John Cougar Mellencamp - Small Town

This is an odd record.  It's a 4-song EP.  An EP is the size of a full LP, but with only one or 2 songs on each side.  Not sure why I bought it.  I should have bought the full Scarecrow album.  But I will surely find that in some fifty cent bin somewhere soon.  He does an acoustic version of Small Town on it.  I run hot and cold with Mr. Indiana, JCM.  I think Pink Houses is a masterpiece.  Then, I hear Paper and Fire and cringe.  Then I hear Check it Out and think that's his best work, until I hear PH again.  I like his lighter and brighter stuff in the majors.  When he goes for "losing the farm" minor chord structure, that bums me out - but that's the intent.  I love the live version of PH that accompanies this post.

Charlie - with Steve Gadd's Doppelgänger drumming twin

Charlie.  Was It Inevitable?  Charlie was a British rock band that was formed in 1971 by singer and songwriter Terry Thomas. The group was most active as a recording unit from the mid-1970s through 1986. Charlie never charted in their home country, but had four minor hits in the US - most well known was 1983's "It's Inevitable."  At first - I had thought I made a cool discovery - that the great drummer Steve Gadd was in this band.  He is one of my all-time top drummers.  I love his work on Steely Dan's Aja album, especially on that record's title track.  But back to this UK band Charlie.  I was reading up on them on wiki and discovered much to my dismay that the Steve Gadd who plays drums is this band Charlie is NOT that other Steve Gadd.  What?! Really?  The drummer Steve Gadd in Charlie is NOT the American session drummer of the same name.  OK, I will take their word for it, but that has got to be one of the oddest and most confusing musical same-names discoveries.

Ace - How Long have you liked this band?

Ace.  How Long - were they are One Hit Wonder?   I think so.  Paul Carrack was in Ace, Roxy Music, and Mike & the Mechanics.  These are my two Ace records.  The one of the left has their great song How Long on it.  But the cover on the right is better, visually.  I love that nail or thumbtack going through the picture.  The point comes out on the other side.  The record on the right is called Five a Side.  Try watching the video clip by clicking on this post's title.

Mary Travers - Morning Glory; with nod to Paul Williams

Mary Travers - Morning Glory.  I had to look up who she is.  OK, I should have known.  She is THAT Mary.  Of Peter, Paul and Mary.  She passed away two years ago.  Peter, Paul and Mary was one of the most successful folk-singing groups of the 1960s.  Unlike most folk musicians who were a part of the early 1960's Greenwich Village music scene, Travers actually grew up in that part of New York.  And you can see the inset photo of Paul Williams - what a songwriter.  A a genius (I know - I do toss around term probably too much when it comes to songwriters) he wrote songs performed by Three Dog Night (Just An Old Fashioned Love Song), Helen Reddy, the Carpenters (We've Only Just Begun, Rainy Days and Mondays), and of course for Barbra Streisand.  Paul Williams is in the Songwriting Hall of Fame.

Name This Record...

Can you Name This Record?  Please use comment feature for your guess.  I hope someone out there names it correctly.  I filed it away in the stacks and as of this position, even your faithful blogger knows not the band.

They Played at Woodstock: Country Joe and The Fish

With the month of August winding down, I wanted to get in this year's last Woodstock post becuase I know have a Country Joe and the Fish record.  And it is the answer to a Woodstock Pop quiz:  name the only artist to have performed twice, at two different sets, on two separate days at the Original Woodstock Festival?  Yes - Country Joe McDonald.  On Saturday, he (alone) followed Quill - as just Country Joe.  Then on Sunday, he was joined by his band The Fish as the 2nd act of the day, following right after Joe Cocker.  So in case you are wondering - here is who's left on my They Played at Woodstock but Don't Own any of their Records List:  Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Ravis Shankar, Quill, the Keef Hartley Band, and The Incredible String Band.  I will be at a record collectors show in November and I will be on the lookout for any by those acts/bands  for sure.  Back to this record - called I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die is the second album by this influential San Fransisco-based psychedelic rock group.  From available sources: "Released in 1967, the title track remains one of the most popular Vietnam protest songs from the 1960s and originally appeared in a 1965 7" EP titled Rag Baby: Songs of Opposition.  On this album version however, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" appears alongside the infamous "Fish Cheer," which at concerts (Woodstock), became a Country Joe standard.  At Woodstock, Joe had the crowd yell F-*-*-K instead of F-I-S-H.  The title song faced a legal challenge from the estate of New Orleans jazz trombone pioneer Edward "Kid" Ory, whose daughter Babette claimed that McDonald appropriated the melody for his song from Ory's classic "Muskrat Ramble," as recorded by Louis Armstrong & his Hot Five in 1926. A 2005 judgment upheld McDonald's copyright on the song, claiming that Ory waited too long to make the claim."

My "They Played at Woodstock" collection of records is Growing

Paul Butterfield and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band...with Elvin Bishop.

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, yes they also played at Woodstock.   Wow - what a find!  This record, called East-West is the second album by the group.  Released in 1966 it is on Elektra Records, and wow - it was recorded at the famed Chess Studios located at right there at 2120 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago.  It peaked at #65 on the Billboard pop albums chart.  Playing on it are: bandleader Paul Butterield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Jerome Arnold, Mark Naftalin, and Billy Davenport.  There were the 2nd from the last act to play.   Reports say they came on stage Monday morning at around 6 am.  Talk about the blues!   They followed CSNY (who came on at 3 am).  The guys on this album were no longer in the band when they played Woodstock - so, no Elvin Bishop does not get to claim that rare honor.  But guess who does - David Sanborn.  Chrikees, who knew that?  I sure didn't.  I might be down to Quill and the Keef Hartley Band.