Now Playing

 

 

I have been keeping a record of everything I listen to on a daily basis over at a separate blog called "Now Playing." This began in September of 2019. I started to log everything and make it public for a few reasons. I enjoy doing it. But also because I find playlists interesting and was hoping some readers felt the same.

If I am reading a book about music, whether a memoir or just an historical account of an era or genre, I can't help but add the soundtrack. I mentioned in this week's Songs Of The Week post, how Mojo magazine ran a piece on 1971 "nuggets," which made me reach for a number of records on that list. This is what I hoped "Now Playing" would do for readers.

While that blog doesn't have much interaction in the way of comments, I do occasionally get emails or texts from friends, asking about the records I am listening to. "Is it random?" Or, "I see you've been playing a lot of Kevin Gray cuts. Who is that? What is that?" I was not inspired by anything else at the moment, so I decided to explain a bit by using yesterday's playlist.

I have been on the fence about The Runaways since the very first time I heard their debut back in 1976. It was certainly a novelty at the time, but there was no denying the appeal of the riffs in "Cherry Bomb" and "You Drive Me Wild." As time went on, those records became less appealing to me. Then more time passed, and now I accept them for what they are, and that is a lot of rock and roll fun. I found a nice original copy of "Waitin' For The Night" yesterday. Cherie Currie was gone by this record and Joan Jett took over. It's an uneven affair, but I wanted it in the collection because the actual bass playing is not Vickie Blue, but my pal Sal Maida.

I am reading ?uestlove's recent book, "Music is History." I loved his memoir, and I am finding the concept of this new one incredibly interesting. There is a chapter that mentions Living Colour and specifically a number of songs from their second LP, "Time's Up." I loved "Vivid" and played that record to death in 1988. Plus, I had been seeing Living Colour since 1984, when they were an instrumental trio. My friend, the late great Tim Vega and I must have witnessed two dozen or more Living Colour shows at CBGBs a year or so before "Vivid" was even released. I happened to find a sealed original copy of "Time's Up" at yesterday's show and because ?uestlove's chapter was fresh in my mind, ripped that baby open and gave it a spin. All these years later, I feel the same way I did then. "Time's Up" is 20 minutes too long, which was the norm in the CD era. By the end of Side Two, I felt as if I heard two Living Colour albums. Trimming some fat off of "Time's Up" would make it a much more enjoyable album.

Riding home from the record show with my friend and big McCartney collector Steve, we discussed Macca briefly, which turned into a discussion about the Macca/Costello collaborations and whether it began as a focused attempt on releasing an album, or if the intention was the actual outcome, various songs scattered on each of their own albums. That of course made me reach for the demos from the "Flowers In The Dirt" deluxe set. I never tire of those and only wish there were a dozen more.

"Who's Next," Wings' "Wild Life," and Deep Purple's "Fireball" all came up in conversation yesterday, the first two with my friend cmealha and the Deep Purple, with my pal whattawino. The mention of those records, whether we discussed the pressings of the LPs or Ian Paice's drumming, made me want to instantly listen to them all.

This is generally how my listening unfolds. Occasionally, if I am prepping records for sale, I will play-test a bunch so I can grade properly. That's when you might see a series of records from one genre, like when I recently bought a jazz and soul collection.

All of this comes from the same place as Burning Wood, I find great pleasure in discussing all music, good and bad. I have quoted my old business partner before, but I will his use his line one more time--"The only good thing about not having a record store anymore, is no longer feeling the pressure of having to listen to new music to keep up to date." There is an indescribable freedom in not feeling a need to be trendy, or up to snuff. I will never run out of music to listen to and I'd rather not waste the time hoping to find the next big thing.

As I used to say to any one of my customers who used the excuse of "nothing new worth buying" to repeatedly walk out of the store empty-handed, "What was the last record you bought and loved?" One woman said, "Mule Variations" by Tom Waits. When I asked what other Waits she loved, she replied, "I only know Rain Dogs." "So buy one of the other 12 Waits records you don't know. Those are worth buying and they are new to you!"

She didn't. 

"Next time," she said. 

There was no next time.