Testimony

Testimony: A Memoir by Robbie Robertson, 2016

I read this highly entertaining memoir in November 2017.  He was an extraordinary musician and contributor to the culture over the last half century. A songwriter and guitarist with tremendous influence. This was a fascinating memoir of his time with the rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins, with The Band and especially that 1966 tour with Bob Dylan. 

However, Robbie Robertson is certainly full of himself and much of this book like many other memoirs is very self serving. That said it is certainly a good story and worth reading even though it is an idealistic autobiography. It was also sad knowing what has happened between the members of The Band over the years.

That all being said... I really enjoyed reading this book.

Breakfast Pie

OK, it's a joke. I'll son-in-law Todd likes to refer to Becky's Thanksgiving leftover apple pie as breakfast pie. That left-over pie is always wonderful and we're glad she makes enough that there is some to eat over the next few days especially when she has taken one of them over to Dave & Donna's for dinner.

Vinyl Spins - The Band

This is one of my favorite albums of 1969. I listened to this a few times along with other Band albums while recently reading Robbie Robertson's memoir Testimony. I got this album back in 1969 when it was released.

I saw them that year in a club in Philly. I think it was the Trauma downtown but it might have been over at the

Kaleidoscope over in Roxborough. Saw them again in Chicago in 1970, in 1973 at Watkins Glen and then in 1974 with Bob Dylan in Philly. They were always very good. We saw them one more time in 1994 without Robinson touring the Jericho album. They were still pretty good.

These all The Band albums in my collection including the ones with Bob Dylan.

• Music from Big Pink, 1968
• The Band, 1969
• Stage Fright, 1970
• Cahoots, 1971
• Rock of Ages, 1972
• Moondog Matinee, 1973
• Planet Waves, 1974
• Before The Flood, 1974
• The Basement Tapes, 1975
• Northern Lights Southern Cross, 1975
• Islands, 1977
• The Last Waltz, 1978
• To Kingdom Come: The Definitive Collection, 1989
• Jericho, 1993
• Live at Watkins Glen 1973, 1995
• Bob Dylan and The Band Live 1966, 1998
• Live at the Academy of Music 1971, 2013

Brunetta - Glass of Beer

Something a little different on a Friday evening. Brunetta, a Belgian Oud Bruin ale from Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown, NY in collaboration with Brouwerji Liefmans Brewery, Belgium. Tart and slightly sweet. Complex.

One of my favorite breweries. 

Bowie Pinups

Vinyl Spins: Pinups. Bowie's cover album from 1973 and another favorite. 

This is a wonderful covers album full of great songs from the 1960's British Invasion. This was actually the first Bowie album I purchased in early 1974 along with the 1972 reissue of his second album that was retitled Space Oddity. These were part of my record buying spree I made after getting out of the Navy in December 1973 and getting a job in early 1974.  I had a lot of album catching up to do. Later that year I got a more Bowie albums such as Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane. John and I would go see Bowie at the Tower Theater in Philly in July 1974. It was the only time I saw him in concert.

I would often play songs from this album during my bar DJ days and especially his version of the Easybeats song Friday On My Mind.

I always thought it was his wife Angie with him on the cover but I just discovered while reading his new bio that it's Twiggy. It was a common misconception because apparently she was only credited on the inner sleeve of the initial pressings while later albums came with a plain white inner sleeve with no printing. I have an early copy of the album because I found the blue inner sleeve cover photo credit to "Twig the Wonderkid".

And of course Rolling Stone originally gave this album a bad review.

David Bowie - A Life

David Bowie: A Life by Dylan Jones, 2017

I read this through the month of November 2017. Bowie died in December 2016 at the age of 69. His death hit me hard. He was one of the recording artist that consistently produced great music throughout his entire career. I have about 40 of his albums including compilations and live sets.

I loved this book which was more of a oral history in the way the author interviewed so many people from every period of Bowie's life. There were nearly 200 people interviewed for this book. There were people from his childhood, family, lovers, fellow musicians, industry folks, limo drivers, collaborators and rivals. It was an intimate portrait of a great artist. It was also based on personal interviews of Bowie himself with the author over a span of two decades. This was a very insightful documentary of his life. 

Earlier this month I had read a similar oral history of Bob Marley.

Woody Herman 1964

Vinyl Spins: Hadn't listened to this in a while. I was an eighth grade clarinet player when I bought this album in 1964. I was looking for some clarinet jazz. I soon moved on to the tenor sax which greatly improved my record collection.

I would later see Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd performing at a 4th of July Bicentennial celebration on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum in 1976. Awesome fireworks too.

Me 1953

Back in the Day

This is me at my grandmother’s house on the 4700 block of Greene St. where I’m sitting on the steps in the small backyard alongside Logan Park. The picture was taken by my Aunt Dot in the summer of 1953. She and our Uncle Charlie were still teenagers at this time and living in that house with their mother. Aunt Dot was often our babysitter and some of my earliest memories are walking with her in the park along the winding stone paths while holding on to my brother Tommy’s baby stroller while Betsy danced about.

Our grandmother moved into that house a couple of years earlier when our grandfather died and she sold the family home at Greene and Logan that became a funeral home.

The Old Clock

For many years we had an old clock in our front foyer of our home. It was a clock with chimes that were connected to the doorbell. Someone would ring our doorbell and the clock chimes would ring. The clock and chimes were located in a niche built into the wall. The doorbell part of the clock/chimes stopped working a few years after we moved into this home in 1997. Eventually the clock stopped working too. I had installed a new doorbell and the clock/chimes were just ornamental. 

Now some twenty years after moving into this house we decided to remove the clock/chimes while painting that room. During this first year of retirement we have repainted several rooms on the first floor including the foyer. I took the clock apart and removed the chimes. I put everything in storage in the basement so perhaps some time someone else may want to restore the clock/chimes to its former place in the foyer. In the meantime I painted the grotto and Becky hung some artwork in that niche. It looks great. 

So Much Things To Say

So Much Things To Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley by Roger Steffens, 2017

I read this book during about two weeks at the end of October 2017. It was a wonderful oral history of Bob Marley's life written by a renowned reggae historian and based on four decades of interviews with band members, family, lovers and confidants. This book was a crucial addition to the legacy of Bob Marley and The Wailers by the author who toured extensively with the band and took pictures.

The book was also very revealing concerning the state of the Jamaican recording industry in the early years of Marley's career and his relationships with industry persons like Lee Perry and Coxson Dodd who regularly cheated reggae artists at the time. Overall it was a very well written and researched book about Bob Marley and reggae in Jamaica. Loved it.