The Bo-Keys/The Royal Pendaltons Split 7"

Norton records is one of those record labels where you can buy records based completely on the reputation of the label. I've picked up many records from bands that I hadn't previously heard based solely on the fact that the record was a Norton record. They know what they are doing over there. That is for sure.

I should note that I first heard The Black Lips and King Khan and BBQ by picking up their contributions to this Norton Rolling Stones series.

Over the past few years they've been releasing 7" singles as part of a series of Rolling Stones covers. I'm not sure if they've collected these onto a CD or an LP, but I think they may have. I, however, have tried picking them all up on record. If you're ever in a record shop and you see one or some of these records, go ahead and make the purchase. Some are better than others, but really there isn't a bad record in the whole series. I think I've to this record lined up to share, because it was one of the last ones in the series that I bought this past year.

The Bo-Keys turn in a great version of Congratulations. Easily as good if not maybe a little better than the original. Before hearing this song I really wasn't familiar with the original. After hearing this I had to check out the original. That is one of the great things about this series. A lot of the sons chosen to cover are a little more obscure, so I've been turned onto some of those early Stones Songs that don't get much radio play. The Royal Pendaltons do a cover of Tell Me, which is okay. Not bad, but not great.
Enjoy!

01 Congratulations.m4a
02 Tell Me.m4a

Convoy - 20 of Today's Hits - 1975

I'm very sad to even be writing this entry because I really like that I've been able to offer up something new everyday. Unfortunately a couple things have rattled me this week which has brought me to this point. The last thing I want to do is for this blog to completely fail and stop, so I am taking measures to ensure that it goes on for a long time. Basically what this means for you the reader is that for at least the next couple months I and going to cut back on the posts. At the very least it will be once a week and if I have something special I may throw in two.

The reasons for this temporary slowdown are the following. This summer I spent a lot of time digitizing music and scanning or photographing records. I basically did enough work to provide posts everyday through the end of the year. Then I recently decided to take on another project which involves a lot more scanning and may lead to another blog or a website. Totally not music related. More on that later as I progress. That all seemed kind of okay because I had done all this prep work this summer. But the thing is, that this new project I think is going to drag on into next year, so I was already getting a little worried about what I was going to do in January.

Then there was the event this last week where a page got erased because someone made some copyright complaint. Now I have to go back and back everything up. It seems like no big deal, but actually it is going to be time consuming to do it the way that I want to. Again that is more time from my already busy schedule that also would take away from getting things ready for this blog.

That complaint also raised all sorts of new questions about what I can post and what I can't post. I still haven't made any decisions, but I think I may have to rethink some things and maybe be more selective. I'm actually not completely ready to give up on my anything goes sort of format, but I just need time to think. At the very least I am having second thoughts on a bunch of the records I digitized this summer to post in the coming months. I think I may have to wait on some of them, because perhaps they are too recent or too well known or who knows what, but that I think will eliminate a bunch of records I was hoping to post at least for now.

So my solution for the time being is to just post less frequently. If I do this I should have enough content to get me well into next year. The one exception to this may be the month of December. I have a ton of Christmas records ready to go and I think they may be safe from complaints so I may have more frequent posts.

So that is the deal for now. Again I am sorry and I feel like I am letting you few regular readers down. I am determined to not make this a permanent thing and to get back on track as soon as possible.

Please keep reading and posting comments. The next post is going to be great. It will be a mix for Halloween. I spent a lot of time on this one and it is more than just a playlist. I actually got into garage band and created something totally unique. So stay tuned for that coming in October. Just days a way.

In the mean time here is a complete oddity. It is a record from the 70's that is trying to capitalize off the whole trucker culture fad that happened back then. The cover really is about as trucker as it gets. The songs are selections from pop and rock music of the day. To make it even cheesier none of these are by the original artists. They are cheap knock offs. So are so bad they are unlistenable, but others are good for a laugh. Some are actually pretty close to the originals. I think that may be because the originals were also bland generic pop music that anyone could have done. One of my favorites for its weirdness and its inability to capture the original it the cover of Kiss's "Rock And Roll All Night".

Enjoy!

Convoy_ 20 of Today's Hits 1.zip
Convoy_ 20 of Today's Hits 2.zip

01 Saturday Night.m4a
02 Fly, Robin, Fly.m4a
03 Country Boy.m4a
04 Convoy.m4a
05 Rock And Roll All Night.m4a
06 You Sexy Thing.m4a
07 I Write The Songs.m4a
08 Evil Woman.m4a
09 Love Rollercoaster.m4a
10 Walk Away From Love.m4a
11 Fly Away.m4a
12 Sing A Song.m4a
13 School Boy Crush.m4a
14 Love To Love You.m4a
15 Last Game Of The Season.m4a
16 Mahogany.m4a
17 He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother.m4a
18 Play On Love.m4a
19 Somewhere In The Night.m4a
20 Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.m4a

Annabel Lamb - Riders On The Storm 12" - 1983

This is one of those "What the hell" kind of records for me. Someone named Annabel Lamb decided it would be good to do a laid back dance cover of the Doors classic "Riders On The Storm". I'm not against covering The Doors or this song, but what were they thinking with this song. It is so bland. I mean it is kind of a dance track, but it is so laid back that I don't think you'll be tearing up the dance floor to it. The vocals are only memorable in that they don't bring anything new to the piece. So basically file this one under oddity from the 80's.

As a side note I wonder why this was conceived. Where I grew up in the 80's The Doors were huge. I mean I grew up thinking of them as big and and important as say Led Zeppelin. The Doors was spray painted all over the place. Doors shirts were common. The Doors was written all over school books and folders. I don't know if that was regional or maybe they were having some resurgence in the early 80's or what, but as I've grown up and moved away from home, their star has somewhat faded. I still enjoy them, but with my adult eyes and my eyes in 2008 it is clear they weren't of Zeppelin's status. In fact as I kid I couldn't imagine someone saying they didn't like The Doors. I mean you just had to. So later in life when I started hearing people say that they didn't care for them I was surprised. I came to realize that there are plenty of people that have The Doors on their overrated list. Far more than Led Zeppelin ever will be. I mention this story just show how funny it is how our perceptions change over time.

So if you make it through the A-side, try the B-side which is essentially the instrumental. There are some vocals for the chorus, but they are minimal. This instrumental is almost painful because it is such a non event, but it is kind of save and maybe out does the A-side because of the crazy guitar solos and weird keyboard inserts that seem almost random. They kind of seem like they aren't even related to the song. It is kind of funny if you listen to it with that in mind. Again. What were they thinking?

Enjoy!

01 Riders On The Storm (Specially Remixed Dance Version).mp3
02 Riders On The Storm (dub).mp3

Mad Daddy's - Cat Scratch Fever! 7" - 1990

Today's little ditty comes from the Mad Daddy's circa 1990. As I was listening to this on my i-pod on my way to work this morning I paid a little more attention to the lyrics than probably I ever had before. It's funny how when a song gets covered a few things run through your head. Sometimes when someone covers a song by a band that you may not have recognized before you think how did I miss this song or maybe I should re-listen to the original. Sometimes I think to myself why did they choose this obscure cut to cover. What did this song mean to the band. This is not one of those cases. Cat Scratch Fever was a huge hit for the motor city madman and the reasons for covering it are obvious. The song rocks and the band obviously thought so too and so they covered it. But that brings me to this mornings experience. Because the song is familiar, yet new I listened a little more closely than usual and found myself asking "what the hell are they singing about?" I've always had it in the back of my mind that Cat Scratch Fever was sex, but maybe I haven't been listening closely enough all these years. It sounds to me like the song is about VD and old Ted loves spreading it around. That's not so nice, Ted. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much. Have a read and a listen and judge for yourself.

"Cat Scratch Fever"
Lyrics
Well I don't know where they come from
But they sure do come
I hope they comin' for me
And I don't know how they do it
But they sure do it good
I hope they doin' it for free

They give me cat scratch fever
Cat scratch fever

The first time that I got it
I was just ten years old
I got it from some kitty next foor
I went and see the Dr. and
He gave me the cure
I think I got it some more

They give me cat scratch fever
Cat scratch fever

It's nothin dangerous
I feel no pain
I've got to ch-ch-change
You know you got it when you're going insane
It makes a grown man cryin' cryin'
Won't you make my bed

I make the pussy purr with
The stroke of my hand
They know they gettin' it from me
They know just where to go
When they need their lovin man
They know I do it for free

They give me cat scratch fever
Cat scratch fever

The B-Side "Yeah" in many respects is better than the Ted Nugent cover. The song reminds me of a cross between "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" by Concrete Blonde and "She's My Witch" by The Monsters. It has a driving rhythm that just sounds like a wolf on the prowl. Anyways, it is a nice companion to Cat Scratch Fever.

01 Cat Scratch Fever.m4a
02 Yeah.m4a

Enjoy!

Dolly Parton - Time For Me To Fly 7" - 1989

Now let me just say right up front "Time For Me To Fly" is one of my favorite REO Speedwagon songs. It's pretty darn near perfect. So imagine my joy and glee when one day I found this 45 in some bin in some thrift store. I should also confess that I have fallen in love with Dolly Parton in the last 5 or 6 years. Up to this point I pretty much had in my mind that I loved early Dolly and that anything from the 80's was pretty much cheese, which is true of most of the country from that point. So with that all in mind there was still an element on chance when I picked this up. Sure it's REO Speedwagon and it's Dolly, but it also says it is from 1989.

Well, little did I know then but this recording and that year marked a change for Dolly. She changed record companies and brought in Ricky Skaggs to produce. The results is a return to the rootsy bluegrass style that I love from her early work and from some of her most recent recordings. So on "Time For Me To Fly" a ripping banjo kicks this thing off and the song never lets up. According to All Music Guide Ricky brought in Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas to get the job done. Dolly jumps in with the lyrics and I think she give Kevin Cronin a run for his money as far as selling the emotion of the lyrics. The funny thing is that while I consider this a bit of a sad song when REO does it, in the hands of Dolly you get the sense that she is smiling through the whole thing. Her spunky persona and attitude bleeds through on each line and instead of being a sad song it becomes a song of defiance and celebration.

The B-Side is taken from the same album "White Limozine" in 1989. It's a song called "The Moon, The Stars & Me" and it is a pretty little number. It also has an old school country flavor to it.

So if you've never given Dolly a chance maybe this will win you over. If you are already a Dolly Fan, maybe this will be a new tune for you like it was for me.

Enjoy!

01 Time For Me To Fly

02 The Moon, The Stars & Me

Both songs and artwork are here.

Please, Please, Please, Ferris Bueller Let Me Get What I Want

Today's entry is a small one. One song really.

I believe my quest for this song began after listening to a podcast called Stuck in the 80's. I highly recommend it. If I remember correctly one episode was dedicated to the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and in that podcast the hosts talked about the fact that there was never an official soundtrack released for the film and that the Dream Academy's instrumental version of the Smith's

"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" has never been released anywhere. Actually they didn't specify the instrumental and just said the song had never been released. Coincidentally at the time I was putting together a mix for some coworkers of music I thought might be new and interesting for them and so I decided this might be a nice little gem for someone to have. So I put the DVD in my computer and just digitized the music from the museum scene in the movie. It was great because there is only the music. No ambient noise or sound FX. It is that rip that I am sharing with you today.

I have since learned and found on the internet that Dream Academy did release a version of this song with lyrics on some b-side to a 12 inch or something like that. You should be able to find it on e-bay of your file sharing program/network of choice.

My thoughts on the actual song are that it is magic. The original is one of the great songs from the 80's and this version used in "Ferris Bueller" just sums up a lot of feelings I have growing up in the 80's in a suburb of Chicago. I have fond memories of day trips into the city and going to museums or walking the streets and awe of how beautiful the city is. In fact many of those trips where with my high school sweetheart who is now my wife. That should give you context for how special those memories are to me.

The image that immediately comes to mind and brings a smile to my face every time is the scene where Ferris, and Sloan insert themselves into the line of elementary school kids holding hands. Pure innocence and joy.

Download, relax and have a nearly 2 minute blissful listen here.

The album tag on the file is not name's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", but has the name of the mix from which I took this. I'll probably share some other songs from that mix as well in the future.

Enjoy!

The Icarus Line/Burning Brides 7" Split

Now to see if I am truly getting the hang of this I am going to try and post something else. In doing this I have discovered how much more organized I am going to have to get. I realize that I have scanned a lot or album covers and records and I have digitized quite a bit of vinyl, but they don't always correspond.

So with that said I've got a 7 inch to post, but for the life of me I can't find a scar of the record and the record is in my office at work. There are some records I've gotten recently that I have scanned, and I have digitized them, but I haven't finished breaking them out and labeling them. Since I am more interested in just seeing how all this works I'm going to go with what I've got ready. So you get some great Misfits covers, but no images to go with them. Maybe I'll correct that in the future if I get this blogging thing down to a regular systematic thing.

Anyways this a rip of a 7 inch I got a couple years ago. I think it was a limited run. I can't check because like I said the record is not at my house. I found this record at Amoeba and at the time was my introduction to Icarus line and Burning Brides. I just liked the orange vinyl and the misfits covers and decided to roll the dice. I was quite pleased with what I got.

Have a listen for yourself.

01 Angelfuck.mp3 - The Icarus Line

02 Hybrid Moments.mp3 - Burning Brides