A Nice Month of September

We have had a very nice month of September weather. Actually overall it was spectacular end of summer and early fall weather. We had a couple of weeks of not enough rain and then we had some showers that made everything green again. During the time of not raining Becky did a lot of watering the gardens. I didn't need to cut the grass so much this fall because of that lack of rain. But when the rain did come it was often overnight and not during the day. I've been able to put out laundry to dry on the backyard clothes line almost every time I ran the washing machine. That's pretty good for September.

We had some nice time sitting on restaurant patios enjoy dinners and the views.

Album Challenge - 1969 pt. 3 - Another Threesome

So here I am again discussing more records in my collection from 1969 that are part of the Album Challenge that influenced my taste in music. I'm looking at three albums here that I bought around the same time in the late summer of 1969 after seeing them perform at the Atlantic City Pop Festival. I had never heard of any of these three groups before seeing them on the stage that beautiful summer weekend.

There were a lot of groups and artists playing that weekend and I knew almost all of them but these three were all new to me but two of them would go on to influence my taste in music and the other was just a fun album. 

The first band from this group I saw in the late afternoon on Friday and was introduced as the Santana Blues Band from San Francisco. I didn't know this band but they were absolutely awesome on stage and immediately had the crowd going crazy. They put on a great show. This was a couple of weeks before their performance at Woodstock that would make them famous. I bought their album Santana about a week after the show and would eventually have about 30 Santana albums in my collection. I would especially love Santana as they moved into the 70's with their innovative sound and albums like Abraxas, Santana III, Caravanserai, Welcome and Borboletta.

The next band from this group I saw later that Friday night was Chicago and they put on a great show. As a sax player I was really impressed with their horn section. They were much wilder that day then they would be in their later 70's albums. I would get their first album Chicago Transit Authority that summer too. I have about 10 of their albums in my collection and I especially love the 4 LP live Chicago at Carnegie Hall from 1971. 

And then there was Three Dog Night. They played early in the evening of the last day of the festival and they were a lot of fun. Played mostly cover songs too. A song of theirs from their previous album "One" had been recently released as a single that was climbing the charts. I wasn't familiar with the band but I had heard that song. Their show was very exciting and they played a lot of songs from their newly released album Suitable For Framing including Celebrate, Eli's Coming, Easy To Be Hard, Feeling Alright, etc. that would all get a lot of airplay in the coming months. And I got their album shortly after the show too. I would end up with their first three albums plus a later compilation in my collection. I mostly lost interest in them as they moved into the 1970's with AM brainwash hits like Joy To The World and Old Fashioned Love Song.

Album Challenge - 1969 pt. 2 - Who Knows Where The Time Goes

The Album Challenge continues and Who Knows Where The Time Goes. I'm looking at 1969 again so it's pt. 2 and there are so many records to choose from in my collection but I'm going to look at something special from Fairport Convention. Who knows where the time goes indeed. They released three wonderful albums in 1969 and all of them have had in influence on my music taste. Part of that is because two of my favorite singer songwriter band members are playing on these albums and they are Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny. The albums are Fairport Convention, Unhalfbricking and Liege & Lief. 

I had a friend and classmate in the neighborhood who was very much into early English folk music in the mid 1960's and by the late 60's I was going over to his house where he played his albums for me from bands like Pentangle, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention and lots of imports. He was really into it and I quickly became a fan too. 

I would see Fairport Convention several times back in the day in 1969 and 1970 and the last concert was in 1975 when Sandy Denny rejoined the band. I also attended solo shows from both Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson. 

Just this past year I read two biographies of Sandy Denny and also Richard Thompson's memoir Beeswax. Another fascinating book I read recently that contained a lot of information on Denny, Thompson and Fairport was from the producer and manager Joe Boyd memoir White Bicycles. 

Fairport Convention and their various spinoffs has been a wonderful influence on my music taste for many years.

End of Summer Pasta

Becky put together a delicious dinner this evening with some of our last fresh veggies, some nice pasta and a lot of basil pesto. With this she made her summer pasta special. She even had some new dried tomatoes. And of course we had some of our favorite fresh bread from the co-op. Overall a very wonderful summer-ish dinner. October is around the corner.

Kitchen Light Fixture

For many years Becky and I have been talking about the need to replace our kitchen ceiling light fixture that hasn't worked right in a very long time. This week we went out to Home Depot and bought a new light fixture. We pondered it for awhile in the store before bringing home the round 20" LED color changing flush mount light fixture. Color changing? Apparently you can adjust the light between three settings; soft white, bright white or daylight. I wonder which one Becky will set it for.

It will be nice to replace that long, wide, not working properly light fixture on our kitchen ceiling. The kids are the only ones who come to our house and try turning it on. We haven't turned on that switch in a very long time. It will be interesting to have a bright light in the kitchen over our heads instead of needing to depend on the wall lights over the sink. Especially when preparing food or cleaning up.

I contacted an electrician company and they will be coming by on Thursday to install the light fixture along with fixing the backyard security light which hasn't been working for about a month.

Dinner at Trattoria Aroma

We had an amazing dinner tonight at Trattoria Aroma. It was part of Becky's birthday series of dinners. We started off sharing an Insalata Caesar with those wonderful anchovies. It was great. I ordered the Pappardelle Bolognese with that homemade pasta, an old favorite that I've had there a few times over the years. Becky ordered the Carne Amante pizza. We had asked for a couple of extra plates so that we could share our entrees. I loved that pizza and Becky really enjoyed some of that Bolognese. For desert we had one of their wonderful homemade cannoli. So good.

I had a nice glass of Toscana Rosso and Becky had a glass of Soave Classico. I followed up my red wine with a draft pint of Peroni. Nice.

Everything about our night out at Trattoria Aroma was wonderful. Great service, not too crowded, a beautiful night, good nearby parking. Overall a great night.

Front Porch Begonia

We have a begonia on the front porch that suddenly bloomed this week. It was dormant all summer. Becky was surprised when it flowered so beautifully. It has an amazing red color.

I snapped this picture just before we were heading out to dinner at Trattoria Aroma.

Album Challenge - 1969 pt. 1 - Everybody Knows

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young with Crazy Horse. There are a lot of albums that influenced my taste in music in my collection released in 1969 but I'm going to start the Album Challenge for the year with Neil Young.

This artist certainly had a big impact on my music development over the decades and still does. This record, which I got right away early in the summer of '69, when we were hearing that long song Down By The River being played on the recently new FM underground rock stations in Philly. So many other great songs on that album too... Cinnamon Girl, The Losing End, Cowgirl in the Sand, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, etc. A year later he followed this album with After The Gold Rush and the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Deja Vu. 

The first time I saw Neil Young in concert was with the Buffalo Springfield at the Trauma rock club in downtown Philly in 1968. I would see him play a solo show in 1969 at another club downtown and then with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in Chicago in 1970. In 1974 I saw him solo at the Spectrum in Philly and them later that year again with CSN&Y. I haven't counted in awhile but I know I have over 50 Neil Young albums.

Album Challenge - 1968 pt. 3 - The Inner Mystique

While pondering my list of favorite albums for 1968 I quickly realized that there are literally dozens of records in my collection that have influenced my taste in music and I can tell a story about as part of this ongoing Album Challenge. So here is 1968 pt. 3 and the Chocolate Watch Band's The Inner Mystique. This was released in early 1968 and would go on to be considered a classic of garage rock and psychedelia. 

This is the only album in my collection that I bought for no other reason than I liked the cover. Maybe I was stoned. I came across it while browsing a record bin in one of those small head shops in our neighborhood that were popular back in 1968. They sold a few albums along with their bongs, papers, peasant shirts, scarfs and posters. 

This became one of my all time favorite albums and especially in the 80's when I was spinning records in bars on my 60's nights. I've also used every song on this album multiple times on various mixes over the decades.

Burger & Corn

Another of our probably last summer meals... burgers and corn. Salad too and some left over fries from our recent dinner at Hoaks.  

The burgers were from Dash's and they are always very good. Lots of great tomatoes for the salad too.

Album Challenge - 1968 pt. 2 - Janis

Album Challenge continues with 1968 pt. 2. Another album from 1968 that greatly influenced my taste in music was Cheap Thrills from Big Brother & The Holding Company which of course featured the late great Janis Joplin. I went up on Chelten Avenue and bought this album right when it came out in the summer of 1968. I loved the raw live sound of this record and her amazing voice and songs. I also liked the R. Crumb cartoons on the cover and spent many stoned moments pondering this album. Those underground comics were really a thing back then... especially his.

I saw her perform for the first time at the Quaker City Rock Festival at The Spectrum in October 1968 along with the Chambers Brothers, Moby Grape, Vanilla Fudge and the Buddy Guy Band. A month later I would see Big Brother & The Holding Company again at the small downtown rock club The Electric Factory. That was an awesome show. In 1969 I would see Janis with her new Kozmic Blues Band at the Atlantic City Pop Festival. Then I saw her a last time in an outdoor park concert in Chicago in 1970 with the Full Tilt Boogie Band shortly before she died. It's sad to think about what she could have accomplished had she not had such a short life and was still putting out albums like this one.

Janis Joplin albums in my collection:

• Big Brother & The Holding Company, 1967
• Cheap Thrills, 1968
• I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, 1969
• Pearl, 1971
• Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits, 1972
• Janis Box Set (3 CD), 1993
• Live at Winterland '68, 1998
• Janis Joplin: The Woodstock Experience, 2009
• Janis: Little Girl Blue (Soundtrack), 2016

Monday Night Bills Game

Last night I watched the Bills play on Monday Night Football. They were awesome. I watched the first half in the kitchen while multitasking on my laptop and enjoying some Shiner Oktoberfest. The halftime score was 34 - 3 and Josh Allen was unstoppable.  The Bills scored touchdowns the first five times they had the ball. The Jaguars only had one decent drive in the 3rd quarter. They looked really bad throughout the game.

Becky was in the front room watching a show but put the game on when I came in. She was shocked to see the score. The fans were really having a party in the stands including Ashley and her dad. We had fun watching the second half together.

The final score was 47 - 10. The Bills are now 3-0 for the season.

Album Challenge - 1968 pt. 1 - Jimi

I'm back to the Album Challenge and looking at 1968. There were so many important albums in my collection from that year that deeply influenced my taste in music over the decades but I'm going to start with Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland. 

We had started hearing a lot about Jimi Hendrix in 1967 and especially after the Monterey Pop Festival that summer and then of course being the opening act for The Monkees tour that year. I actually bought all of the first three Hendrix albums in 1968 but the first one I got was Electric Ladyland.  I very much remember hearing that album playing in a neighborhood record store and getting my copy. Then getting home, opening up that double LP set and putting it on the turntable that first time. That amazing first side got to me immediately but of course I would soon discover that every song on all four sides were incredible. 

I started working a job at a machine shop when I turned 16 and in 1968 I had money to buy lots of albums... and go to shows. I bought the other two earlier Hendrix albums shortly after getting Electric Ladyland. I got Smash Hits in 1969. Later around 1986, when I first started buying CDs, Electric Ladyland was the first of my vinyl records I replaced on CD along with Rubber Soul although I was still buying some vinyl then too.

One of the biggest regrets of my music life was not going to see Jimi Hendrix when I had the chance. I actually had three opportunities to see him perform but each time I was ready to go with some friends from the string band but for some various reasons I put it off. I always thought there would be another time to go see him perform. In early 1968 He played at the Electric Factory which was the club that I was going to regularly to see bands that year. He played the Spectrum in 1969 and I could have gone to that show but there was something else going on that night. Then he played in May 1970, when I was home on a two week leave, at Temple University stadium along with the Grateful Dead, Cactus and the Steve Miller Band. There again I thought I would catch him the next time.

I did get to see Jim Morrison and The Doors three times during that period and Janis Joplin also three times. None of us at the time thought that Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison would all die so early in their careers.

After I got out of the Navy in 1973 I got a few of the posthumous album releases and then of course much later I got a few of the Hendrix live sets and compilation CDs.

Jimi Hendrix albums in my collection:

• Are You Experienced, 1967
• Axis Bold As Love, 1967
• Electric Ladyland, 1968
• Smash Hits, 1969
• Band of Gypsys, 1970
• Cry of Love, 1971
• Rainbow Bridge, 1971
• Hendrix in the West, 1972
• Crash Landing, 1975
• Jimi Blues, 1994
• First Rays of the New Rising Sun, 1997
• South Saturn Delta, 1997
• Live at the Fillmore East 1969-70 (2 CD), 1999
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience Box Set (4 CD), 2000
• Valleys of Neptune, 2010
• West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology (4 CD), 2010
• Live at Winterland 1968 (4 CD), 2011
• People Hell and Angels, 2013
• Machine Gun: Live at the Fillmore East 1969, 2016
• Freedom: Atlanta Pop Festival 1970, 2016

World Within A Song

World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music by Jeff Tweedy, 2023.

I just finished reading this very interesting and inspirational memoir of Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy. Reading this now sort of made me want to write about the albums in the recent Album Challenge I was selected to participate in this past week in a more detailed and personal experience manner rather than just posting an album cover. He writes about songs that have deeply influenced his taste in music throughout his life and indeed about his life itself. I enjoyed reading this book very much.

He is about 16 years younger than me and his perspective on a lot of the music he writes about was very different from mine own and we grew up in very different environments. However, music was important to both of us.  And of course his being a successful musician and bandmember creating music that I have been listening to for about 37 years also greatly influenced how I perceived this memoir.  I have about 30 of his albums counting the different bands that he has been part of over the years including Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Golden Smog, Loose Fur and Tweedy. 

Brunch @ JT's

We had been planning to go out to dinner with Dave and Donna to celebrate Becky's birthday. Yesterday we went down to Derby with D&D to attend the memorial service ford Bobby and they asked us to go with them for Sunday brunch. They wanted to try out JT's on Elmwood and Delavan. 

It's an Italian restaurant and Becky and I have driven past it many times. It has always been crowded and we had been planning to check it out sometime.

So today we met Dave and Donna there at 11:30 am for a Sunday brunch. It was easy to find a parking space on Bidwell and walked down the street to the restaurant. Dave had made reservations and they were there when we arrived right at the scheduled time. The place was crowded and we got a nice table deeper into the restaurant. Most people seemed to want to be near the open patio area which was the part of the restaurant that always looked crowded when we drove by. The interior of the restaurant was very well designed and decorated nicely. We were all very impressed. 

Dave and Donna both had Eggs Benedict. Becky had shrimp and grits that was actually polenta. I had a fried egg sandwich on a roll with bacon and crispy potatoes on the side. We all had some ice tea to drink.

We had a very nice time and enjoyed our meal together. Becky and I plan to get over there again soon for dinner.

Hoak's Lakeshore for Dinner

Everyone was hungry when we left Bobby's memorial service in Derby. I was the only one who had any of the food buffet besides the cake even though it was only a few bites so we talked about going out for dinner. Sean, Ashely, Becky and I talked about going to dinner. We talked about maybe going to Shango but as we drove home along route 5 we were coming close to Hoak's Restaurant. On the way down to the service Becky and I were talking to Dave and Donna about Hoak's and that we hadn't been there in a few years but wanted to go sometime. Well, Becky brought up going there now and we all got excited. So Hoak's for dinner along the lake it was.

We got there just a little before 5 pm and the place was crowded on a Saturday evening. We were given a wonderful table on the patio overlooking the lake with a spectacular view including the city in the distance. Sean and Becky got a couple of NAs and Ashley and I both had a draft pint of Oktoberfest from a local brewery. Ashley got a nice roast beef sandwich and the rest of us all got their famous fish fry. Buffalo friendly food. 

The restaurant got really very crowded while we were there and we were certainly lucky to have arrived just before things got too crowded. We did get a really nice table for four. When we were leaving an hour or so later there was a line of cars in the parking lot waiting for parking spaces. 

Bobby's Celebration of Life

Bobby's celebration of life memorial service was held today down at the American Legion Post in Derby NY. There was a military flag service and then lunch. There were a lot of people in attendance. 

We went down there with Dave and Donna who drove and we met Sean and Ashley who drove across the state from their house. They had decided to stay overnight at our house so we went home from Derby with them instead of D&D. 

As I said there were a lot of people there. Lots of family and friends. I think he was with Val for about 15 years and he was part of our family too. We had just seen him at our house for dinner on Christmas Eve. We knew at the time that there was something wrong with his health but we certainly didn't expect him to be gone so soon. Towards the end he knew he was dying from ALS and planned his funeral services. He wanted to be cremated and he wanted to have a memorial service party with family and friends at this particular American Legion Post which was the same one that had a service for his brother. Bob served in the Army.

Coming from Val's family were Dave and Donna, me and Becky, Sean and Ashley, Nina and George, Maria and Ron and Steve. There were many friends there. I did run into a old friend from the Parkside Board, Jerry. I did have a few interesting conversations with a couple of other guys... veterans and members of the post.

It was kind of odd that there were no speakers at the service. Nobody said anything although there was a microphone and speakers set up. Maybe there was going to be some entertainment at some time because we did see I guy moving around with a guitar but he never took the stage. Nobody went up to greet the people attending the service and there were people coming up to talk about Bob or any memorial comments. Not from any family members, not from Val. Maybe that was how Bob wanted it but there should at least have been someone to welcome the folks coming to the service.

Also the food buffet was very mediocre at best. I was surprised it was that bad but I wasn't expecting too much because American Legion and VFW posts are really not known for their food quality which is all very basic stuff. I had a few bites of a roast beef sandwich and that was it. 

Well, except for a piece of cake that Becky and I split. That was from a nice bakery somewhere. It was funny that Maria and Steve were recruited to cut the cake and they came prepared with little black gloves. It sure looked like they've done it before.

We all left around 4:30 as were a lot of the people. We said goodbye to Dave and Donna in the parking lot and thanked them for letting us ride with them to the service and then we left for home with Sean and Ashley. 

Becky's Tacos

We had a wonderful dinner tonight with Becky's delicious homemade tacos. She made some nice guacamole too.

It was another beautiful summer-like day for late September. We haven't had much rain lately. Becky was busy today getting her studio rearranged now that the movers got her studio furniture up on the third floor.

Album Challenge - 1967 pt. 1 - Peel Slowly

It's time to take the recent Album Challenge of records that influenced my taste in music to 1967 so peel slowly and see. That of course means The Velvet Underground and Nico. This album really was about All Tomorrow's Parties. The year 1967 was important to me and my growing obsession with collecting albums and over the years many albums have come and gone at the top of my list of favorite albums in my collection released that year. However, considering the perspective of records that influenced my taste in music this Velvet Underground album rises to the top and especially looking at the influences so many years later.

I got this album at a head shop shortly after the 1967 Summer of Love and this record certainly wasn't about that kind of love. That summer was between my sophomore and junior years in high school. I was hanging out in record stores and going to concerts and shows but not near as often as I would a year later in 1968. I had heard about this album from some of my older friends in the Uptown String Band, a Philadelphia Mummers String Band, that I was a sax playing member throughout my teenage years. Those guys were a big influence on my taste in music at the time.

The Velvet Underground and Nico album had an intense feel like nothing I had heard before but I often played the record when no one was around. Well, at least in those early teenage years. I wrote about my dropping some Frank Zappa songs into the mix of Motown singles at our sixties rec room parties but I never did that with the Velvet Underground. Well, until the mid 70's house parties on Seymour Street. It was at one of those parties in 1974 that a stoned friend tried to peel the banana off the cover of the album. Pissed me off. I later learned that only the first pressings of the original LP had the actual peel me banana cover like this one.

There are too many great songs on this album both sung by Lou Reed and Nico to get into the details at this point. There's the John Cale influence too. I would see The Velvet Underground play The Trauma in Philadelphia in early 1968. That was an amazing show and a real eye opener although I was very disappointed that Nico was not on stage with the Velvets at that time. She apparently left the band at the end of the 1967 tour when the band stopped working with Andy Warhol. I only went to the Trauma a few times back in the day. It was located a block or so down Arch Street from The Electric Factory which was my main venue to see bands in the late 1960's along with the 2nd Fret at 19th and Samson and The Main Point in Bryn Mawr. I would see The Velvet Underground again in later 1968 at the Electric Factory along with Nazz. It was cool seeing Lou Reed and Todd Rundgren on stage that night. One other time I saw the Velvet Underground perform in a park "be-in" in 1968 a few months after I had bought this record. I had made my way to the stage but was very disappointed again when there was no Nico performing. The sound was terrible and I wandered off not realizing what a rare event I had been witnessing. They were also playing mostly songs from what I would later realize was their new album White Light White Heat and in retrospect I should have stayed as close to the stage as possible. A few years later I saw Lou Reed at the Main Point in Philly when I was home for Christmas leave right after Transformer was released in 1972 and then again the following May in Norfolk with that great touring band from Rock 'n' Roll Animal. We had just arrived in port from a few months overseas and some of my shipmates saw that Alice Cooper was playing in town. They asked me if I wanted to join them. I hesitated then asked who was the opening act. They said it was someone named Lou Reed... I said I'm in. Of course a few months later everyone would know who Lou Reed was when Walk On The Wild Side curiously became a monster AM radio hit. RIP Lou Reed. 

On The Waterfront - The Liberty Hound

We went down to The Liberty Hound for dinner this evening after dealing with the studio movers in the early afternoon. We wanted to relax with a nice meal after a hectic day. We hadn't been down to the Liberty Hound all summer. How could that be? 

Becky had a nice shrimp po' boy sandwich with fries and I had their fish tacos with fries. I always like their various fish dinners. I had a couple of nice beers on tap... a local Resurgence Marzen Oktoberfest and then a Floatin' On By Pilsner from Meier's Creek Brewing in Cazenovia NY. 

After dinner we took a walk along the waterfront at Canalside. It was surprisingly a quiet evening down there but very enjoyable. 

Album Challenge - 1966 pt. 4 - The Trifecta

The Trifecta plus one. For the Album Challenge asking me for the albums that have influenced my taste in music that I'm doing by year it was easy for me to pick out and talk about Freak Out for 1966 but there were others that were also very important to me but probably not quite as intensively. Whenever I've made list of my favorite albums in my collection released in 1966 at the top of the list is this trifecta...

• Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
• The Beatles - Revolver
• The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Ok, three more great albums from 1966 in my collection...

• Otis Redding - The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul
• The Temptations - Gettin' Ready
• James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)

and another three...

• Love - Da Capo
• The Yardbirds - Roger The Engineer
• Cream - Fresh Cream

and again...

• Jefferson Airplane - Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
• The Young Rascals - The Young Rascals
• Donovan - Sunshine Superman

I can keep on going...

• Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
• The Mamas & The Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
• Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield

and going...

• The Kinks - Face to Face
• The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
• The Byrds - Fifth Dimension

going...  here are more favorite albums in my collection released in 1966

• Sam & Dave - Hold On, I'm Comin'
• The Four Tops - The Four Tops on Top
• The Supremes - Supremes A-Go-Go
• Judy Collins - In My Life
• Tim Buckley - Tim Buckley
• Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Tyme
• The Incredible String Band - The Incredible String Band
• Tim Hardin - Tim Hardin
• Bert Jansch - Jack Orion
• Marianne Faithful - North Country Maid
• The Left Banke - Walk Away Renee
• Waylon Jennings - Folk Country
• John Mayall - Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
• Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East/West
• The Blues Project - Projections
• Mississippi John Hurt - Today
• Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Road Runner
• Otis Redding - The Soul Album
• Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman
• Wilson Pickett - The Exciting Wilson Pickett
• Martha & The Vandallas - Watchout!
• The Supremes - I Hear A Symphony
• Marvin Gaye - The Moods of Marvin Gaye
• The Righteous Brothers - Soul & Inspiration
• The Rolling Stones - Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass)
• The Who - A Quick One
• The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
• The Seeds - The Seeds
• The Remains - The Remains
• The Shadows of Knight - Back Door Men
• The Music Machine - (Turn On) The Music Machine
• Paul Revere & The Raiders - Just Like Us
• The Animals - The Best of the Animals
• The Fugs - The Fugs
• The Beatles - Yesterday and Today
• The Rolling Stones - Got Live If You Want It
• The Monkees - The Monkees
• The Turtles - You Baby
• Paul Revere & The Raiders - Midnight Ride
• The Sonics - Introducing The Sonics
• Blues Magoos - Psychedelic Lollipops
• The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball
• Sir Douglas Quintet - The Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet
• The Association - And Then Along Comes The Association
• Tommy James & The Shondells - Hanky Panky
• Question Mark & The Mysterians - 96 Tears
• The Monks - Black Monk Time
• Them - Them Again
• The Standells - Dirty Water
• Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Take A Ride
• The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - Volume One
• Love - Love
• The Dave Clark Five - Satisfied With You
• Los Bravos - Black is Black
• The Godz - Contact High With The Godz
• The Four Tops - Live
• The Isley Brothers - The Old Heart Of Mine
• John Coltrane - Meditations
• Brother Jack McDuff - A Change Is Gonna Come
• Grant Green - For The Funk Of It
• Cannonball Adderley - Mercy Mercy Mercy
• Charles Lloyd - The Flowering
• Joe Henderson - Mode For Joe
• Wes Montgomery - Tequila
• Stanley Turrentine - Let It Go
• Nancy Sinatra - Boots

Studio Moving Day

After a lot of careful planning and getting estimates Becky hired a local company to move some furniture from her second floor studio on Hertel Ave to the third floor of our home. Most of the items would go up to her home studio but several things marked with a blue X went to the backyard cabana and shed. 

She hired Two Men and a Truck and they were very efficient and nice to work with. They also charged her about half the cost of the original estimate. The movers were used to dealing with households or businesses and not art studios so there was an over estimation of the cost of the move.

They also moved several items from the third floor down to the backyard or the curb for heavy pickup. There were several large frames with plexiglass that we thought would not be good to leave on the curb and they took them away for disposal.

The entire project cost $300. Not bad. 

Album Challenge - 1966 pt. 3 - The End of Beatlemania

The Album Challenge of records that influenced my taste in music continues in 1966 with the end of Beatlemania. The album that ended it for me and a lot of other folks was the Beatles' December 1965 release of Rubber Soul which became one of the most important albums played on the radio in 1966. That album is my all time favorite Beatles record and it displayed a new seriousness of the Beatles about their music. This was their tenth album released in the US from 1964 through 1965. That was Beatlemania. Two more were released in 1966. 

The first wave of Beatlemania fan frenzy began in 1963 and swept into the USA in 1964. It would keep going into my high school years. I guess you had to be a teenager at the time to really appreciate what was culturally going on at that time in our schools and on our streets but I never understood all the screaming girls. I was in 7th grade when the Beatles first came to America. The girls in our class were all excited and of course I also had an older sister who was a fanatic Beatles fan along with her friends from school and the neighborhood. Their music was playing on the record player in our basement rec room all the time. I also very distinctly remember the night that the Beatles performed live on the Ed Sullivan Show as our family sat around that old black and white TV set. 1965 was non-stop Beatles. Many of the girls in our neighborhood hung out with us on street corners with transistor radios playing the hits and there was lots of excitement when the Beatles came on. I started high school in 1965 and the Beatles were not especially popular at this school of nearly 4,000 boys but that would change in the coming couple of years. The Beatles would eventually become cool for everyone with so many great albums... Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Abbey Road, etc

But at the time a lot of us guys thought the Beatles were the boring "cute mop top boys" from Liverpool and we were more into soul music, garage rock and the British Invasion sounds of The Kinks, The Animals, The Rolling Stones and so many more. There were actually quite a few Beatles songs that I did like in their early period but it was sometimes hard to get past all the extreme craziness of some fans and the relentless promotions. I do remember walking over to one of the theaters in our neighborhood to see A Hard Day's Night. The following summer in 1965 we all went to the movies again to see Help!. They were both very entertaining movies.

Over the years I would eventually own all of the Beatle records and many of their compilation albums. I would read several books on the Beatles. I also eventually replaced all of my vinyl Beatles albums with their CD versions. I still do have a lot of the vinyl but not Rubber Soul which got worn out decades ago. 

Beatles albums in my collection

• With The Beatles, 1963
• Please Please Me, 1963
• Introducing The Beatles, 1964
• Meet The Beatles, 1964
• Beatles For Sale, 1964
• A Hard Day's Night, 1964
• The Early Beatles, 1965
• Help!, 1965
• Rubber Soul, 1965
• Revolver, 1966
• Magical Mystery Tour, 1967
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967
• The Beatles (White Album), 1968
• Yellow Submarine, 1969
• Abbey Road, 1969
• Let It Be, 1970
• 1962-1966 (The Red Album), 1973
• 1967-1970 (The Blue Album), 1973
• Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1977
• Past Masters Vol. 1 & 2, 1988
• Anthology 1, 1995
• Anthology 2, 1996
• Anthology 3, 1996
• Love, 2006

Another Heavy Pickup

This week is another fall heavy trash pickup for our neighborhood and we were ready. Everything went in a couple of days. The things we put out included three old lawn chairs, a roll of some old paper from Becky's studio, an old shelf, an old beach chair, a weird charcoal starter, a metal basket and our very old backpack that still had a Greyhound bus tag from our Yellowstone trip in 1981. We also threw out our old tent which was a disgusting mess. Later in the week we also put out one of the old table's from Becky's studio. 

The only things left for the city trash collectors were the three lawn chairs. Everything else was picked up by scavengers. 

Glass of Beer - Shiner Oktoberfest

Tonight I enjoyed a very nice Marzen style Shiner Oktoberfest ale from Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. I haven't had this beer since 2017. Earlier today Becky and I at Dash's doing some food shopping after spending some time getting her studio on Hertel ready for the movers. I saw a display of Oktoberfest beers in the store and almost immediately went for the Shiner which also had a very good price of $9.99 a six pack. Not bad. 

This was actually my second Oktoberfest of the season. A few days earlier I had a Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest.

Album Challenge - 1966 pt. 2 - Motown Madness

More of the Album Challenge. I really can't seriously consider this a challenge about my taste in music without some soul music and it could happen in any year... but especially 1966.

Soul music was always an important part of my listening to music obsession. From the very beginning I had some Motown Madness going on. Soul music was a big part of our neighborhood in the Germantown section of Philadelphia when I was a teenager there in the 1960's and a very big part of the teen dance scene throughout the city.

I started getting some Motown 45 rpm singles in 1965 along with a few other songs that were in heavy rotation on the AM stations in Philly. I had a nice stack of 45's back then. Later on in 1966 I realized I could get more bang for the buck getting some of the Motown compilation albums... various volumes of their 16 Hits. 

Right away I got the Volume 5 and 6 that were released in 1966. I got a few more over the next few years along with some great albums by so many of the Motown artists of the time. A significant percentage of my album collection consisted of soul music. 

I was also fortunate enough to be able to get to a Motown Revue show that year and one the following year. The shows consisted of one band on the stage with a parade of different vocal groups singing the hits. I got to see The Temptations, The Supremes, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Martha & The Vandellas, The Contours, The Miracles, The Four Tops, etc. They were a lot of fun.

Later on in the mid 1970's I collected the Motown anthologies that were multiple LP sets. Then sometime in the mid 1990's I got the 4 CD box set Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971. I also have multi-disc singles collections from other record companies... Stax, Atlantic, Chess Soul and of course that great 6CD box set Beg, Scream and Shout: 60's Soul.

And of course along the way I've accumulated lots of single artist compilations.

Last fall I read an amazing book that was focused on Detroit 1967 and Motown Records. Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul by Stuart Cosgrove published in 2015.

My love of soul music came out of an earlier love of doo-wop which of course was part of the soul music of the 1950's. Throughout

the 60's and especially around 65 and 66 I listened to a lot of "oldies" music on the radio and collected a few oldies compilation albums too. 

I should also add that over the years I have made many many mixes of soul music and especially from this time period. One of my earliest mixes was a set of soul music on cassette tape that was the recreation of the stack of 45's I played for some of our parties back in 1968. Every song on the mix was played in our basement rec room parties. Still sounds great. 

Album Challenge - 1966 pt. 1 - Zappa

I'm starting off the 2024 Album Challenge with a 1966 record that influenced my taste in music. I've written about this album online a couple of times over the years and maybe a somewhat unexpected choice unless you knew me back in my teenage years. We're talking about the debut album of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention... Freak Out. This record has been often cited as one of rock music's first concept albums and was Zappa's satirical expression of American pop culture. It was released in June 1966 and was the second rock music double album ever released and the first one that was a debut album. Dylan's Blonde On Blonde double album was released the week before Freak Out.

This was the first regular full album that I went out and bought with my own money... my first real album. I had been buying singles and I had a few Motown singles compilation albums but this was different. This was a 2 LP set. I used some money from my birthday and got it for myself for Christmas 1966. I'm not sure where I first heard about it. I just turned 15, hanging out in neighborhood record stores and very impressionable. That's where I probably first heard some Zappa. I also read record reviews about all kinds of music anywhere I could find it.

I loved this album as a teenager because it had so much of almost everything I was into at the time. Four sides of rock, doo-wop, psychedelic weirdness and wild avant-garde craziness. I would have friends over in our basement rec room and play records. Usually I would play lots of Motown, garage rock and British Invasion records and people would be dancing but then I would always throw in a little Zappa… Help I’m A Rock.

The first song Those Hungry Freaks Daddy had me. I was hooked. Who Are The Brain Police, Trouble Every Day, Your Probably Wondering Why I'm Here all had me wondering what the heck I was listening too but knew it was important. I liked how the album was musically all over the place. I especially loved the doowop songs as much as the weird psychedelic music and avant-garde feel.

This was the beginning of a long appreciation of Frank Zappa and the start of a large collection of his work. The first time I saw The Mothers of Invention in concert was at the Electric Factory in March 1968 in downtown Philly. I saw them again in 1969 at the Atlantic City Pop Festival and then again at the Spectrum in Philly in 1974 on the Apostrophe Tour. The opening act that night was a very intense performance by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. 

So this album was the first of over 40 Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention album I've added to my collection over the years. In addition to the many studio albums I also have live albums, compilations and box sets. 

Zappa released 62 albums during his lifetime and their were 67 posthumous albums later released. 

Here is my list of Frank Zappa albums in my collection:

1. Freak Out, 1966
2. Absolutely Free, 1967
3. We’re Only In It For The Money, 1967
4. Lumpy Gravy, 1968
5. Cruising with Ruben & The Jets, 1968
6. Uncle Meat, 1969
7. Hot Rats, 1969
8. Burnt Weeny Sandwich, 1970
9. Weasels Ripped My Flesh,, 1970
10. Chunga’s Revenge, 1970
11. Fillmore East Live – June 1971, 1971
12. 200 Motels, 1971
13. Just Another Band From L.A., 1972
14. Waka/Jawaka, 1972
15. The Grand Wazoo, 1972
16. Over-Nite Sensation, 1973
17. Apostrophe (‘), 1974
18. Roxy & Elsewhere, 1974
19. One Size Fits All, 1975
20. Bongo Fury, 1975
21. Zoot Allures, 1976
22. Zappa in New York, 1978 (2CD)
23. Studio Tan, 1978
24. Sleep Dirt, 1979
25. Sheik Yerbouti, 1979
26. Orchestral Favorites, 1979
27. Joe’s Garage Act I, 1979
28. Joe’s Garage Act II & III, 1979 (2CD)
29. Tinsel Town Rebellion, 1981
30. Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar, 1981 (2CD)
31. You Are What You Is, 1981
32. Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch, 1982
33. Baby Snakes, 1983
34. Guitar, 1988 (2CD)
35. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1, 1988 (2CD)
36. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2, 1988 (2CD)
37. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3, 1989 (2CD)
38. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 4, 1991 (2CD)
39. The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life, 1991 (2CD)
40. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 5, 1992 (2CD)
41. You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6, 1992 (2CD)
42. The Yellow Shark, 1993
43. Strictly Commercial, 1995
44. Lather, 1996 (2CD)
45. Buffalo Live 1980, 2007 (2CD)
46. Philly Live 1976, 2009 (2CD)
47. Hammersmith Odeon Live 1978, 2010 (3CD)