A “REAL” PIECE OF HARD ROCK CAFE HISTORY

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MORRISON HOTEL
by The Doors
released: 1970
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'MORRISON HOTEL' kicks off with the hard-driving 'ROADHOUSE BLUES', which contains Rock music’s most incisive and “celebratory” lyric of nihilism: “I WOKE UP THIS MORNING AND I GOT MYSELF A BEER; THE FUTURE’S UNCERTAIN AND THE END IS ALWAYS NEAR.” No punk rocker ever said it so well! I no longer think the future’s uncertain, even though the end is certainly near. But I could so relate to Jim Morrison’s outlook during my dark, angsty late teens and early twenties when I nearly played the grooves off of 'MORRISON HOTEL' by The Doors, and many mornings I headed for the refrigerator, Excedrin in hand, hoping to find 12 ounces of the hair of the dog that bit me the night before.
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As I was recently telling a friend, in hindsight I can see how the Jazz that influenced Rock groups I so favored in my youth inevitably led me to the real Jazz I would come to embrace as my favorite music genre. Groups like The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, Traffic, Supertramp, Chicago, and The Doors all contained notable Jazz stylings that appealed to me even if in my youthful ignorance I was unable to recognize the common denominator.
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I owned the entire Doors catalogue in my twenties, but when I sold all of my licorice pizzas and converted to compact discs at thirty, I repurchased very few of my Rock albums. My tastes had changed by then and my Gothic mind-set (yes, I was Gothic before it had mass appeal among young people or even an identifiable label) had given way to the reality of Spiritual Light – also sometimes called “Love.” However, talking about The Doors with my friend the other day, and opening the doors of our memories, I was inspired to pick up a copy of what had always been my favorite of the band’s original releases, 'MORRISON HOTEL'. (It was followed closely by 'L.A. WOMAN'.)
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The music itself is a collection of rhythmically pronounced, highly energetic road rockers, and beautifully rolling ballads (and then there’s the sly 'THE SPY', which defies categorization). If you’re a female attracted to males, yer gonna think Jimbo’s voice is megaerotic on these ballads because even I think his voice is megaerotic, and I happen to be a man attracted exclusively to women! There’s not a bad song on 'MORRISON HOTEL', though I find 'WAITING FOR THE SUN' and 'SHIP OF FOOLS' to be just “Eh.” Yet they are more than compensated for by all the other memorable tunes, of which 'PEACE FROG' is my main man... er... amphibian, I mean. OK, enough about the cool, megaerotic music. Now I’m gonna tell ya the little known history behind this classic Rock album:
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In 1970, photographer Henry Diltz sought to get a picture of the members of The Doors at the Morrison Hotel for the album’s cover. The hotel was located in a seedy section of downtown Los Angeles (1246 South Hope Street) but the owner of the hotel declined to give his permission to shoot there. So shortly afterwards, Diltz had the band run in quickly anyway and when they positioned themselves under the “Morrison Hotel” window lettering, he snapped a couple quick pictures from the sidewalk outside. And there’s your album cover!
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Collectively, the album was titled 'MORRISON HOTEL', but whereas side two of the album (tracks 7-11) was originally also called ‘Morrison Hotel’, side one (tracks 1-6) was actually named ‘Hard Rock Cafe’ (the CDs still come labeled this way). The photograph on the album’s backside shows several old geezers hanging around outside a neighborhood dive called “Hard Rock Cafe”, and the inner gate photo displays Morrison and Company relaxing inside that same dive with the “regulars” and prepared to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to some dying Budweiser bottles.
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This little “adult juice joint” located on L.A.’s famous “Skid Row” (aka The School Of Hard [Rock] Knocks) was the FIRST – the “REAL” – HARD ROCK CAFE! It was located at 300 East 5th Street ("The Nickel") - the address is visible above the door in the photo. Many years later, when entrepreneurs got the idea to open a fancy Rock ‘N’ Roll themed bar and grill at L.A.’s upscale Beverly Center mall at Beverly and San Vicente, they were required to pay the owner of the decrepit Hard Rock Cafe dive on Skid Row for the use of the name. THE HARD ROCK CAFE has since become a world famous establishment with franchises located in New York, Hawaii, London, Tokyo, and elsewhere. And while the “first” Hard Rock Cafe was indeed founded in The City Of Angels, it was a little East of its present location in an area you wouldn’t want to be at night without a gun in your pocket.
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(*Incidentally, the above bit of trivia, and much more like it, can be found in Art Fein’s fine little book [link> ‘THE L.A. MUSICAL HISTORY TOUR’, recently reviewed on this site by Yours Truly.)
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The next time you visit Los Angeles, be sure to crank up 'MORRISON HOTEL' in your car and (with your windows rolled up and the doors locked) cruise by the location of the ORIGINAL “Hard Rock Cafe” in downtown - just to say you’ve been there. And listen, if some grizzled bum on 5th Street asks you for a buck, give it to him; he might be some old friend I used to party with.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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MUDDY Was CLEARLY King!

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MUDDY WATERS: HIS BEST 1956 - 1964
by Muddy Waters
released: 1997
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In moving to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta region in 1943, MUDDY WATERS (McKinley Morganfield) essentially remolded the musical language known as The Blues. Playing now in nightclubs, the acoustic rural sound gave way to a booming urban beat. As a writer once cleverly quipped: "By plugging in his guitar, Muddy Waters invented electricity."
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'HIS BEST 1956 - 1964' captures the explosive, impassioned sonic Blues that Muddy developed and which was such an influence on so many Bluesmen who emulated him in his wake. Muddy was to Chicago Blues what Elvis was to Rock 'N' Roll - in a word: KING! These tracks feature the Blues King being backed by some of the legendary names of the genre: WILLIE DIXON (bass), JIMMY ROGERS (guitar), BUDDY GUY (guitar), JAMES COTTON (harp), A.C. REED (sax), OTIS SPANN (piano), the underrated S.P. LEARY (drums), and perhaps the most revered Blues instrumentalist of his generation, the harp master, LITTLE WALTER.
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These songs cook, rock, menace, sneer (wink and grin). This is raw, foot-stompin' stuff, the REAL Blues, the genuine article. Get this, get Howlin' Wolf's Chess sides, and the Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson and you'll discover from where the thieves Jimmy Page and Robert Plant stole their first two albums!
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Blues masterpieces such as most of the tracks presented here (like the rollicking 'ALL ABOARD' to Muddy's signature roof-raising 'GOT MY MOJO WORKING') are so dynamic and contain such evocative imagery that one could build a movie around them. And wouldn't you know it? That's just what I did about 15 years ago. The Blues almost became an independent character in an unproduced screenplay I wrote:
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Flipping through her old vinyl records, the terminally geeky Billy Withers says to the hip, sassy, Jazz & Blues street-singer, Billie Clayton, "Howlin' Wolf, Lightnin' Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters? They sound like they're from the World Wrestling Federation."
She replies, "They're all great Bluesmen."
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Ah, but ain't it the truth?!
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And later in my screenplay, Muddy's song 'YOU CAN'T LOSE WHAT YOU AIN'T NEVER HAD' becomes the catalyst for the defining moment in my movie when Clayton refrains from murdering her unborn child.
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And yet my favorite track is 'THE SAME THING.' The lyrics punctuated by Spann's brief piano bursts, this moody, carnally-charged ballad shows how the Blues, in "proper" circles, came by the disparaging moniker, "the devil's music."
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WHAT MAKE MEN GO CRAZY WHEN A WOMAN WEAR HER DRESS SO TIGHT?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MAKES A TOMCAT FIGHT ALL NIGHT.
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WHY DO ALL OF THESE MEN TRY TO RUN A BIG-LEG WOMAN DOWN?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MAKES A BULLDOG HUG A HOUND.
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OH, THAT SAME THING!
TELL ME WHO'S TO BLAME?
THE WHOLE WORLD'S FIGHTIN' ABOUT THAT SAME THING.
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WHAT MAKE YOU FEEL SO GOOD WHEN YOUR BABY GET HER EVENING GOWN?
MUST BE THE SAME OL' THING THAT MADE A PREACHER LAY HIS BIBLE DOWN.
OH, THAT SAME THING!
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By all means, dive into MUDDY WATERS. Get 'HIS BEST 1956 - 1964' and see what kind of movie it inspires YOU to write. Or perhaps you'll just want to turn it up loud and let it rock you "all night long"; rock you like your "back ain't got no bone!"
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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(Move Over, Georgia, I’ve Got...) LOUNGES ON MY MIND

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STARDUST 
by Willie Nelson
1978
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In 1989, Girlfriend and I decided that we wanted to find a nice little lounge that we could call our own – a quiet place that we could slip away to from time to time and enjoy an adult beverage. A place where everyone would know our names, but they would mostly just bring to our table the things we asked for and then leave us alone. So we began the quest one evening, and the first place I suggested we sample was the intimate cocktail lounge located at the rear of THE CREST HOUSE RESTAURANT on Washington Boulevard in Culver City. We went there, and we went to two other places that night. Over the next couple of weeks, we visited several other drinking establishments in the Los Angeles area, and when the alcoholic haze finally settled in our minds, we found that nothing could compare with the very first place we’d tried.
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So, THE CREST HOUSE lounge became our home away from home, and for years it was like an oasis of yesteryear in contemporary times. The quaint lounge featured a cozy little fireplace, nostalgic red booths, little twinkling Christmas lights year ‘round over the bar, a couple of televisions for the showing of Dodger games, and an ancient, reticent fixture at the end of the bar whom Girlfriend and I referred to as “Mr. Doom” because he reminded us of the old gaunt ghost who sometimes hitched a ride with us in our “Doom Buggy” on the HAUNTED MANSION ride at Disneyland.
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"Mr. Doom" dead center.

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And then there was that jukebox filled with great music from a variety of decades – most of it conducive to relaxation and gentle conversation about good times shared. Girlfriend and I gave that machine most of the exercise it got. (The geezers and geezerettes – God love ‘em – were forever complimenting us kiddies on our exquisite taste in music.)
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Our favorite selections were:
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Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller); Boogie Woogie (Tommy Dorsey); I Wish You Love & That Old Black Magic (Louis Prima with Keely Smith); Desperado (The Eagles). And when I punched G5 and G6 on that old jukebox (which I frequently did) we got BLUE SKIES and MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT by Willie Nelson. Both of those lovely songs are found on this collection.
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In 1978, Ol’ Willie Nelson departed from his hometown, “Countryville”, and with the great Booker T. Jones producing and arranging, he released STARDUST, an album of Pop standards. (If you’re not familiar with Booker’s old ‘60s band, BOOKER T. AND THE MG’S, you have missed out on some of the greatest dance music ever recorded. I mean, even Ol’ Stephen T. can dance to Booker T., and I’m as White as Wonder bread!)
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Now the initial reaction one might have at the thought of Willie’s nasal voice singing GEORGIA ON MY MIND is understandably, “What the--?!” That’s got to be bad, right? Does a bear crap in the woods? Does a dog put out a fire… hydrant? Does a ghost haunt the building where I work? Well, the answer to the above questions is “yes”... except for the first one.
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Believe it or not, somehow Willie’s schnozzy voice works perfectly with these mellifluous classics with their sparse but perfect instrumentation. (When Ol’ Waylon used to sing Willie’s part while performing their Country duets live and solo, he would hold his index finger up high for the entire audience to see, and then with great deliberation, bring it down to press one nostril closed and – voila! – Willie Nelson!) Well, fact is, Booker T. is a musical genius, and he knew exactly how to sculpt the ideal sonic form to compliment Willie’s “unique” vocal quality.
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Now, I’ve never cared for the song SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME – not by Willie, not by Frankie, not by no one – but to my ears, the rest of these songs are gentle, gorgeous, and romantic. ROMANTIC?! Yes, I said, “Romantic.” Somehow Booker T. made Willie sound romantic and that’s alchemy of the first order! You could play this album at low volume over a candlelight dinner with your Special One and it would almost work. I say “almost” only because most of the songs are steeped in a melancholic marinade. So, the album might be better suited for playing at low volume while enjoying a warm glass of robust red wine and reminiscing about beautifully serene evenings you spent sipping Old Fashioneds with old flames in old-fashioned lounges. Or calling to mind past barroom brawls you participated in with old Mr. Doom while you and he were still in your youth. (Hoo-Wee! He had a wicked left hook... for a dead man!)
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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HEY, AMERICA! “WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?”

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SLOW TRAIN COMING
by Bob Dylan
released: 1979
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'GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY', the first song on BOB DYLAN’s 1979 Gospel offering, 'SLOW TRAIN COMING', begins with a metronome-like pounding on Pick Withers' drum. This single, regular beat gives the astute listener an impression of the hammering down of railroad ties. In other words, this is the slowly built but inexorably advancing train track that, once fully constructed, will make a Way for the arrival of a massive, powerful, and unstoppable Divine Force
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“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
(Isaiah 40:3; circa 740-701 B.C.)
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“Then they said to [John the Baptist] ... What do you say about yourself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the Way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.”
(John 1:23; circa 80–93 A.D.)
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Just as John the Baptist was commissioned to prepare the Way for the first incarnation of Jesus – who came as a meek lamb of Salvation – it is the duty of “Christians” to prepare the Way for His Second Coming, which will be anything but meek, and which will come so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and with such force that the many dark-hearted will find their dark hearts fainting with fright. 'SLOW TRAIN COMING' by Bob Dylan is both a warning and a celebration – a locomotive’s whistle.
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Unlike so much contemporary Christian music which seems to whine 'n' wheeze, this collection includes some real A-kickin’, toe-stompin’, and finger-pointing tracks. Buoyed by the unique musical contributions of Mark Knopfler and Pick Withers of Dire Straits, the Muscle Shoals Horns Section, and Barry Beckett with his fiery organ, the arrangements spell trouble for anyone who comes looking for another “Oh, La, La, La” Gospel album. And the lyrics clearly display the familiarity that Ol’ Bob had gained with 'The Word Of God'.
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I recall an interview Zimmy did with some music rag journalist not long after the release of 'SLOW TRAIN COMING' (it was probably Rolling Stoned magazine). The writer asked Bob what his favorite part of The Bible was and he answered “Leviticus.” The journalist dutifully recorded it, never realizing that Bob was obviously pulling the old dog’s leg. But then Rolling Stoned writers have undoubtedly spent more time in the pages of the Communist Manifesto than they have in 'The Word Of God'. (I've always loved Dylan's his smart-aleck nature. Gotta love them Mensa-donkeys.)
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'SLOW TRAIN COMING' is not without its weaknesses: 'I BELIEVE IN YOU' has probably the most atrocious singing I have ever heard from a professional singer. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Bob was deliberately making a mockery of the song. The Reggae-influenced 'MAN GAVE NAMES TO ALL THE ANIMALS' is too long a piece to go without any musical break or tempo change. And the lyrics are overworked and sometimes too downright silly (“Great big furry back and furry hair”?!) to make the surprise payoff at the end worth the wait. And the slow closer, 'WHEN HE RETURNS', despite some heartfelt lyrics, kind of peters out (like Saint Peter at the trial of Jesus) on what is otherwise a really good record.
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'GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY'; 'PRECIOUS ANGEL'; and 'DO RIGHT TO ME, BABY' are all solid, but 'SLOW TRAIN'; 'GONNA CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING'; and 'WHEN YOU GONNA WAKE UP?' all kick some serious heathen a$$! These are “Play-em-Loud-And-Disturb-The-Devil” cuts!
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And Ol’ Zimmy really knew the score:
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“Sister, lemme tell you about a vision I saw.
You were drawing water for your husband, you were suffering under the law.
You were telling him about Buddha, you were telling him about Mohammad in the same breath.
You never one time mentioned the Man who came and died a criminal’s death.”
(~ from 'Precious Angel')
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“In the home of the brave, Jefferson’s turnin’ over in his grave ...
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency.”
(~ from 'Slow Train')
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"God don’t make no promises that He don’t keep.
You got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep. ...
"Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all your thoughts.
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat, Henry Kissinger’s got you tied up in knots. ...
"You got unrighteous doctors dealing drugs that’ll never cure your ills.
When you gonna wake up? 
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"Adulterers in churches and pornography in the schools,
You got gangsters in power and lawbreakers making rules. 
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"Do you ever wonder just what God requires?
You think He’s an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.”
(~ from 'When You Gonna Wake Up?')
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“Jesus said, Be ready,
For you know not the hour in which I come.
Jesus said, Be ready,
For you know not the hour in which I come.
He said, He who is not for Me is against me.
Just so you know where He’s coming from.”
(~ from 'Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking')
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Hey, America, it’s time to turn off your boob tube and study 'The Holy Book', because there’s a Train coming!
It may seem slow,
but it IS coming,
and sooner than you know.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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SASS 'N' ATTITUDE & BANDAGED PAIN

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[This review originally appeared at BigBitch.com on 2006, May 24.] 
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RICKIE LEE JONES
by Rickie Lee Jones
released: 1979
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In 1979, Rickie Lee Jones released what was probably the most fully-realized and self-assured debut album by any singer of any genre at any time. No other vocalist ever broke from the starting gate with this much aplomb, looseness and "If you don't like it, you can hit the road, Jack" attitude. In a sense, this was both a blessing and a curse: she made it obvious immediately that she was a prodigiously talented songwriter who put her songs over with a finely-tuned, stylistic sauciness and a broken-hearted sincerity. But at the same time, she set the bar so high with her self-titled 'RICKIE LEE JONES' that subsequent disappointment was almost inevitable.
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It was a different world at the tail end of the '70s: originality was still a desirable trait in new artists being developed (unlike the current situation where the new bands and performers seem like nothing more nor less than Xerox copies of last year's hottest model), and I was a 20-year-old looking squarely at a future full of pristine promise (unaware that the best I'd ever do is write semi-appreciated reviews for a then unimaginable Internet shopping site).
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When Rickie Lee Jones released her second collection, 'PIRATES', I initially thought it eclipsed her brilliant debut (I used to sniff Amyl Nitrite while tripping out over Steve Gadd's quirky drumming on the track, 'We Belong Together'), but in hindsight, I realize that the further she went with sonic exploration into highly personal expression, the further she drifted from really making that human connection with her listeners over a shared emotional understanding.
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But on 'RICKIE LEE JONES', with its Jazzy arrangements and stellar musicianship, her poetry was conveyed through exaggerated (and perhaps just a trace too-mannered), flouncy, bohemian sass 'n' attitude upbeat numbers, or ultra-sensitive, lost 'n' lonely ballads of bandaged pain that strike right at the heart.
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In the SASS 'N' ATTITUDE department there's...
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NIGHT TRAIN:
"Swing low, Saint Cadillac / Tearin' down the alley" 
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YOUNG BLOOD:
"But she ain't running / She's walking a little slow / And she ain't crying / She's just singin' a little low / They say this city will make you dirty but you look alright / You feel real pretty when he's holding you tight / City will make you mean but that's the makeup on your face / Love will wash you clean in the night's disgrace"
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DANNY'S ALL-STAR JOINT:
"You can't break the rules until you know how to play the game / But if you just want to have a little fun / You can mention my name" 
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WEASEL AND THE WHITE BOYS COOL:
"You dancin' in the welfare line, Sal / Actin' like some jerk-off fool / When we could lay out eatin' peaches on the beaches / A weasel in a White boys cool" 
(And I can personally recall a time when I did eat a peach on Venice Beach- the superfunky L.A. hotspot where Rickie first developed these songs in the beer bars and bistros along the boardwalk while dogs went airborne over the sand to snag Frisbees in flight and the carnival of human wackiness paraded under the California sun.)
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But even in many of Rickie's thumpin', bumpin', hip-grindin' upbeat numbers, a trace of her melancholy muse can be found: Consider this line from the aforementioned YOUNG BLOOD:
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"Keep a third eye watching behind you / You never know when you're making a memory / They will wish they were here together again, someday." 
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You won't feel the full impact of that sentiment until you are in your mid-forties, but you'll really understand it then.
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In the BANDAGED PAIN department there's...
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ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS IN 1963:
"The most as you'll ever go / Is back where you used to know / If grownups could laugh this slow"
(If you can't detect two or three worlds in that lyric, then you'd better just stick with the crude pseudo-machismo of your Eminem and Insane Clown Posse.)
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THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO:
"There was this block-busted blonde / He loved her free parts and labor / But she broke down and died / And threw all the rods he gave her / But this one ain't fuel-injected / Her plug's disconnected / She gets scared and she stalls / She just needs a man, that's all"
(This song contains the greatest automotive imagery ever penned. Too bad for you, Springsteen!)
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COOLSVILLE:
"I and Bragger and Junior Lee / That's the way we always thought it would be / In the Winston lips of September / How we met / Decked out like aces / We'd beat anybody's bet / Cuz we was Coolsville"
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COMPANY:
"I'll see you in another life now, baby / I'll free you in my dreams / But when I reach across the galaxy / I will miss your company" 
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Me 'n' the boys were cruisin' the 405 freeway on our way to see Rickie Lee Jones perform at The Universal Amphitheater in 1983. We were all singin' in Tiburon (our permanently topless, 1963 Cadillac), when I realized that I had forgotten the glasses I'd recently begun wearing at night to compensate for my nearsightedness. Rickie was in fine vocal form that night, but she appeared to me like just a greyish, blurry form on the stage. While goin' home that evening, all the boys could talk about was how she had performed braless in a sheer, see-through blouse. I never did determine whether they were serious or just teasing the myopic maroon in the backseat.
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If you want to hear some authentic art from the 1970s, some street-smart, toe-tappin' jive-rock and moving poetry that you can hum along with, then let 'RICKIE LEE JONES' keep you COMPANY. In the song AFTER HOURS (Twelve Bars Past Goodnight), Rickie sings, "Say goodnight, America / The world still loves a dreamer." And here in 2006, I'm still dreaming that someday I'll find my misplaced glasses and then SEE if I can write something more worthwhile than a bunch of semi-appreciated product reviews for an Internet shopping site. Wish me luck, America.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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MARTERIE = THUMBS UP / AIRHEADZONANS = THUMBS DOWN

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[Originally posted at Amazon.com on 2005, July 18.]
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THE BEST OF RALPH MARTERIE: The Mercury Years
Ralph Marterie
released: 1996
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Ralph Marterie is one of those musicians / arrangers who have been largely and unjustly forgotten by the public. In Marterie's case, I think it can be partially attributed to the time period in which most of his best known music was cut.
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The 25 tracks collected here span the years 1951 through 1958, with most of them falling into the first half of that decade. This puts him right on the cusp where the dog days of the Big Band Swing era had significantly given way to Rock 'N' Roll's infancy. You can hear that transition occurring in many of Marterie's numbers. And it makes for some interesting listening.
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Due to some imaginative playing from myriad instruments that swing easily, much of this material manages to present the illusion of an improvisational approach confined within tightly arranged structures (only one track makes it all the way to the three minute mark). But there's plenty here that should be appreciated by both Jazz fans and early Rock 'N' Roll devotees. Marterie's sound is unique in that he combines Swing components (trumpet and multiple saxophones) with classical instrumentation (strings) and also employs a front and center electric guitar at times. And he occasionally pulls it all together over drumming that exhibits a nearly R&B rhythmic style. (Of course, as Rock 'N' Roll took shape, the strings would get the heave-ho, the reeds would be pared down to a single sax, and the guitar would gain prominence.) It was that pronounced beat on several numbers (CARAVAN; SKOKIAAN; DRY MARTERIE; IN A PERSIAN MARKET; and TRICKY) that undoubtedly endeared Marterie to my Mom and others from her generation who stayed in shape via the dance floor.
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This is not to say that everything on THE BEST OF RALPH MARTERIE falls into this upbeat, danceable category. There is also some "sweet" Swing; some Harry James-like trumpet workouts; a few melancholic, sentimental ballads; and a couple of feisty, baritone sax rumblers. All in all, a nice mix of some good stuffs. I don't play this album often, but every time I do, I wind up asking myself why I don't.
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It occurs to me that it's been quite a few reviews since I've poked fun at Arizonans. So, if you'll indulge me here - although it's entirely irrelevant to this review - I'd like to correct that oversight now:
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I kid you not, these folks is D-U-U-U-MB! Case in point: The day before yesterday, I was driving to a wide spot in the road called Rock Springs to pick up some pies. A lady up there is famous for her pies (we like the Tennessee Lemon and the Jack Daniels Pecan) which they advertise as being "WORTH THE DRIVE FROM ANYWHERE." This was probably true before gas went above $2. a gallon, but if you hail from East of the muddy Mississippi, you may want to settle for something baked closer to home. But I digress from my digression...
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So, I'm going North out of Phoenix on I-17 when traffic slows to a crawl. For a couple of miles I'm constantly shifting back and forth between 2nd and 3rd gears, and expecting to find a brush fire or an accident up ahead. But no, the disturbance was caused by an electronic highway sign stating, "Extreme Fire Conditions - See www.azfireprevention.com" or some such nonsense. The Airheadzonans were slowing down to read this sign (visible for more than half of a mile) with its earthshaking news. Well, duh! It's July and we live in the middle of a desert where it's only 114 degrees in the shade every day!
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I'm convinced that when I moved to Airheadzona, the state's collective I.Q. was doubled. And keep in mind that I ain't none too bright my-damn-self! (I mean, I DID move here, didn't I?) I'm sure that my anti-Arizona comments are responsible for some of my "Unhelpful" votes, but if they think that's going to stop me, then they're just plain... well... you know.
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Thanks for tolerating my tangent, and enjoy the tunes!
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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THE UNDISCOVERED INDIGO SOUL

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ON THE BLUE SIDE

by Hank Crawford & Jimmy McGriff

released: 1990

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I'm shocked and disappointed to find that here in late 2004, I'm the first person to submit a review [*at Amazon.com*] for this excellent album. I bought ON THE BLUE SIDE shortly after its release and I've probably heard it well over a hundred times. This wasn't the first collaboration between HANK CRAWFORD & JIMMY McGriff -- just the best!

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I'm an inveterate whistler. I catch myself unconsciously whistling all the time, and almost always it's either 'Sunshine Of Your Love', 'Keep On Loving You', 'Bumpin' On Sunset', 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', or 'ANY DAY NOW' from this collection. My gosh, I've been whistling 'Any Day Now' for 14 years!

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This is an exciting and soulful 4-piece band which features the Bluesy but always swinging alto sax of CRAWFORD, which dances over McGRIFF's thick washes of Hammond B-3 Organ chords - chords which suddenly and frequently transform into popping, red-hot, electrically-charged riffing! It is McGRIFF who keeps this music grooving with an addictive, stylistically Jazzy R&B mood. He's a vastly talented musician whose keyboard technique makes him a peer of other notable B-3 masters such as Jimmy Smith, Bill Doggett, and Booker T. Jones.

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Not to be overlooked, however, is the much employed Wes Montgomery-influenced guitar work of JIMMY PONDER, whose imaginative playing punctuates the undulating, snake-like rhythms with purple, pinpoint notes that both heighten and release the musical tension. Man, this is great stuffs! It gets under the skin and just COMPELS the body to move! It seems that some people don't have an aural affinity for the organ sound. That's a real puzzlement to me because I don't just HEAR the B-3, I FEEL it!

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These instrumental pieces that make up ON THE BLUE SIDE are rhythmically-structured pieces that are danceable, and yet they contain plenty of space for the exciting, improvisational interplay that Jazz fans listen for.

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ON THE BLUE SIDE may be one of my more frequently spun discs, but you know, I didn't have to share this treasure with ya. I could-a kept Hank's and 'Jimmy's Groove' thang all to myself. I could-a taken the attitude that if you don't already know, that's 'Tuff' for you! I could-a said to myself, "Stephen" (that's what I occasionally call myself), "only one person is lucky enough to listen to ON THE BLUE SIDE, and 'You're The One'!" But I couldn't act so selfishly. Instead, I brought you on board with me. I hope you appreciate this review. 'Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You'?

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy

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1959: Frankie Would Say, “IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR!”

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NOVA BOSSA: Red Hot On Verve
by Assorted Artists
released: 1996
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If you have read my review for the album [link> 'Bossa Nova For Lovers' then you know that I’ve only just recently discovered that I’ve been in love with Bossa Nova for pretty much my entire life without ever knowing it. (And if you haven’t read that review, I’d like to know why not! I mean, if you’re not hanging on my every word, then I’m just going to stop nailing them up there. ;o)
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I purchased two Bossa Nova collections as soon as I realized that “Bossa Nova” was the name of the musical genre that my heart has been carrying around for the past 43 years. (I do catch on, but slowly.) I acquired the aforementioned set because I’m a real “lover” -- yeah, bring it on ladies! (But I’m a “fighter”, too, so watch yer step, dude!) And I simultaneously bought “NOVA BOSSA: RED HOT ON VERVE”, and danged if I can tell ya which one I like best, because they’re both Boss! I might prefer this collection overall, only by the slimmest margin, but “For Lovers” includes Astrud Gilberto’s “The Shadow Of Your Smile”, and without that song in my collection, my smile would be turned upside down. :o(
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I found John Carlin’s liner notes included with this compact disc to be very informative, so I’m copying them below:
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“Brazilian music is American music. It comes from the same multicultural fusion that spawned blues, jazz, salsa, reggae and rock. In Brazil it is called samba. Samba fused three sounds that thrived in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century: West African polyrhythms, Portuguese melodies, and Native American chants. [*By chants were you aware that I’m part Mohawk Indian? I want 40 acres of land and a jackass! Oh wait, I’M the jackass.*]
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"This potent combination was turned into a classic myth by the poet Vinicius de Moraes, whose play [link> “Black Orpheus” brought Afrocentric Brazilian culture and samba to international attention. In the well-known film version, Orpheus dies for love, but his artistic spirit lives on in a young boy who picks up Orpheus’ guitar and plays his song to make the sun rise. The beauty of the music makes the film’s heavy-handed theme credible. Orpheus’ song, “A Felicidade”, composed by a young Antonio Carlos Jobim, comes out of samba culture while effortlessly introducing something new and even more beautiful to the world. That sound later became known as bossa nova, the new wave. It was created by Jobim and de Moraes along with the great singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto. Inspired by samba, along with the sophistication of Debussy and Cole Porter, Jobim began writing simple, beautiful songs that suggested, but were never burdened by their eccentric harmonies, asymmetrical structures and abstract thoughts.
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“Within a few years, American jazz musicians like Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz began to sample these new exotic songs. By 1962, Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema” performed by Getz with Joao Gilberto and his wife Astrud, on the Verve label, became the biggest hit in the U.S., the year before the Beatles arrived. [*According to my Billboard book, it was '64.*] The success of the song and the bossa beat created a pop formula capitalized upon by Astrud, Sergio Mendes, Walter Wanderley and others throughout the mid-Sixties. At the same time, Jobim and Gilberto – as well as musicians like the Tamba Trio, Edu Lobo, Baden Powell and Marcos Valle – continued to refine bossa and samba into one of the finest means of expression in the world of pop music.
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“By the late ‘60s, a new generation of artists began to emerge in Brazil from the Afrocentric northeastern state of Bahia. Led by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, they merged bossa with rock by adding more aggressive beats and avoiding romantic lyrics. This new movement, called tropicalismo, demonstrated the continued vitality of Brazilian music and that samba, like the blues, grew from the multicultural character of the Americas to become one of the great art forms of the 20th century.”
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~ John Carlin
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I saw the movie “BLACK ORPHEUS” in the late ‘80s because I tremendously enjoyed Vince Guaraldi’s song “Cast Your Fate To The Wind”, which I knew had first appeared on his album titled, “Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus.” I don’t recall being much impressed with the movie back then, but seeing it a second time is suddenly a priority for me. (“NOVA BOSSA: RED HOT ON VERVE” begins with Jobim’s “A Felicidade” taken directly from the 1959 “BLACK ORPHEUS” soundtrack. I feel it’s spoiled a bit by the voices and various other audio portions of the film’s soundtrack, but historically, it’s still the perfect opening for a Bossa Nova set. And I can’t tell you how cool I think it is that Bossa Nova was introduced to the world at large in the same year that I entered into it.)
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The so-called “Interludes” on this set are merely 15-30 second snippets of drums, ocean and street sounds, etc. I’m not sure what their purpose is, and I could have done without them, thank you very much. But they don’t diminish my listening pleasure because the tunes are simply Mmmm-Mmmm Good! I swear, I love Bossa Nova. My only wish is that some of the tracks were extended: it seems that no sooner has a particular rhythm and melody enveloped me and begun carving grooves into my heart and soul than it comes to an end and we’re off to the next delicious slice of Bossa Nova. Oh well, “Leave ‘em wanting more” is the old entertainment maxim.
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I dig every song on “NOVA BOSSA: RED HOT ON VERVE”, although Caetano Veloso’s “Superbacana” is pretty goofy. Why do I see The Brady Bunch in my mind when that one plays? No, seriously, why? But this is a funky Fun Fiesta; less Saudade than the 'Bossa Nova For Lovers' disc, which is perfectly fine with me because now I have a Bossa Nova concert for both moods. If you too have a heart for Bossa Nova, I can guarantee your satisfaction with this first-class set.
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And speaking of the heart, always remember what that great Brazilian pianist Yoey O’Dogherty once said to a group of budding Bossa Nova musicians in 1963: “Listen with your heart, speak with your fingers, and love with your -- HEY! Who took my beer?”
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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I'm NOT SHY Now . . .

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NOT SHY
by Walter Egan
released: 1978
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I'm NOT SHY now . . . but I'm still rather attached to my body. I graduated from high school in 1977, and at the Theatre Arts Department's year-end banquet, I received two awards: 'SHYEST' and 'BEST BODY.' That said a lot for my acting ability, didn't it? And you wouldn't expect the guy with the best bod to also be the shyest, would you?
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Well, take a look through some of my online reviews and you'll see that I'm no longer shy (some might even call me an opinionated, loudmouthed jerk). And, yes, I did have the best formed male body in the Theatre Department, but that's because I was also on the wrestling team -- pumping iron all the time -- and my competition in the Theatre Department was a bunch of prancing sissies singing 'Westside Story' tunes. Not much competition there, ya know?
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One summer after graduation, my friend Eric and I were hitting all of the Rock 'N' Roll clubs and seldom missed the free Noontime Friday concerts at Santa Monica City College. One Friday we caught this dude named Walter Egan playing great Summer beach town tunes on that diminutive stage, and I liked his catchy Pop so much that I went right out and bought his just-released album, 'NOT SHY'. Within weeks, I heard his song 'Magnet And Steel' on the radio and listened as that July and August it steadily climbed the charts all the way up to #8, making Egan yet another One-Hit Wonder. I felt like I was an "insider"; I was on the bandwagon before there WAS a bandwagon.
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What's surprising is that the album 'NOT SHY' contains at least half a dozen other cuts that could have just as easily cracked Billboard's Top Ten chart, being (to my ears) much better than the "one hit", but they got no radio airplay. Who can explain that stuff? But if you want an authentic slice of that late '70s Pop Pie, you could do much worse than Egan's second release, 'NOT SHY'. It was recorded in L.A. in '77 and contains 36 minutes of music that includes Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks singing backup on 5 tracks, and bandmates Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood on 2 each, along with Dean Torrance (of Jan & Dean fame) on 1 other.
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As I write this, 'NOT SHY' (out-of-print as a single release) is currently available in a "Two-Fer-One" package along with Egan's debut album, 'Fundamental Roll'. It would be a better buy (more music, less money, and brand new). But I also bought 'Fundamental Roll' way back when and wasn't crazy about it. A little older now (OK, a lot older), and wiser, and more mature, I couldn't bring myself to play that one at this point, as it contains a song called 'Tunnel O' Love' which is about a certain part of a woman's anatomy. Yeah, it's a little too lewd and crude for me at (nearly) 47 years of age. I think women should be considered in their totality, not examined part by part. So let's look at 'NOT SHY' alone:
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SWEET SOUTH BREEZE is a real toe-tapper that opens with Egan's twangy guitar. This had Top Ten hit potential.
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MAGNET AND STEEL is the big hit. A ballad which includes a very Beach Boys-like guitar break. "Hey baby, ya wanna camp out on the beach tonight and build a bonfire and... uh... OK, well maybe next weekend?"
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FINALLY FIND A GIRLFRIEND with Stevie Nicks featured rather prominently in the background had "hit" written all over it. After years of being the loneliest guy with a good body, I finally found a girlfriend. But the minute I began joyfully singing this song... she dumped me! And the search began again.
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THE BLONDE IN THE BLUE T-BIRD is another one that shoulda been a hit. Who can hear this one without thinking of the movie 'American Graffiti'?
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STAR IN THE DUST contains the lyric, "I recall what somebody once told me: Only the lucky in love survive." Here Egan cleverly references his debut album which kicked off with the song 'Only The Lucky (In Love Survive)'. So now you know who the "somebody" was who told him.
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I WANNIT is the weak link on the album. Not offensive but not a standout track either.
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MAKE IT ALONE contains some angst-driven guitar playing from our boy which gives the song the edge it requires -- really his best work on the album. And, yes, you can make it alone! Just look at me -- I've made it alone. But it IS kinda lonely to be a lone kinda guy. But you CAN make it... alone... and lonely... very lonely... desperately lonely. OK, that's all I have to say about that because it's starting to depress me.
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UNLOVED. Ah, yes, here's another one about being alone, lonely, unloved. It's about a girl who can't be contacted because she's "unlisted" her phone. But hey, the singer's gonna make it alone even though he may be a bit lonely, a bit unloved... REALLY unloved. Oh man, here we go again. "Hey baby, let's get together and... oh, I see. OK, well maybe next weekend?"
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JUST THE WANTING. No, this brooding ballad is not about wanting a girl when you're unloved and trying to make it alone. Desperately, pathetically alone. This one is about the wanting to attain something in life... something a little BIGGER than a girlfriend... unless of course, your girlfriend is named Bertha, or something like that. There's a line in this song that says, "I remember when I was seventeen and my life had just begun." That's funny because I was seventeen when I first saw Walter playing on that little college stage, and I too felt that my life was full of pristine promise. Little did I know back then that the best I'd ever do in life was to write semi-appreciated reviews for a then unimaginable Internet shopping site while trying to... make it alone... so alone.
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HOT SUMMER NIGHTS. Yeah, I know all about hot summer nights (today's high here in Phoenix was about 115 degrees and it's still about 100 at 2 AM), but somehow I get the feeling that Egan has a different kind of "hot" in mind. This may be my favorite track. Here's another one with tremendous hit potential that inexplicably never got played over our radios in the summer of '78.
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"A-Woo-ooo-ooo-OO-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo, hot summer nights."
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There's nothing fancy on 'NOT SHY'. It's just simple but catchy commercial Pop, warm, Summery and tasty.
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Alright listen, I gotta go now. No, you can't go with me, and don't let me catch you trying to follow me, either. I'm gonna MAKE IT ALONE, gosh darn it, and I can't do that if you're following after me like a lost little puppy dog! "Alone" means alone and I can make it that way... I can... I just know I can. Of course, if you're blonde and female... you think maybe I could catch a lift with you in your blue T-bird? Perhaps we could MAKE IT ALONE together. ...OK, well maybe next weekend?
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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BUT CAN HE PITCH?

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JUBILANT
by Jubilant Sykes
released: 1998
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There's no question about it: this cat's got a "SINGular" voice! The few people in this world who have a REALLY remarkable gift are invariably recognized at a young age. I was in Boys Chorus with Jubilant Sykes at John Adams Junior High School in Santa Monica, California, in 1972, and our vocal coach, Linda Anderson, ascertained that she had found a world-class singer in Jubilant in no-time flat! In her ears, there was "him", and then there was "all the other children". (Teacher's pet!)
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I'll never forget auditioning at Anderson's piano. She gave me this funny look. "With Jubilant?" I queried, hopefully. "No", she answered. "With all the other kids?", I asked dejectedly. "No", she shook her head again, "with all the other whining dogs at the kennel."
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My music aspirations had come to an ignoble end. But Jubilant was headed for big things and we all knew that.
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I still have the LP recording from the Santa Monica Unified School District's, 1972, STAIRWAY OF THE STARS concert, which included Jubilant (with hair) as the featured soloist.
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(*AN ASIDE: This 1972 public school district-sanctioned performance included the Judeo-Christian musical compositions, 'In The Beginning Of Creation' [a choral "portrayal of the Lord's creation of order out of chaos."]; 'When I Was Sinkin' Down'; 'Great God A'mighty'; 'Sit Down, Servant'; and 'Alleluia'. Obviously the A.C.L.U. and other Communist front organizations had not yet discovered that with the help of Liberal revisionist judges, they could banish such public religious expression under the completely bogus, NON-EXISTENT principle of "Separation Of Church And State". Try to find it in the Constitution! And be sure to read David Barton's great book, 'ORIGNAL INTENT: The Courst, The Constitution, & Religion'.)
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'JUBILANT' is an excellent showcase for its singer's God-given gift. The simple Jazz-inflected arrangements are the perfect complement to Jubilant's soulful, Good News-inspired voice. Watch those tear ducts when, in 'MARY, DID YOU KNOW?', he sings:
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DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR BABY BOY HAS COME TO MAKE YOU NEW?
THIS CHILD THAT YOU DELIVERED
HE WILL SOON DELIVER YOU...
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR BABY BOY HAS WALKED WHERE ANGELS TROD?
AND WHEN YOU KISS YOUR LITTLE BABY
YOU'VE KISSED THE FACE OF GOD?
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I've been listening to Jubilant since 1972, and to 'JUBILANT' since 1998. My only complaint with this excellent collection of "Good News" songs is that I've always had a difficult time finding the proper volume in which to play it. His voice rises and falls considerably as a natural result of his vocal style and phrasing, and if I play this CD loud enough to discern the quieter moments, it becomes too loud when he goes to the rafters. But any lower and I can't hear some passages well enough. Still, this is a small price to pay for music this glorious. Don't let it cause you to hesitate in making this purchase if the idea of hearing great Gospel painted by a certifiably great voice appeals to you!
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Sure, Jubilant has ALWAYS been a tremendous singer; in that, there can be NO argument! He surely deserves all of the accolades he's received. But I'll tell ya what: not in a million tries could he have beaten me in a game of Wiffle Ball out on the playground and, after all, which is more important, music or Wiffle Ball?
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(*Jubilant, I'm proud of you, and God must be pleased with the way you're handling His gift; thanks for sharing it with us, Brother!)
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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MY FRIEND$, MY FRIEND$, It’s Worth The MONEY!

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NO CONTROL
by Eddie Money
released: 1982
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Alright now, I’m doing a little stepping back in time reviewing NO CONTROL, Eddie Money’s sharp, 1982, pink ‘n’ black album which found his slim frame in a suit and tie and looking so... ”money.”
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When Eddie’s debut album came to my attention in 1978 due to the radio airplay of “Baby Hold On” [#11 in Billboard], I bought it but didn’t spin it often. I thought most of the songs were too spare and unadventurous musically and that his voice was nondescript.
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I never purchased another Money collection until 1982’s NO CONTROL, though I scarcely remember acquiring it because I was drunk that year. And the next. In truth, those first 4 years of that decade were the height of my partying life. I was living in a house (it’s now a condominium) at 824 Bay Street in Santa Monica (just seven blocks from the skateboarding Z-Boys former surf shop hangout). At that time, 824 must have been the most consistently rowdy house in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. John Belushi and National Lampoon’s 'ANIMAL HOUSE'? Pish 'n' Pshaw! That was us when we were BEHAVING ourselves!
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We were THE LEAGUE OF SOUL CRUSADERS, and as Pooh said, “We drank. We drank a lot. We drank more than we did not.” And yeah, you might have heard some of these hard-rocking Eddie Money tunes blasting from 824 back in the day... and the night. (Our neighbors loved us so much that the entire street signed a petition to send us packing. I guess they enjoyed our act to such a degree that they wanted to see us take it on the road.)
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By 1982, Money had learned how to write a solid, head-banging Hard Rock tune, and how to use that slight croak in his voice to maximum effect. The rockers on this set, starting with the great road tune SHAKIN’, are all fiercely guitar-propelled and rhythmically driving songs that had all of us liquidated bad boys breaking out the air guitars nearly twenty-five years ago. We eventually grew up and changed.
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And that’s something else I liked about NO CONTROL: Five years after that other Eddie had revolutionized the electric guitar and had every player emulating him with Van Halenesque “tapping”, here we had Jimmy Lyon and Marty Walsh playing in the old Rock style -- more sustain and distortion -- and it suddenly sounded fresh and exciting again. And on DRIVIN’ ME CRAZY, Tony Brock is the guest drummer behind the kit. Tony Brock? C’mon, dude! He was the stickman for The Babys and, for my “money”, one of Rock’s more formidable and underrated drummers. In ANY BAND not named 'The Babys', Tony Brock would have received the attention he deserved.
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I don’t listen to Rock a great deal anymore; I graduated to the upper I.Q. of Jazz long ago. But every once in awhile (and especially after all my beloved Christmas songs at the conclusion of the Holiday season) I need to hear some fast tunes with loud guitars, and Eddie’s NO CONTROL is right on the money.
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Interspersed between the 80 mile-an-hour road runs on NO CONTROL, Eddie has some "school zone" ballads that drop us back down into first gear. Necessary I suppose for balance, but they suffer by comparison, seeming a little droopy. But the one great exception for me is [link> MY FRIENDS, MY FRIENDS, which is really the principal reason I reacquired this album on compact disc. It’s a wistful look back at the friends who made our old times so special and so memorable. It’s a sad song made sadder by some truly mournful harmonica playing beautifully rendered by the Moneyman himself:
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“My memories are happy / My memories are sad / But I love to take my pictures out / And see the things I had... / My friends, my friends / We never got together again / But I really do miss my friends”
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THE LEAGUE OF SOUL CRUSADERS: Torch, Pooh, Twinkie, Cranium, Napoleon -- hey, you guys, it’s me, Mr. Intense. I want you guys to know that I still take my pictures out and remember what we had. And I still love you guys... wherever you are*.
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*Actually, I do know where my brother, Napoleon, is. He’s outside beating up the biker and his pit bull again. I can tell by the dog’s whining and the biker’s crying. I guess it’s nice that one of us never grew up and changed.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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THE REAL "SUMMER OF LOVE"

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JOY IN THE JOURNEY: 10 Years Of Greatest Hits
by Michael Card
released: 1994
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Michael Card's Greatest Hits compilation was released in 1994 -- one of the best years of my life. I recall hearing the song 'WHY?' for the first time in my (then) girlfriend's car, just as we were entering the Eastbound I-10 onramp at Sepulveda Boulevard. Only a couple of months earlier, on April 6th, while alone in an apartment in a grungy area of Los Angeles, I was quite unexpectedly driven to my knees, where Jesus Baptized me with The Holy Spirit. I didn't exactly know what had happened to me, or why. I only knew that I was suddenly changed somehow.
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Obviously, that was a special year for this reviewer, and when I heard Michael Card sing, "WHY DID THEY NAIL HIS FEET AND HANDS WHEN HIS LOVE WOULD HAVE HELD HIM THERE?" it perfectly described the Fire I felt inside me and the Love that I knew Jesus has for us! I asked my girlfriend to replay that song several times. For me, that remains one of the greatest lines ever written about my Savior King. And although I don't play it often, 'JOY IN THE JOURNEY' always takes me back to that magical year of rebirth.
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Michael Card does not have a particularly great voice, but it adequately conveys the obviously heartfelt convictions of his nicely crafted Gospel songs. What makes Card special is his lyrics; he is Christian Rock's premier wordsmith, able to create songs around deep theological concepts. He overreaches at times ("...the universe fell from His Fingertips"; "...He sent His only Son and so became a Holy Embryo"), but that's the cost of creating fresh, unique expressions and attempting to translate the Mystery into song. There may be an occasional misstep, but there's no doggerel verse here -- just first class Christian poetry sung with sincerity, and sometimes backed by surprisingly powerful "electric" passion ('Known By The Scars'; 'Scandalon'; 'So Many Books'; and my favorite track, 'Know You In The Now'). I'm rarely impressed by the lyrics of most songwriters, but consider these lines:
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HE CANNOT LOVE MORE AND WILL NOT LOVE LESS
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WE IN OUR WEAKNESS BELIEVED WE WERE STRONG / HE BECAME HELPLESS TO SHOW WE WERE WRONG...
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FOR THE POWER OF PARADOX OPENS YOUR EYES / AND BLINDS THOSE WHO SAY THEY CAN SEE
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THAT IS THE MYSTERY, MORE THAN YOU CAN SEE / GIVE UP YOUR PONDERING AND FALL DOWN ON YOUR KNEES
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NO FICTION AS FANTASTIC AND WILD / A MOTHER MADE BY HER OWN CHILD
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TO HEAR WITH MY HEART, TO SEE WITH MY SOUL / TO BE GUIDED BY A HAND I CANNOT HOLD
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TO TRUST IN A WAY THAT I CANNOT SEE / THAT'S WHAT FAITH MUST BE
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THERE IS A JOY IN THE JOURNEY, THERE'S A LIGHT WE CAN LOVE ON THE WAY
THERE IS A WONDER AND WILDNESS TO LIFE, AND FREEDOM FOR THOSE WHO OBEY
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TO BE SO COMPLETELY GUILTY, GIVEN OVER TO DESPAIR
TO LOOK INTO YOUR JUDGE'S FACE AND SEE A SAVIOR THERE
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Now THAT'S what I call "writing!" Most of these tracks are enthusiastic and catchy. If they played this stuff more often on Christian radio I'd tune in once in awhile.
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Michael Card's 'JOY IN THE JOURNEY' puts joy in my journey, and it calls to mind my personal "Summer Of Love." And when this world douses my spirit, 'JOY IN THE JOURNEY' can fan my embers into a Divine Flame again. Brothers and Sisters, I think you'll like it too.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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YOU CAN'T ARGUE WITH A SICK MIND!

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16 MOST REQUESTED SONGS
by Johnny Mathis
released: 1986
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I usually tend exclusively to my own business -- I really do. I'm not in the habit of mingling in things that are none of my concern. But once in awhile a person encounters something so unjust or (in this case) so utterly stupid, that he is literally compelled to interject himself into the situation....
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It was close to two decades ago that I was sitting alone in a booth at a juice joint called THE SPEAKEASY on Pico Boulevard near 14th Street in Santa Monica, California. I was having a drink and reading a letter from a girlfriend when I heard this bellowing Blowhard surrounded by his uncouth cronies at the bar. "No Black man can sing!" he bellowed. "There has never been a really great Black male singer!" the Blowhard continued. I waited for someone with half an ounce of brains to enlighten the Good Ol' Boy, but his cronies just sat there mute, nodding their hollow heads.
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Blowhard bellowed his brainlessness too loudly yet again, and when even the bartender let it pass, I could restrain myself no longer. Now of course, I had many weapons in my arsenal. I could have whipped out Nat King Cole,or Sam Cooke. I could have pulled Greg Walker or Marvin Gaye or Jubilant Sykes or Ray Charles on him. But I thought: "Nah. Let's just go right to the jugular and immediately put this Village Idiot out of my misery". So, from my booth 35 feet away, I called out, "JOHNNY MATHIS!"
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There was a long, silent pause which must have seemed like a year to the Village Idiot while he frantically searched his empty head for some sort of answer to give this impertinent stranger. Finally he countered with, "Oh, he's a fag!"
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The point here is that even this Racist Retard was not stupid enough to deny that Johnny Mathis is a really great singer. To try and save face, he was reduced to changing the conditions of his premise. Suddenly we were looking for a really great "straight" Black singer. You just can't argue with a sick mind, can you?
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I'm not a fan of the crooners -- there are only 3 that I listen to regularly: Bobby Darin, the Yiddish-singing pop stylist Yoey O'Dogherty, and the incredibly gifted Johnny Mathis. 16 MOST REQUESTED SONGS is an excellent sampler containing most of his best-loved Pop hits, recorded at a time when his voice was still young and able to hit all of those gorgeous notes! Pay special attention to MARIA (far from being my favorite melody on this collection) -- there's a point at about 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the song where amidst the background singers you can hear Johnny's voice come in. It's so faint at first that you're not really sure you're hearing it, but then it powers through and over the other singers with just a single sustained note of PERFECT PURITY which subtly transforms into the name "Maria". Fabulous!!
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In terms of pure voice, I think Johnny Mathis stands alone. Add 16 MOST REQUESTED SONGS to your collection and you'll know what even the Redneck Maroons at THE SPEAKEASY know: Johnny Mathis was one heck of a singer!
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And with Christmas approaching, I also recommend his albums, MERRY CHRISTMAS and FOR CHRISTMAS. I've been hearing the first one every Christmas going back to when I believed in the Fat Man in Red. And the latter has his phenomenal last two notes on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
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All this reminds me of the time a few years back, when in a Phoenix restaurant, a man in the booth behind mine loudly told his companion that "No woman has ever written a great novel!" I had just opened my mouth, intending to mention Betty Smith's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, when I caught myself and thought, "Oh, forget it, Stephen! Besides, he's an Arizonan, and you know you have to make allowances for them."
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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CLASSICJAZZITIZ!

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CLASSIC JAZZ: Jazz Legends
from: Time-Life
released: 1999
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You don't need a review in order to help you decide whether or not you ought to purchase this. All you need to do is examine WHO and WHAT appears on this TWO-DISC (!) compilation.
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Included amongst the principal players are: Ellington, Ella, Satchmo, Miles, Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Erroll Garner, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, and Cannonball Adderley!
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Some of the music masters who lend their renowned talents to the production of this music in supporting roles are: Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, Wynton Kelly, Kenny Burrell, Nelson Riddle, McCoy Tyner, "Sweets" Edison, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Barney Kessel, Buddy Rich, and Joe Zawinul. I mean, this is a veritable Jazz Hall Of Fame!
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Sure, there are a few dogs here (in my opinion). I gotta grit my teeth to get through Mel Torme's too-cute LULLABY OF BIRDLAND; Chet Baker's flat and comatose MY FUNNY VALENTINE; and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross' CLOUDBURST, which simply rains on my parade. Any one of these should have been replaced by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' truly classic Moanin'.
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OK, so there ain't nothin' perfect on this earth. But if you think I'm a-gonna give anything less than an "A" grade to a collection of unedited Jazz masterpieces that includes: TAKE THE "A" TRAIN; THE "IN" CROWD; THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA; APRIL IN PARIS; KILLER JOE; CAST YOUR FATE TO THE WIND; NIGHT TRAIN; THE CAT; and TAKE FIVE (the 'Stairway To Heaven' of the Jazz World), then yer jus' looney tunes!
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Man, this truly is Classic Jazz. And if you don't like what is presented here, then you and I ain't never a-gonna hear ear to ear, an' all I can say is: "MERCY, MERCY, MERCY!"
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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