Patsy

Artist: Patsy Maharam

LP: 7" single

Song: "Joggin'" 
[ listen ]

When I finally pulled into Schenectady on my trip across update New York, it was already dusk. I'd wanted to visit the city ever since I was a kid, just because of the name. I didn't have much time to poke around, so I parked just south of the Schenectady city center and went for a stroll. By the time I came across The Re-Collector, the owner had already begun moving bins of LPs and DVDs in off the sidewalk since they were about to close. As you can see in the photo below, the place is pretty crowded with things that have been re-collected. I squeezed myself through the narrow passageway toward the back of the store where I had spied two shelves that were packed with 45s.

The singles were only $1 each, but I still almost passed on "Joggin'" with Patsy (1981), thinking it was some novelty aerobics record on which Patsy would talk people through a running routine as slightly jazzy workout music played in the background. I figured she may even do some counting. "Oh, what the hell," I thought, and I threw it in my little pile and headed to the counter. Not all that excited about it from the start, I didn't even listen to Patsy's single until about two weeks after I got home and unpacked. It's not an aerobics record, not at all! Turns out it's one of the most wackily wonderful things I found on my trip! It's even got me working out again. Gotta move!—Gotta go!—Gotta exercise!

[ Downtown at Dusk — Schenectady, NY ]

[ The Re-Collector — Schenectady, NY ]

Leonard Cohen [1934-2016]

Artist: Leonard Cohen

LP: Songs of Love and Hate

Song: "Avalanche"
[ listen ]

It's been a sad, grueling week. First there was that election thing, where my country swerved so violently and suddenly to the right that I almost fell off. Next I find out Leonard Cohen is dead, and then I learn that my wonderful high school choir/jazz choir teacher, Roger Stansbury, has also passed away. And then Robert Vaughn, one of the Men From U.N.C.L.E., ups and follows the both of them out the stage door. Calgon, take me away!

[ Mr. Stansbury and the 1987 West Valley High School Jazz Choir — Yakima, WA ]

[ Robert Vaughn: November 22, 1932 — November 11, 2016 ]

Leonard Cohen

[ September 21, 1934 — November 10, 2016 ]

We will miss you, Leonard.

Pearls Before Swine

Artist: Pearls Before Swine

LP: These Things Too

Song: "When I Was a Child"
[ listen ]

There's a magical record store in downtown Utica! It's called Off-Center Records, and once you step inside, all you have to do is imagine a record you want and then it suddenly appears before you. Unfortunately, the bargain prices I kept picturing on them never seemed to materialize. I guess you can't have everything. But seriously, this store has an incredible amount of gold in its bins. There's a rusty old spiral staircase that delivers shoppers either down to the basement room full of vinyl jazz, or up a level to...I think it was country and soundtracks filed away upstairs. The rock and soul/R&B LPs are stashed at the back of the excitingly-cluttered main level of the store. Most of the albums are in the $18-$30 range, which is pretty much out of my budget if I plan to buy more than just a single record. I'm not one of Seattle's new billionaires. I work in social services, for crying out loud. Still, I did manage to find a pair of lovely and alluring Pearls Before Swine LPs for just $12 and $15—"These Things Too" from 1969 was the pricier of the two. 

Off-Center Records has also got boxes upon boxes of 7" singles—and they recently separated out all the ones with picture sleeves! I was on my hands and knees lugging one box after another out from under some wooden shelving. When I first arrived, there was just one hour remaining before closing time, so I only made it to letter 'M' in the picture sleeve 45s when I had to up and leave. I hadn't planned to spend the night in Utica, but you can bet I wasn't leaving town until I'd gotten all the way through letter 'Z.' After enjoying a delicious dinner at the cozy Tramontane Cafe, taking in a Ryan Quinn show at the gorgeous Stanley Theater, and getting a restful night's sleep at the charming Pine Crest Motel, I was back at Off-Center Records the following day to pick up right where I'd left off.

I was super excited to find a picture sleeve (without a record inside) of Doris Day's "Pillow Talk," but it was $25—for just the sleeve! Even I, one of the biggest Doris Day fans still alive on planet Earth, could not bring myself to pay that crazy amount for an empty Doris Day picture sleeve. Not even "Pillow Talk." And I ask you: Who else in the world is going to get down on all fours in downtown Utica to go digging through those boxes of 45s and happen upon that "Pillow Talk" picture sleeve, and then be both wacky and starstruck enough to pay $25 for it? I guarantee you that empty sleeve will remain stashed away in that 'D' box of 45s until the end of time—or at least until the end of the record store. Unfortunately, because of the "Pillow" case and similar $$$ wonders tucked away in the darkest of its corners, I have to give Off-Center Records "Record Museum" status for most of what they've got there. 

Still, in the museum gift shop I did find a 7" by The Cure that I'd somehow never picked up in the '80s, I found a European import copy of the "Xanadu" 45 with a picture sleeve (as far as I can tell, "Xanadu" is the only single from the film's soundtrack that was released without a picture sleeve in the USA...just don't ask how much I paid for it), and the number of singles I dug outta' that place to help complete my collection of Prince 45s is simply astounding. If I ever win the lottery, I'll be headed back to downtown Utica, pronto.

[ Pearls Before Swine ]

[ Off-Center Records — Outside ]

[ Off-Center Records — Inside ]

[ Off-Center Records — The Spiral Staircase ]

 [ Off-Center Records — Utica, NY ]

Inez & Charlie Foxx

Artist: Inez & Charlie Foxx

LP: Come By Here

Song: "I Stand Accused" / "Guilty"
[ listen ]

Song: "No Stranger to Love"
[ listen ]

Speaking of sexy siblings, check out the Foxxy Inez and her charming brother, Charlie. They first began singing together in a gospel choir in their hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina in the 1950s. "Mockingbird," their debut single, went to #7 on the US pop charts in 1963, but nothing they released after that even made the Billboard Pop Top 40—including the wonderful "I Stand Accused," which peaked at #49 on the R&B charts, but failed to register at all on the Hot 100. The fact that the electrifying, soul-stirring, hip-swinging post-"Mockingbird" musical brilliance of Inez & Charlie was met with bored indifference by the American public was one of the earliest indicators of the forthcoming and ever-accelerating downhill spiral in U.S. popular thought, behavior, intelligence, and culture that would eventually reduce us to a level where this despicable person could be considered an exciting option for U.S. President by nearly half of the country's people in 2016. 

When I first stopped by Reimagine Records in the Utica suburb of New Hartford, I found the store closed. But I peeked in the front window and saw some Duran Duran LPs that assured me the place was worth returning to if time allowed. Well time did allow, and I went back the next day. This pristine copy of Inez & Charlie's 1967 "Come By Here" LP is what I'm most excited about having found at RR, but I picked up all sorts of other neat stuff there too. The shop's owners, Scott and Michelle, are friendly and engaging and even managed to turn me onto The Beatles, of all things, since I had largely dismissed them previously—mainly because of all the crying and the fainting and the panties thing, and also because The Beatles' records are always at least twice as expensive any of the other records in a store. But the Ron Howard documentary I'd seen at The Little Theatre in Rochester and my conversation with Scott and Michelle at has got me giving the group some reconsideration. 

Inez & Charlie Foxx on YouTube:

[ "No Stranger to Love" ]

[ Reimagine Records — New Hartford, NY ]

Lon & Derrek Van Eaton

Artist: Lon & Derrek Van Eaton

LP: Brother

Song: "Sun Song"
[ listen ]

After a delicious breakfast with a bunch of friendly folks at Carl's Kountry Kitchen on the outskirts of Syracuse, I headed downtown to check out Sound Garden, the city's only record store. Sadly, the garden wasn't producing much this year. Had someone forgotten to water? I found only one fruit and a couple of vegetables that were ready for the harvest.

One of the veggies was this 1972 LP by Lon & Derrek Van Eaton, who had put together a homemade demo tape that drew the attention of at least half of The Beatles, who, in turn, helped these budding musical brothers get signed to their label, Apple Records. With no vinyl listening station available in the Garden of Sound, I had to take a leap of faith on this one. I figured they'd probably sound kinda' like The Beatles, but maybe more interesting since they hadn't become popular. 

In fact, Wikipedia informs us that George Harrison was fairly certain he had the next big thing on his hands with "Sweet Music," a Van Eaton Brothers song he produced and released as a single before the album came out. No one cared. Then the album got released and everyone ignored that too. Harrison reportedly sent a memo out to the Apple Records marketing staff: "What the !!!!! is the matter out there? 'Sweet Music' is a No. 1 Hit!" It just goes to show, you never can tell who the Americans will decide to throw their panties at. 

The Van Eatons do sound a little like The Beatles, but just knowing that these smouldering naked siblings (I have a brother too, but we never ended up in any of these positions together as far as I can recall)...anyway, just knowing that these sexy siblings never had people throwing panties at them somehow makes them way more alluring. And I can't explain the public indifference toward Lon & Derrek any better than George can. I threw my boxer underwear at the album cover as soon as I saw it at the record store.

Just look at those heavenly eyebrows.

[ Lon & Derrek Van Eaton, nowadays-ish ]

[ Sound Garden — Syracuse, NY ]

Hot Blood

Artist: Hot Blood

LP: Disco Dracula

Song: "Terror on the Dance Floor"
[ listen ]

Happy Halloween! This song would be a lot more fun if there hadn't actually been terror on the dance floor in an Orlando nightclub five months ago. But that was just a regular fucked up lunatic macho homophobe human being with easy access to guns. Thank god he wasn't a vampire.

[ Disco Dracula Men's Halloween Costume ]

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

Artist: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

LP: The Game of Love

Song: "Game of Love"
[ listen ]

Song: "Too Many Tears"
[ listen ]

I guess there were probably dozens of handsome young male quartets forming in Britain in the mid-1960s, each hoping to catch some tailwind from the fab four's outer-space rocket ship. Here's one of them. Wayne Fontana and his Mindbenders did catch a little wind—"Game of Love" was a #1 hit in the USA—but I think it's safe to say Wayne Fontana is not a household name today. He did once set a police car on fire with a policeman still inside it. That was eleven years ago. In 1965 he up and left The Mindbenders in the middle of one of their concerts. The group continued on with Eric Stewart at the mic and they scored another top ten hit. 

"The Game of Love" is one of only two records I picked up at Lakeshore Record Exchange in Rochester—the other was an old Johnny Cash LP. The Record Exchange is situated not on the shore of a lake, but in a trendy little nook of the city, with sidewalk cafes and such. The store seems more focused on 'new and cool' and not as much on 'interesting.' When I asked the salesmen to play samples for me from this Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders record, they had to interrupt the loud contemporary noise-rock they were listening to in the store. I definitely felt like I was cramping everyone's style. But they were still nice about it.

Someone named Julie evidently once owned this copy of "The Game of Love." She vandalized the back of it with notes proclaiming her affection for a John and a Frank—though Frank seems to have been her #1 priority.

[ Lakeshore Record Exchange — Rochester, NY ]