlton while doing the usual fine fingerpicking. Country/folk rock combo Broken Bow out of Wisconsin are also already known to old school One Buck Heads, having debuted on the same volume and having also been featured on Volume 10. Here's another track from their sole record Arrival, "Song To You In The Morning".   

I gotta say, unexpectedly attractive cover art for a private press release (there's a reason why I didn't feature Stetson's album front cover up there...)

1980 was definitely a bridge year between the old and the new, with many of these artists still reveling in 1970s-associated singer/songwriter style songs. Such is also the case of Eric Bibb, son of folk singer and activist Leon Bibb, who launched his career in Sweden where he lived for over thirty years. The ultra lovely "Takin' Your Time" is from an  acoustic duet album with Bert Deivert, with these two being a duo act for a couple of years in the late 70s and early 80s. The Silver Canyon Band from Tuscaloosa, Alabam, add a bit of a bluegrass feel to "Sundance". Kiwi folk trio Turiiya recorded an EP in 1986, from which the aforementioned "Thread Of Gold" is taken, and expanded that EP to a full album in 1989 that was only ever issued on cassette and sold at their concerts.   

Anyway, this is getting long, so I'll let, uh, the music do the talking. So, this is definitely more of a sunday morning listen than a saturday night one, but it's - as usual for this series, I would hope you agree -  a good one. It's certainly one of the loveliest. So have a slow ridin' easy goin' sunday mornin' with this... 

Okay, this is what most private press covers look like...don't you just want to spend your hard earned money on a record with this cover?