Ian Lloyd & Stories

Artist: Ian Lloyd & Stories

LP: Traveling Underground

Song: "If It Feels Good, Do It" 
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Song: "Traveling Underground" 
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Stories founder Ian Lloyd was reportedly exasperated when his group's cover of "Brother Louie" shot to the top of the US singles charts back in 1973. The song didn't at all represent the direction he wanted his band to be going in! That must have been awful. So frustrating. I can't even imagine! (The Stories version is good, but of course the original by Hot Chocolate is even better.) "Brother Louie" was Stories' only single to enter the top 40, though two subsequent releases from their 1973 follow-up LP, "Traveling Underground," climbed into the Billboard Hot 100. "Mammy Blue" reached #50 and "If It Feels Good, Do It" peaked at #88. Stories' final single, "Another Love," is a bisexual's urgent plea for a little understanding from his lady friend. "There's a part of me you know nothing of...every door can swing both ways." The song failed to chart. All this and a whole lot more can be found on Wikipedia here. I love it when sexy long-haired '70s rockers pose for record covers without any shirts on.

The Angelic Gospel Singers

Artist: The Angelic Gospel Singers

LP: Gotta Find a Better Home

Song: "Mercy Lord" 
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I love the concept for the cover of this 1977 "Gotta Find a Better Home" LP: "This frozen planet that's completely covered with ice will do! Let's set 'er down." Actually, planet Earth made a fine home for Margaret Allison and her Angelic Gospel Singers. According to Wikipedia, they were "the longest consistently selling female gospel group in African-American history," performing together for over 60 years—from 1944 until founder Margaret Allison's death in 2008. You can find a neat video clip of Allison performing with her AGS here. The women with Margaret Allison, center, in the photo on the back of the record must be Josephine Wells McDowell and Bernice Cole, but I'm not sure which is which. Anyone else have any idea?

Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart

Artist: Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart

LP: It's All Happening On the Inside

Song: "My Baby Loves Sad Songs" 
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I like to laugh about that time I met a group of three hipster guys at Havana on Capitol Hill and, though already in their 30s, all three of them still used the little-boy version of their names: Timmy, Billy and Tommy. I felt like we were about to play kick-ball! But I had no idea this lunacy had been going on for so long—evidently at least since this album came out back in 1969. Meet Tommy, Bobby, Billy, Louie...and John. They're otherwise known as Boyce & Hart, the fabulous swinging '60s duo who wrote lots of songs for The Monkees. Read more here.

[ Tommy Boyce: September 29, 1939 — November 23, 1994 ]

[ Bobby Hart: b. February 18, 1939 ]

Doris Day

Artist: Doris Day

LP: You'll Never Walk Alone

Song: "I Need Thee Every Hour" 
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Song: "Scarlet Ribbons" 
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I bet Doris Day often gets asked to sing at her Sunday morning church service in Carmel. It's hardly fair to all the other would-be singers in the congregation. The planning committee: "Okay, we need a musical selection for next Sunday's service. We've asked Doris Day to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour" again, but Betty McPherson says she's also got a number prepared that she'd like to present...so let's take a vote." Doris' version of "I Need Thee Every Hour" from her 1962 religiously-themed LP is especially nice when she pulls a Patti Page and starts harmonizing with herself. 

And then "Scarlet Ribbons" is terrific for all sorts of different reasons. The premise of the song is that, after overhearing her daughter's quiet prayer-request for some scarlet ribbons (for her hair), the girl's mother flies into a frenzied panic and goes out roaming the streets all night trying to find some (clearly, the girl is not accustomed to having to go without; the song doesn't indicate what consequences the poor mother suffered the last time her darling daughter didn't get exactly what she wanted, but it's implied by the all-night ribbon hunt that it was bad, real bad). But mom is too late! All the streets are empty and all the stores are closed. (I can just see the mom in a fur coat, banging on the glass doors of Woolworth's at 2:30 in the morning and screaming at the janitor: "Open up, you! I need some goddam ribbons! Scarlet ones! They're for my daughter's hair!") The mother, dejected, finally goes home when the sun starts coming up. When she peeks into her daughter's bedroom, she finds it's full of scarlet ribbons! Not just some scarlet ribbons, but "a gay profusion," so I think we can assume we're talking over-the-top drag-queen amounts of ribbons here. 

I'm fascinated by the troubling message of this song! "I'm sorry God wasn't able to save Grandma, Peggy, but if you pray real hard, you may get some ribbons!" God and his wacky priorities.

Another thing I like about the song is that Doris sings, "If I live to be 200..." She's nearly halfway there, since today is her 92nd birthday! Go here to listen to a warm birthday greeting from one of the loveliest ladies around.

[ Happy Birthday, Doris Day! ]

Bananarama

Artist: Bananarama

LP: 12" single

Song: "Do Not Disturb"

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I know I probably shouldn't let it disturb me, but the El Camión taco truck up the street has really been stressing me out lately. I went there the other night and waited in line behind a man who seemed slightly annoyed that I was standing so close to him as he got to the counter to place his order (mostly I just didn't want to get run over by a car). But then I heard him tell the cashier that he was homeless and he asked if they had any food they were getting rid of that he could have. As the cashier asked the cook, I decided that, if they told him they didn't, maybe I would offer to buy him something to eat. The cashier told him they had nothing to give and, as the man walked away, I thought to myself: "I think I should; no, maybe I shouldn't; I really should; but maybe I shouldn't; I should. Should I?" By the time I realized that of fucking course I should, the man had already walked around the corner. At that point I would have had to stage an elaborate, attention-grabbing musical production to retrieve him and bring him back to the window to order some food. So instead, I stepped quietly forward, ordered my food and paid for it. After all, I'm not homeless and I have a job. I can order a huge burrito that's way bigger than any burrito reasonably needs to be, but I will still eat it all because I have the money to pay for it, and so well why not. I realized pretty quickly that I'd just missed a golden opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and I was ashamed. What kind of man am I anyway?

Then last night I went back to El Camión because I needed another burrito—un burrito de carne asada. Unfortunately, just as I arrived there, the truck was beset upon by one of those flash mobs made of young urban professionals who all have the same personality, one that doesn't really have a lot of features to speak of. They probably like sports. Some of the youngsters were in line ahead of me, but two of them were directly behind me in line. I overheard one of the guys behind me reveal to the other that he was totally burned out at work; he's just been showing up there each day and going through the motions. He's been completely unproductive. Then they began to discuss what they were going to order for dinner, which involved yelling at each of the other young professional flash mobsters to ask what they had ordered for dinner, or what they were planning to order for dinner. It was the most banal conversation I'd heard in months. When one of the two guys behind me in line told the other that he had decided to order a carne asada burrito, I knew instantly and without a doubt that, when my own carne asada burrito order was called out at the pick-up window, that guy there was gonna' take it. Moments later, when the gal at the window called out, "carne asada burrito!" and I stepped forward, the burned out young professional moved in ahead of me and nabbed my food. He gave me a sideways look, after which I resigned myself to waiting for his burrito to appear at the window for me. Of course I realize that he didn't take my burrito on purpose—he did it without thinking, like he does everything else in life. I realized pretty quickly that I'd just missed a golden opportunity to put my mouth where my money is and I was ashamed. When I got home and was eating that guy's burrito, I had to pick three big cilantro stems out of it. I thought to myself, "I bet my burrito only had two." 

Now I've earned a free burrito with my El Camión punch card, but I'm scared to go back since I keep having to take such a cold, hard look at myself there.

On a completely unrelated note, I bet I've got more Bananarama 12" singles than anyone else in Seattle north of the ship canal.

[ Bananarama ]

Patty Duke [1946-2016]

Artist: Patty Duke

LP: Don't Just Stand There

Song: "Don't Just Stand There" 
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Song: "Everything But Love" 
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I slipped into a melancholy state when I read yesterday that actress Patty Duke had died. What immediately filled my head was my former LDS missionary buddy Troy Tingey singing "...it will blow your miiiiiind!" after I had warbled, "Cou-sins. Identical cousins, and you'll find...they look alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike..." then Troy: "It will blow your miiiiiind!" Turns out we didn't even have the lyrics right. It's interesting to read just now that Sidney Sheldon created the roles of identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane especially for Patty Duke after noticing that she had two very different sides to her personality. Nobody knew then that she suffered from bipolar disorder. 

In 1962 Patty became the youngest actor ever to win an Academy Award in a competitive category for her performance in THE MIRACLE WORKER. She was playing the young Helen Keller, a role she had originated on Broadway. There's a picture of Patty Duke in 1962 with the real Helen Keller here. Three years later found Patty releasing "Don't Just Stand There," her debut LP. It spawned two top-40 hits, including the LP title track which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1965. You can read more about Patty Duke, aka. Sean Astin's mother, on Wikipedia here and go here to find her obituary in the New York Times. 

Patty Duke

[ December 19, 1946 — March 29, 2016 ]

We're going to miss you, Patty.

#50 - El Pescado

Fishing. You cast your worm into the pool and let it wriggle, hoping El Pescado will want it—hoping El Pescado will bite. Sometimes you wait all day and nothing happens. Sometimes you get lots of bites at once. It's hard to say why this is, but it might have something to do with what you wear. El Pescado can tell if you're not happy. 

side one:
01. Female Mechanic Now On Duty - Sonic Youth
02. Orange Appled - Cocteau Twins
03. You Stayed In Touch With the Wrong Guy - Liima
04. Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
05. Big Big River - Horst Jankowski
06. Gumption - Your Friend
07. El Carate - Lucho Azcárraga y su Conjunto
08. Sun Structures - Temples
09. Air Sauce - Stardrive feat. Robert Mason
10. Sing Me a Sad Song - Lynn Anderson
11. The Light That Failed - Atlas Sound
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side two:
01. Whispering Sea - Loretta Lynn
02. Fish - Throwing Muses
03. That Distant Light - Charles Hayward
04. Sweet Surrender - Tim Buckley
05. Every Time I'm Ready to Hug - Ra Ra Riot
06. Singing Sea Shells - Les Baxter
07. El Último Adiós - Juan Serrano and His Caribbean Combo
08. Sad Case - EL VY
09. This Loneliness - El Perro del Mar
10. Si Firmi O Grido - A Certain Ratio
11. Grain de Café - L'éminent Barkoff
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Hank Snow

Artist: Hank Snow

LP: More Hank Snow Souvenirs

Song: "Miller's Cave" 
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One of the things I like most about old-school country music is that a man can own a leopard-skin rug and dress head-to-toe in turquoise, with rhinestones and bangles to boot, and he's still somehow considered a pillar of American masculinity! I've posted Hank before, about six years ago. He's simply one of the best. This particular collection of souvenirs comes from the year 1964.

[ Hank Snow: May 9, 1914 — December 20, 1999 ]

Theo Vaness

Artist: Theo Vaness

LP: Back to Music

Song: "Nobody But You" 
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Ugh. Last night I went to see the new Acupuncture Wherewithal movie, CEMETERY OF SPLENDOR, at Northwest Film Forum. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to blow the 'Emperor's New Clothes' whistle on this one. Aside from one medium close-up of a guy pooping in the bushes, the actors all spend the entire film mumbling and whispering to each other about this far away from the camera. I went right to sleep. I've enjoyed some of this guy's other films (UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES and TROPICAL MALADY) but this one just doesn't cut the mustard, if you ask me. It doesn't even cut the mayo. Of course critics have declared it a masterpiece. 

Anyway, I arrived on Capitol Hill over an hour early so I'd have time to walk the three-and-a-half miles to the theater from where I'd likely be able to find parking. I had a few extra minutes to pop into Everyday Music before the movie started, and I found this delectably danceable disco record in the New Arrivals bin there. Theo Vaness, originally from Holland, made a bit of a splash in the USA during the disco era with the release of several LPs. He started feeling homesick, however, so, according to what I read on the disco-disco website, he eventually returned to his homeland where he continues to perform non-disco music today.

[ Theo Vaness ]