Kincade

Artist: Kincade

LP: 7" single

Song: "Dreams Are Ten a Penny (Diez Sueños Por Un Penique)"

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This evening I've been rummaging through some of the records I found a few years ago on my trip to Barcelona. I figured this zippy little ditty would make a nice posting for the last day of the first month of what seems already to be a troubling year. 

The group Kincade has a funny story...since there wasn't actually any such thing when this song was written and recorded by John Carter and his wife in England in 1972. The song flopped in England, evidently, but was a hit in Germany! Carter didn't feel like touring to support the single, so some guy named John Knowles changed his name to John Kincade and he went to Germany to promote the song instead. Eventually, Carter recorded an entire "Kincade" album using session musicians, but then a real band had to be fabricated for TV appearances in Spain. The newly assembled band also made several appearances in Germany before the hit singles finally dried up and everyone was able to stop pretending to be Kincade and go back to their regular lives. You can read all of this for yourselves on Wikipedia here. I wonder who that guy is on the cover of my Spanish single!

R.J.'s Latest Arrival

Artist: R.J.'s Latest Arrival

LP: R.J.'s Latest Arrival

Song: "Swing Low"

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Song: "Baby I'm Sorry"

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The guy's name is R.J. who owns and operates Daybreak Records over in Fremont. The store has a 'New Arrivals' section for LPs they've just put out for sale, but I've always thought the section ought to be called "R.J.'s Latest Arrivals."

 

[ R.J.'s Latest Arrival ]

INXS

 Artist: INXS

LP: 7" single

Song: "Don't Change"

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I saw this graffiti on the side of a building yesterday when I was riding my bike to the local café for breakfast. It has caused me to reminisce.

[ Graffiti ] 

It also kind of made me want to buy some spray paint and put the names of other semi-forgotten '80s bands on the sides of buildings in my neighborhood. Aztec Camera! Haircut 100! Prefab Sprout! The Pointer Sisters!

What is your favorite INXS song? "Don't Change" may be mine. It's from 1983, before INXS was very popular. The song only made it to #80 on the pop charts in the USA. Are you aware that the band's name was inspired by the British band XTC? Did you know that, early on, the manager of INXS tried to turn them into a Christian rock band? There is all this information, and so very much more, on Wikipedia here!

[ INXS ]

Sally Oldfield

 

Artist: Sally Oldfield
LP: Celebration 

Song: "Mandala"

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Speaking of speaking of class(ic) acts that I'm just now finally getting hip to...my friend Kelly Korach gave me the "Mirrors" single by Sally Oldfield back in 1986 or 1987 when we were in high school together (she reminded him a bit of early Kate Bush; I can see that...), and then just within the past few weeks, like, 35 years later, I finally added two of Oldfield's early albums to my collection, including "Celebration," her third LP, released in 1980. Not sure why it took me so long. But anyway, I'm glad I finally fee-ee-ee-eel the mandala!

 

 

[ Sally Oldfield ]

Procol Harum

Artist: Procol Harum

LP: Exotic Birds and Fruit

Song: "As Strong As Samson"

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Song: "The Thin End of the Wedge"

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Song: "Fresh Fruit"

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Speaking of classic bands I'm just now finally getting into: Digging up a terrific Procol Harum single (no, not "A Whiter Shade of Pale") at my local record store a month or two ago prompted me to embark on a mini-binge, buying just about all of the group's early LPs, which the store just happened to have used copies of in stock. "Exotic Birds and Fruit" is Procol Harum's 7th LP, released in 1974. Peaking at only #86 on the US album charts, it was their least successful record up to that point...which, as we now know, probably means it was their best one so far!

Formed in 1967, Procol Harum is one of those bands whose name I'd heard and whose records I'd seen over the years, but I'd just never bothered looking into them. (Others are Three Dog Night, UFO, Uriah Heep...there are a bunch of them.) Anyway, these guys are good. I'm glad I've finally added some of their stuff to my collection! You can read about Procol Harum here, and there's info on this particular record right here.

 

[ Procol Harum ]

Fastbacks

Artist: Fastbacks

LP: Alone In a Furniture Warehouse [10" EP]

Song: "Eyes of a Child"

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I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm just now—finally—getting into Fastbacks, the Seattle band that was together from 1979 to 2001. Better late than never!

[ Fastbacks ]

5000 Volts

Artist: 5000 Volts

LP: 7" single

Song: "I'm On Fire"

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Happy New Year! I can't tell you how pleased I am with the recent switchover to a new and improved administration in our ole' US of A. Wait...yes I can: I'm SUPER pleased! It's been just two days since the inauguration of the Biden-Harris team, and already the emergency brakes have brought a bunch of Donald Trump bullshit to a screeching halt, as the gear-shift is then thrown into reverse. With so many emergencies to tend to at the moment, I am THRILLED that President Biden submitted a comprehensive (and humane) immigration policy reform bill after his inauguration and before his first night's sleep in the White House. 

Biden has basically been doing what I'd likely be doing if I suddenly found I'd been elected President of the USA during this troubled time. And then, of course, that got me thinking: What song would I choose to have playing at my rallies as I approached the microphone to address an enthusiastic crowd? I've settled on this 1975 disco single by British group 5000 Volts. I'm a little surprised it wasn't already taken. You might say, "Alex, you're too old to start thinking about being the President." And then I'd say: "Yeah, I know." Actually, I may be a little long in the tooth, but by political standards I'm still a spring chicken. Isn't Mitch McConnell 117? Plus, I'm currently working for the Federal Government, so I've already got one foot in the door!

[ 5000 Volts ]

Jacob F. Desvarieux and Georges Decimus

 

Artist: Jacob F. Desvarieux and Georges Decimus

LP: Jacob F. Desvarieux and Georges Decimus

Song: "Kavalie O Dam"

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Song: "Se Ou Mwen In Me"

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Happy New Year! I realize I'm arriving a little late with my greeting, but so much has already happened in 2021, I simply haven't had time to post anything. Our President tried to ruin our country with insidious lies, zillions of his devotees ransacked the U.S. Capitol Building with all of the country's representatives inside (while the President reportedly sat at home, watching the unfolding of events and eating popcorn), and my lovely Auntie Karen died of COVID-19. 

I know a new year is supposed to be the turning of a corner, the slate wiped clean and starting anew...but with so much smelly crap already being slung at us in 2021, I've decided to pretend that the new year begins on January 20th, with the ushering in of a new administration. Here's some music in the meantime from French-Guadeloupe artists Jacob F. Desvarieux and Georges Decimus that I hope will bring you cheer.

 

[ Jacob F. Desvarieux and Georges Decimus in early 2014 ]

Liberace

Artist: Liberace

LP: Christmas at Liberace's - Vol. III (7" EP)

Song: "Ave Maria"

[ listen ]

 Song: "Star Bright"

 [ listen ] 

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas...but not TOO lovely, like the ones the Liberace family used to have. If you did, then you're probably one of those billionaires I heard about on the news who recently became an octillionaire during the COVID-19 pandemic, making money hand over fist while millions of Americans all over the world are struggling even to pay their rent! Shame on you!! ...unless you festooned your holiday celebration with a bunch of fabric and decorations you found in the attic, from the days when you were still only a billionaire, the way the Liberaces used to do back when the kids were young.

Wouldn't it be fun to have been included as one of the guests at the Liberace family Christmas party...back in the days when Angelina was still just Liberace's sister, and not his personal secretary?

[ Liberace: May 16, 1919 — February 4, 1987 ]

St. Nick (Performed by Just For Laughs Players)

Artist: St. Nick (Performed by Just For Laughs Players)

LP: 7" single

Song: "Jingle Bells (Laughing All the Way)"

[ listen ]

 

I can't really think of anything to say about this 1981 holiday single I found at Golden Oldies a few months ago...except maybe "hee hee," "ha ha" and, of course, "ho ho ho."

Charley Pride [1934-2020]

 

Artist: Charley Pride

LP: Christmas In My Home Town

Song: "Christmas In My Home Town"

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Song: "Santa and the Kids"

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Song: "O Holy Night"

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Country music legend Charley Pride died earlier this week from illness related to COVID-19. Reading about his career on Wikipedia just now, I learned a number of things (the number 4) about Charley that I hadn't known before: 

 

1.) Before his music career took off, Charley Pride played professional baseball! He pitched for teams in places like Memphis, Tennessee; Boise, Idaho; Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Louisville, Kentucky; Missoula, Montana. When Charley was let go from the team in Missoula...

 

2.) Charlie Pride and his family lived in Helena, Montana for a number of years (the number 9), from 1960 to 1969, where Charlie did hard labor in a smelter during the day, while pursuing his dreams of a career in the arts at night (sound familiar?). 

 

3.) Though I knew Charley Pride was black, of course, I'd never before considered what it must have been like for him to have to face a crowd of (it's safe to assume) mostly all-white country music fans who may not have been aware of this fact in the early days of Pride's success in the mid-to-late 1960s. According to Wikipedia: In the late summer of 1966, on the strength of his early releases, [Charley] was booked for his first large show, in Detroit's Olympia Stadium. Since no biographical information had been included with those singles, few of the 10,000 country fans who came to the show knew Pride was black, and discovered the fact only when he walked onto the stage, at which point the applause trickled off to silence. "I knew I'd have to get it over with sooner or later," Pride later remembered. "I told the audience: 'Friends, I realize it's a little unique, me coming out here — with a permanent suntan — to sing country and western to you. But that's the way it is.'" 

 

4.) Charley had 30 hits that reached the top of the country music charts in the USA, and one of them, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," was also a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts, reaching #21 in early 1972.

 

Charlie Pride's one and only Christmas album was released in 1970, and I found this pristine copy earlier today at Golden Oldies Records in Wallingford. The New York Times obituary for Charlie Pride can be found here.

 

Charley Pride

[ March 18, 1934 — December 12, 2020 ]

We will miss you, Charley.