John Doté

Artist: John Doté

LP: 12" single

Song: "Gypsy Jane"
[ listen ]

There's a dog named Gypsy on Wallingford Route 75 that barks ferociously at me from behind the gate of her yard when I deliver the mail, but she's a sweetheart when I meet her on the street when she's on walks with her owner. Her owner told me that Gypsy speaks Spanish, so when I deliver mail there, I try calming her nerves by greeting her in her own language: "Hola, Gypsy. ¿Como estás, perra bonita?" It doesn't really seem to make any difference, probably because of my accent. I've tried singing "The Gypsy" to her, which seems to briefly confuse her, but then she goes right back to barking at me again. This week I'm going to try singing "Gypsy Jane," since I have a hunch she prefers late-'80s disco to classic ballads by The Ink Spots.

John Doté was born in the Bronx (why do I feel like I could have guessed) in 1955 and then moved to San Francisco in the '70s (why do I feel like I could have guessed) and became a popular drummer in the music scene there, working with Buddy Miles and Gregg Allman. Doté had a knack for music production, with credits including the theme songs for the popular TV shows "Dallas" and "Dynasty." He also handled promotions for big hits by both Janet and Michael Jackson...but not for Elmo and Patsy. You can read more about John Doté here.

Vanessa

Artist: Vanessa

LP: 7" single

Song: "Dynamite"
[ listen ]

I finally made it to Discos Paridiso, which I'd been told was a record store I shouldn't miss. It's a serious place, catering to DJs and hipsters, with not one, not two (not three), but FOUR listening stations available for people to test drive their prospective new records on...and they were almost always all in use the entire time I was there. I made my way to the back room again (used vinyl tends to collect in back rooms in Spain) and found a bunch of 45s all dumped helter-skelter into several large boxes back there. (I also found two rather sensational LPs at Discos Paradiso. You'll likely be seeing those here soon.)

With only a little over an hour to browse, I didn't quite make it through all of their 45s, but I managed to find some treasures, while organizing a little over half of their singles stock into neat rows and piles while I was at it. This explosive 1982 ditty by Dutch model-turned-pop-star Connie "Vanessa" Witteman is one of the things I found. I only wish the cover of my copy was in color. You can read more about Vanessa in Dutch here (favorite line: "Behalve als zangeres trok zij in deze jaren ook de aandacht door het formaat van haar boezem" or, in English, "As a singer she also attracted attention in these years due to the size of her bosom") and the whole thing is in English here. Vanessa's abridged bio is available at her Discogs page here, where you can also buy more of her singles. 

[ Discos Paradiso — Barcelona, Spain ]

Silver Spurz Orchestra

 Artist: Silver Spurz Orchestra

LP: Silver Spurz Orchestra

Song: "Cowboy (Come and Love Me Tonight)"

[ listen ]

Song: "Cool Water"

[ listen ]

At first I assumed this was some campy pho-country disco record assembled in NYC by a bunch of cheeky clubbers—with "Cowboy (Come and Love Me Tonight)" vocalist Karen Taylor seemingly having landed herself in this situation, and "Cool Water" vocalist Alan Moore sounding like one of those cowboys who's adorned with way too many of these. But the LP sleeve says the Silver Spurz Orchestra made this record in Nashville—the Country Music Capital of the World! So evidently these guys are the real deal and this was just the sort of country music coming out of Nashville in 1979, if only for a few glorious hours.

Leslie McKeown

Artist: Leslie McKeown

LP: 7" single

Song: "Shall I Do It (One More Number One)"

[ listen ]

About a block away from Used Kids Records in Columbus I found Johnny Go's House O' Music, a messy little store that feels more like a pawn shop than a record store (lots of beat-up LP covers and bent 7" picture sleeves, for one thing). But, just like in a pawn shop, I figured if I dug around long enough I'd probably find something interesting. One of the few things I found at Johnny Go's is this 1979 German-made single from Leslie McKeown, former lead vocalist for The Bay City Rollers. I just now learned that Les also contributed backing vocals to one the most influential albums of my youth—"Filigree & Shadow" by This Mortal Coil. You can read about the life and career of Leslie McKeown on Wikipedia here, and if you want to read about McKeown's shocking 2009 televised confession that he'd been living a secret gay life for the past 30 years, you can do so here. All I can say is that anyone who's ever laid eyes on the "Shall I Do It" picture sleeve and was still somehow shocked by McKeown's revelation, well...duh. They've really only got themselves to blame.

 [ Leslie McKeown, secretly gay. ]

 [ Leslie McKeown (right) in Hawaii in 1978, with no secrets at all. ]

 [ Johnny Go's House O' Music — Columbus, OH]

Janos Sarkozi

Artist: Janos Sarkozi

LP: Gypsies' Songs
Song: "I've Fallen In Love With Zita"
[ listen ]

I'd just like to know what kind of shampoo and conditioner this guy uses.