Anniversary- Ronnie Lane
Red Red Wine- Tony Tribe
This Ain't The Summer Of Love- Blue Oyster Cult
Ice Cream Man- John Brim
All About You- Rolling Stones
Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy- The Contours
I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)- Grand Funk Railroad
Anniversary- Ronnie Lane
(The first three Ronnie Lane LPs do not get enough respect.)
Red Red Wine- Tony Tribe
(Soon after Jimmy James & The Vagabonds had a minor hit with this Neil Diamond track, Tony Tribe took his version to the top, giving Trojan Records their first #1. I actually knew UB40's cover before I heard Tony Tribe's version.)
This Ain't The Summer Of Love- Blue Oyster Cult
(It sure ain't.)
Ice Cream Man- John Brim
(First time I heard this track was on a Van Halen record. Still my favorite Eddie solo. I am older and wiser...in some ways...and while I still love VH, I prefer John Brim's take.)
All About You- Rolling Stones
(I went out with a girl who was a Stones freak. I was a good guy, but she still liked to sing this one AT me, grimacing, pointing her fingers inches from face, spit flying into my eyes. Good times. 🙄 Amazing that I still dig this one from Keef.)
Take Him Back If It Makes You Happy- The Contours
(Another one from deep in the Motown vaults, this one stood out since it was a bit more serious than the Contours usual brand of upbeat dance numbers.)
I'm Your Captain (Closer To Home)- Grand Funk Railroad
(Love or hate Grand Funk, this track is epic. When was the last time you listened to it? This one evokes so many summer memories for me, I wouldn't know where to start. I owned the 8-track!)
8 comments:
Actually "I'm Your Captain" popped up in my iTunes shuffle yesterday. And yes it is epic!
I finally got around to Ronnie Lane’s solo material a few years ago after a long time enjoying Rough Mix and the Faces. I think his solo work is wonderful, easily as good or better than the earlier work.
- Paul in DK
A different Ice Cream Man from Tony Joe White:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix3iPawNdHo&t=12s
I should have saved my 8-tracks
Thanks, and great liner notes as always.
Don't gotta sell me on Closer To Home; it's one of my all-time fave songs.
C in California
Sal,
Great set of songs.
Ronnie Lane did little wrong in his solo career. All wonderful records,
Nice version of Red Red Wine undoubtedly an inspiration to UB40. Neil Diamond liked to write about wine – Crackling Rosie another.
“This Ain’t the Summer of Love” was a great song with which to open an album. “Debbie Denise” might be the worst BOC closing track. “Agents of fortune” was on my turntable a lot in 1976. Still, the first three studio albums are on another, higher level. I don’t know how they managed to fuck up the live double, but it sure doesn’t reflect how exciting they really were, “Agents” and “Spectres” are level 2. The rest, though they had some highlights, were post prime. I do kinda like the double-live from the early eighties though.
When I was going to UCLA in the 70’s, I had a very unserious relationship with an artist that was basically the most worthless excuse for a human being I had ever met. He could paint, though. And even though he wasn’t very good in bed, I stuck around for a while because I was intrigued by his utter uselessness. He had an upstairs room in one of the old buildings on Venice Beach. On the day I bought “Agents of Fortune” at Platterpuss in Santa Monica, I swung by his place with a bag of shrooms. When we started coming on, I flipped the record and began a second spin. He started painting a graffiti titled mural on two of his walls. Near the top of the walls he graffitied “THIS AIN’T THE GARDEN OF EDEN, THERE AIN’T NO ANGELS ABOVE. THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE. THIS AIN’T THE SUMMER OF LOVE.” Then he painted an apocalyptic mural with terrified people running away from some unseen doom. Like a lot of his paintings, the shapes and heads of the people were distorted and bent as if in a funhouse mirror. He was laughing like a hyena the whole time he painted. After the shit wore off, I got bored so I went home. The next day I came back to see him. He had finished. It was horrifying but really excellent. Except for in the middle of the walls and artwork he wrote with a thick house paint brush in high gloss paint, “ MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN” He asked me what I thought, I said, “Everybody’s stupid. That’s for sure.” He offered to smoke some PCP laced mint leaves with me, but I turned him down and left. Last time I ever saw him. I heard he went to Ecuador.
The girls used to like Ice Cream Man when Diamond Dave would sing it at keggers. Me and and an associate threw multiple huge keggers with three bands, including, at one such affair, Van Halen pre-deal. Over 30 kegs were consumed. Woulda been more but we exhausted the local supply. Guys 3 bucks, chicks free. Smart partiers brought their own to avoid the long keg lines and foam. Older and wiser for sure. Brim is bueno, Anybody know the story of how Ice Cream Man was adopted by VH. I don’t.
All About You is the saving grace of Emotional Rescue
The Contours song starts out strong but fizzles a little
GFR – I’m Your Captain – The first 3 GFR’s are essential. Critics sure didn’t get it. Mel Shacher is god. Donnie Brewer is the shit. Not to mention Farner's honest gutsiness. The 1975 live album also smokes with rip-roaring energy & tightness. That's the four-piece. It has a somewhat different take on Captain. Makes me wanna buy a Chevy Colorado.
VR
Local guitar duo up my way covers "I'm Your Captain." Never doesn't make me smile. (From time to time they also do Thin Lizzy's "Running Back," an off-the-wall but great choice.)
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