Not quite a year ago, Aaron and I went to Toronto to splurge on music. Today I have returned from what is hoped to be a regular occurrence. I present to you, the spoils of war below. This is just a teaser. My goal is to edit together another documentary video like I did last year. This year I shot everything on my new BlackBerry Z10, which means I have to do some file conversion. With any luck I’ll be showing you all the details and fun soon. Until then, enjoy this teaser.!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 228: The Phone
Boring conversation anyway.
I has been a long time since I’ve had to answer the phone at the record store. As long as it’s been, sometimes I still find myself answering my phone at work, and it just happens: “Good afternoon, [name of record store].” I’ve stumbled over that a couple times before realizing what I’ve said!
Every time it happens (like today), it takes me right back in time! The memories flood in all at once.
There were several ways we were supposed to answer the phones at the record store. “Good afternoon, [name of store]” was the main one. Our boss used to answer the phone with “good afternoon” no matter what time it was. 10 am: “good afternoon”. 8 pm: “good afternoon”. I used to tease him about that.
Later on when we got more locations, we changed the phone greeting to, “Good afternoon, [name of store], [address of store].” This was done for customers who were too confused to figure out which location they had just dialed. Although that didn’t stop one guy, who went on an extended cuss-infested tirade because I didn’t have his special order…even though he called the wrong store! You can’t fix stupid. (This story was recounted back in Part 104: A Nightmare on Cocknuckles Street.)
At Christmas we’d do other variations of the greeting. I personally enjoyed “Merry Christmas, [name of store]” because I for one don’t like “Happy Holidays”. The name of the date on the calendar is Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not, you still get a stat holiday like everyone else. Happy Holidays my arse.
Tom came up with a few interesting greetings. “Happy Ho Ho, [name of store]” was a good one. Another time he answered “[Name of store], Santa’s little rock shop.” He tried to have fun with it.
Still, the worst answering of the phone that ever happened was on my watch. It was a busy night, and some kid asked to use the phone for a moment. We usually obliged such requests, instructing the person to be quick. Well I turned my back for a moment on this kid, and next thing I knew he had walked halfway across the store with the phone and was having a whole conversation. I made my way out to retrieve the phone, but it was too late. The kid had a “call waiting” and answered the store phone for us.
“Hello? Uhhh, hold on.” Then he finally acknowledged me. “It’s for you.”
Idiot!
Today’s search term of the day:
davefm craig fee sucks
Come on! Cut Craig some slack! He rains enough Bieber-hate on the airwaves to make up for any time he hangs up on somebody.
DEEP PURPLE: Perks and Tit (2003 Purple Records/Sonic Zoom)
Re-released in 2007 as Live in San Diego 1974
Lineup: Deep Purple Mk III – Ritchie Blackmore – David Coverdale – Glenn Hughes – Jon Lord – Ian Paice
I love bootlegs. If you don’t, you won’t like Perks and Tit. Recorded in San Diego, April 9, 1974, Deep Purple are loose. Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar is imperfectly awesome. I love every moan and squeal he wrings from that neck. And only on a bootleg will you hear Glenn Hughes say something like, “This one’s not being taped, so we can say and do what we wanna do!”
The bootleggers were taping that night, preserving this remarkable night of Deep Purple prowess. A record was released in 1975, and over the years took on different forms and configurations. Sonic Zoom then released a definitive version of the show on CD, with hard to find onstage banter.
The great news is that Sonic Zoom were able to trump previous CD bootlegs, sourced from vinyl, and go straight to a soundboard master tape. Apparently Glenn was wrong! The sound is loud but only occasionally fuzzy. The vocals are clear, as is Blackmore’s guitar. You can make out Glenn’s bass a little bit, but on the whole this is a very listenable and enjoyable CD release.
Highlights for me included the rarely played “Lay Down, Stay Down”. I don’t know what Ritchie did to his guitar there in the solo section, but he went from volcanic eruption noises to velvety smooth picking in like 10 seconds. The man is unreal! He and the whole band groove the shit out of “Might Just Take Your Life”, too. Not to mention his brilliant solo intro to the extended blues, “Mistreated”. Burn was a brand new album, as Glenn keeps reminding the crowd, and the first four songs are all from Burn! But when they get to “Smoke”, Ritchie plays with the riff in unfamiliar but really catchy and appropriate ways.
The six-track collection is unfortunately only the first half the night’s set. The second half, if it was ever recorded at all, could not be found. So the CD ends on an odd note, a Jon Lord organ solo. On the other hand, with Jon now gone forever, it’s kind of apropos, no?
4/5 stars
Happy birthday David. You were a fan, this is for you.
BUDDY HOLLY – 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Buddy Holly (1999 MCA)
Normally I rank all of these 20th Century Masters CDs as 2 stars across the board. That’s mainly because I am a believer in buying the albums, not the greatest hits. With an artist like Buddy Holly, it’s much less about albums and more about his singles. For Buddy I prefer compilations. 20th Century Masters are budget priced, limited to 10-12 songs, and brief running times. In this case I think it’s worth spending money on.
This one is pretty near-perfect for a quick starter set. Every song is amazing, not a weak one in the bunch. From “Not Fade Away” to “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore”, and of course the classic “Everyday”, this is a CD to listen to start-to-finish with nothing to skip. “Words of Love” is still a masterpiece, using the then-new technique of double tracking the lead vocal. It still sounds full, deep and perfect.
Meanwhile, “Oh, Boy!” is full of joie de vivre, Buddy leading the charge gleefully. “Rave On” is very much in the same mold, completely memorable and toe-tapping. “Think It Over”, by Buddy and the Crickets is an old fashioned rock and roll song with a nice big grand piano, completely fun. The CD closes with “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore”, a Paul Anka song featuring Buddy backed by orchestra and acoustic guitar. It’s just one of the greatest songs ever written, period.
There are better and more complete compilations out there, but not at the price that this series sells for. Buy this first, check out some Buddy Holly, and once you’ve digested these songs, move onto the bigger picture. I think new music is more easily digested in small packages and this is the best way to go if you are new to Buddy Holly.
5/5 stars all the way, I still listen to this all the time.
This arrived in the mail today. Haven’t even taken off the shrink wrap yet! Thanks @mitchlafon!
A World With Heroes – A KISS Tribute for Cancer Care – A 40th Anniversary Celebration. That’s a buttload of songs, people! (I love that Ron Young of Little Caesar SINGS “Little Caesar”.)
RECORD STORE TALES Part 227: Purp Ate My Balls
10 years ago my online handle was “Purpendicular.” (Gee, where did I get that name from?) “Purp” made a good short-form nickname. For whatever reason…and believe me I wish I could remember…Sarge decided to make and give out 40 or 50 “Purp Ate My Balls” shirts! He gave them to all his shop employees (Metal Fatigue in Bournemouth) and I’m pretty sure all the Klopeks ended up with them too.
I wish I had the photo gallery, but Sarge used to have pictures of all those people wearing my face on their shirts and doing the “Purp” face. It was a mini-phenomenon at the time, but all I have left is Sarge.
For obvious reasons, I was not allowed to wear this shirt to work. I do still have mine though, packed away in storage. I wonder how many more are still out there? I often wonder if people in Bournemouth, Brighton, Niagara Falls and beyond still wear their “Purp”?
HEAVEN & HELL – Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell – Live in Europe (2010 Armoury)
Even though there was a double live CD (Radio City Music Hall) shortly before this, I don’t think anybody was complaining. Obviously, with Dio now gone, this is his final live album. There was also a studio album in between these two live albums (The Devil You Know) and there are three songs from it here. The fact that none of these albums are released under the name “Black Sabbath” means nothing, to me this is Black Sabbath by any other name. Please excuse me if you find me using the names Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell interchangeably.
Obviously Ronnie was not a young man when he died, and the human voice changes naturally with age. This is not the same sound as the guy who recorded Mob Rules or Heaven and Hell. The older Ronnie had a deeper voice, the range reduced noticeably. However, it is still Ronnie James Dio, one of the most powerful charismatic metal singers of all time. It might be an older, wiser Ronnie, but he knows how to work around his voice’s limitations to still deliver stirring versions of these songs. He made stylistic changes to compensate.
The band itself is cooking. Tony’s riffing and soloing sounds straight out of 1980. Vinnie’s drumming is more fill-laden than it was on The Devil You Know which was very sparse. I’m happy about this. Geezer is playing those rolling, rollicking bass lines that only he can compose. This helps define that “Black Sabbath sound”. Geezer played on 3/4 of Black Sabbath’s studio albums, and his bass sound is part of that identity. Most importantly, Heaven & Hell were having fun, showing the world why these guys together were as Black as any Sabbath. This is the way it should have gone with the Dehumanizer tour. That reunion should have lasted a long time, should have produced tours like this one, and should have produced a live album. I guess there were still egos and wound and the band weren’t ready to stick it out back then. This then is our last chance to appreciate the Iommi/Butler/Appice/Dio gestalt of Black Sabbath. They should have but didn’t get all the glory back in ’92, the last time they tread the floorboards of hockey barns nationwide.
The track listing is just fine and dandy if brief. I would have preferred a double CD like Live Evil or Radio City Music Hall. Highlights for this listener included the three new songs, especially “Bible Black” and “Fear”. I also loved the new version of “Heaven and Hell,” which has some new tricks during the extended middle. I guess the guys were being creative right up til their last.
Because the keyboards are handled by Scott Warren (Dio) and not Geoff Nicholls (Sabbath 1980-1995), there is a slightly different sound to the backing keyboard parts. He uses different voices than Nicholls did. Not a huge deal but an observation worth mentioning. Speaking of voices, I don’t like the way that Sabbath have been using tapes/samples on the backing vocals. This is especially noticeable on “I,” where you can hear several distinct Ronnie’s singing backup vocals while the “live” Ronnie sings lead. I guess Sabbath lacks a good solid backup singer, and Ronnie couldn’t hit the same notes anymore, but I feel cheated. I am firmly in the category of people who like their live music to sound live.
4/5 stars. Still a crucial part of the Sabbath live canon and necessary to all fans as Ronnie’s last stand.
I had to treat you guys right on a Monday. This edition needs no commentary. These are all real search terms from real people who ended up (somehow) at my site. Enjoy (I guess). If you missed the last one, Mythbusters edition, click here!
WTF Search Terms VIII: Fetish edition
mikeladano.com 