Ah, Valentine’s Day, how we have missed thee so …

Actually, I’m not completely sure that is true for everybody.  A recent Facebook status update from a friend of mine noted the upcoming Hallmark holiday and invited all participating parties (on the male side) to speed up the process by taking $100 and flushing it down the toilet. Call it done. I guess he’s not a fan.

In a strange twist, I just received an email from Megabus, inviting me to “have a memorable Valentine’s Day.” For any of you that have traveled on Megabus (which I love, by the way), there’s an unintended punchline when you think about some of the “memorable” people that you typically meet on a bus trip.

Anyway, I recently learned that Pete Oberg, our friend at Wolfgang’s Vault, currently is being held hostage by a renegade pack of nurses at an as yet undisclosed location here in the Midwest.  I can’t think of a finer way to spend Valentine’s Day.

Before Pete was whisked away by those naughty nurses, he gave me a link to an extremely romantic playlist that they’ve assembled at Wolfgang’s Vault in honor of Valentine’s Day.

My eyes glistened with tears as I gazed upon the list of classic rock chestnuts from Eddie Money, .38 Special, Ted Nugent, The Band and countless others.

“You did this for me, Pete?”

“No, actually we did this for anybody who wants to listen, in an effort to shamelessly encourage people to visit Wolfgang’s Vault, driving up the page views and thus, satisfying the corporate demon overlords, if just for one day.”

“Oh.  That makes a good amount of sense, actually.”

“Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You’ll see.”

And with that, Oberg and I parted ways and I had no way of knowing that it would be a while before I would see him again. I chuckled as I looked at the playlist and saw a track from Atlanta Rhythm Section!

I’m “So Into You,” Wolfgang’s Vault.

I’m really not sure how they do it, but looking at this list, I can’t imagine how any couple could avoid having the best Valentine’s Day they’ve ever shared together by listening to this.  I mean, just look at Peter Frampton sharing his still new at the time song “Baby, I Love Your Way.”  Imagine holding hands during the nearly 12 minute version of “I Just Want To Make Love To You” by Foghat.  And guys, let me just tell you, you know she’s going to melt when DeYoung starts crooning “Lady.”  I posted about this on Twitter, and the reaction from passionate Styx fanatics was immediate.

But then something happened – the intro and guitar riffing certainly sounded like Ted Nugent, but when “Tied Up In Love” kicked in, I suddenly had the feeling that something had gone wrong.  Are those goddamn keyboards I hear on a Ted Nugent record?  And is that Aldo Nova standing on the side of the stage waiting to kick Ted’s ass for ripping off every single note of “Fantasy?”

Ted was touring in support of the Penetrator album and looking at things, we can certainly say that the album cover was awesome.

What are the comments saying about this one?

Dadski:  Ted is a rock and roll god – saw him last year and he kicked ass big style Name a better guitarist

Dad,

Thanks for the note. Would that be “Big Willie Style?”

Also, see Eddie Van Halen.

haifal:  I SAW TED NUGENT, AND SKID ROW OPEN FOR KISS AT THE MYRIAD IN OKC BACK IN 2001, THE NAME OF THE VENUE IS NOW THE FORD CENTER. WHAT A SPECTACTULAR CONCERT!!!

Stop yelling.

wickedasitseems:  I saw this tour in RI. with Brian Howe on vocals. Great singer, but he kept having to leave the stage with nothing to do as Ted did his thing.

But did it feel like he was walking on holy water?

“Charles” seems to have the definitive judgment regarding this Ted recording:

Yeah it’s Ted with keys but it is STILL 100% Nuge’! I think Ted’s shredding on this show is the best out of the concerts here at the Vault. Even watered down Ted kicks the ass out of 99.9% of the other bands out there! It’s Nugent, you can’t go wrong!

Yeah, man. You can’t go wrong, unless Terrible Ted shoots you in the ass with a bow and arrow.

Speaking of that, has anybody seen Aldo Nova?  Maybe Ted shot him!  “Hey Nova, I got your fantasy right here!”

All joking aside, there’s some awesome listening to be found within this Valentine’s Day playlist from the Vault dudes.  Click here and check it all out for yourself.

Smooches.

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She’s become sort of a rock artist emeritus for the chablis-sipping set, but once upon a time, Bonnie Raitt’s music was raw and direct: her first three albums featured guest appearances by Junior Wells, Paul Butterfield, members of Little Feat, and a number of other blues/roots rock stars, and as a performer, she seemed to encapsulate the best of both worlds — a dazzling talent on the slide guitar, with bourbon-edged vocal howl of a more refined Janis. Even setting aside the fact that she was a woman in a predominantly male field, she presented an exciting blend of uncommon gifts.

Things went off the rails for her pretty badly during the late ’70s and early ’80s, but you won’t hear a hint of her future troubles (or her later rebirth as a Bryan Adams-dueting adult contemporary act) in this marvelously rough 1973 set, which finds Raitt beginning her promotional tour for the Takin’ My Time album in front of a raucous crowd at the Music Inn in Lenox, MA. You can tell Bonnie and the band are just finding their feet with the new material, but it doesn’t matter; they’re having such a great time, and so is the audience, that things like notes and chords are secondary.

The fidelity is pretty dodgy, but given the show’s vintage, it’s about what you’d expect — it sounds like you’re listening to it on an AM radio, and when Raitt audibly strains for (and misses) the high notes, it only adds to the charm. Odd as it may sound, this is the kind of stuff I look for from an artist of Raitt’s caliber. I want to feel it. If I want to hear her being technically perfect, I can always just listen to Longing in Their Hearts.

And just for the record, I’m totally not going to listen to Longing in Their Hearts.

Listen to the rest of this set — or drop an unbelievably affordable four bucks to own it all on mp3 (a whopping $6 for FLAC files) — at Wolfgang’s Vault.

Related articles

• What Bonnie Raitt Knew About Social Media Marketing (outspokenmedia.com)
• Ticket Stub: Ry Cooder in Sausalito, July ’74 (popdose.com)

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I love Ry Cooder’s music in almost all of its many guises, as you may already know, so I was thrilled to find this terrific in-studio set lurking in Wolfgang’s Vault. Recorded on Cooder’s promotional tour for Paradise & Lunch, it finds him wending his way through an hourlong set before a small-but-appreciative audience, joined by Jim Dickinson on bass and Jim Keltner on drums.

This was relatively early in Cooder’s solo career, so the track listing isn’t as wide-ranging as some listeners might like — but on the other hand, it catches him in the thick of his classic roots rock period, spinning stinging shots of slide guitar on top of relaxed, irresistibly bluesy numbers like “Tamp ‘Em Up Solid” and “Alimony.” The between-song patter is minimal, which is as it should be; the focus stays on the music, where it belongs.

At $9.98 for mp3s (or $12.98 for FLACs), this show is a steal — one of the few live recordings with real appeal for non-completists. Listen to the below sample, and then go grab the whole set here.

Related articles

• New Old Music: Ry Cooder [2011 To-Dos] (ickmusic.com)
• Ry Cooder – Talking Country Blues and Gospel (pdalbury.wordpress.com)
• Ticket Stub: Sonny Rollins in New York, May ’76 (popdose.com)

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This show, recorded at New Paltz, NY on May 9, 1976, finds Rollins laying it down on top of a five-song set that runs from the sprawling (“Strode Road” clocks in at 11 minutes and change) to the economical (opening track “The Cutting Edge” is done in 5:32, which is the blink of an eye in jazz time). The mid-’70s were an interesting time for Rollins — after making a name for himself as one of the sharpest improvisational players in hard bop, he started dabbling in fusion here, predictably offending purists along the way.

A substantial portion of the jazz from this era hasn’t aged terribly well, and this isn’t the stuff most people think of when you say “Sonny Rollins” — but he did some interesting things during this period, and you can hear him moving in new directions here, feeling out the boundaries of his new sound with his band (particularly guitarist Aurell Ray). Check out this sample from the show, and then go download it from our pals at Wolfgang’s Vault — it’s the Deal of the Day today, which means you can have the whole thing for a measly four bucks. What are you waiting for?

Related articles

• Sonny Rollins -][- The Definitive Sonny Rollins on Prestige, Riverside and Contemporary (theurbanflux.wordpress.com)
• Shining on: interview with Sonny Rollins (telegraph.co.uk)
• 10 Best Jazz Albums Of The 50′s (mademan.com)
• Ticket Stub: The Neville Brothers in San Francisco, February ’89 (popdose.com)
• Ticket Stub: Dr. John in New York, November 1978 (popdose.com)

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With the exception of the Salt Lake City part, all of the previous is one big Southern fib, but it made for a good intro and it also got me thinking.  If you were a band named Alabama, why wouldn’t you just tour the entire state playing every nook and cranny hole in the wall bar that you could possibly find?  Think about all of the cash that you could make as a band with that plan! And that’s the thing, Alabama definitely took that thought to heart and expanded on it to become one of the most successful bands in the country music genre, playing more than 300 shows per year.  It’s the kind of schedule that you would forgive them if they had trouble remembering their own zip code while filling out paperwork.

My discovery of Alabama’s music came about as a result of a bit of deductive reasoning.  I was in a Sears department store in the early ’80s, a typical kid stuck with his parents while they did their shopping, but sometimes if I got lucky, the store we were in would have a music section.  And this was the case with Sears, where I bought two cassettes on that day, Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Mountain Music by Alabama.  Both albums were purchased on the basis of their title, and with Mountain Music, it was a very specific pickup.  My parents owned a vacation place near Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a small village of 500 people (give or take a few that might have just been visiting) located 9,000 feet up on the tip of the Rocky Mountains, about 2 hours outside of El Paso.  I figured that Mountain Music would be good music to listen to in the family car while driving through the mountains and if that meant that I could listen to something on the car stereo besides classical music, I was willing to give it a try.

And it was a good gamble – my parents loved the title track and my dad, always one to carry a joke just a little bit past its due date (and he still does), enjoyed making fun of lead singer Randy Owen’s pronunciation of woman, er, “woh-man” in the lyrics of the otherwise tender ballad “Close Enough To Perfect.”  There was enough rock in Alabama’s sound on songs like “Take Me Down” to satisfy the young hungry rocker inside of me while overall, the band’s sound made me curious to learn more about this thing called “country music.”  Alabama were different than most country artists in my eyes because they covered subject matter in a way that made you think.  From subjects like the working man (“Forty Hour Week”), to acid rain (“Pass It On Down”), there was something about the Alabama sound that was a little bit different than the traditional songs about runaway dogs and broken down pickup trucks.

A few years ago, the band put out a retrospective box set that featured many of the hits, but it also featured a good number of previously unreleased live recordings. One of the highlights of the set is an acoustic set that features the members of Alabama running through a selection of their favorite cover songs that had been part of their repertoire in the early days of the group. Starting with the Gene Autry number “That Silver Headed Daddy of Mine” and winding down with “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home” by Joe South, the medley made a really good case for a full concert release of material from that era.  Apparently, the concert gods at Wolfgang’s Vault must have been listening, because as I was digging through the Vault, I found a full Alabama performance from 1982, recorded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (one of two sold out nights) on the Mountain Music tour. Score!

As someone who never got around to seeing Alabama live, it’s a real treat to have the opportunity to listen to nearly two hours of classic live stuff from the group. I know that you’ll enjoy it too.

Listen to the full show at Wolfgang’s Vault by clicking on this link.

Addendum:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Cloudcroft in the past day since I heard the news of a terrible fire in the village that destroyed two buildings in the historic business district, wiping out a string of small businesses that were left high and dry in the wake of the tragic fire. Thanks to the good work of local firefighters, there were no injuries and they were able to keep the fire from destroying additional properties.  Still, the hard reality is that in a small village where many of the citizens depend on every dollar, there are now quite a few of those people and the small business owners affected by the events of Monday that are now wondering where that next dollar is going to come from. A relief fund has been established by the city and you can find details on how to contribute via this link.

I have more than 30 years of special memories thanks to the time that I’ve spent in Cloudcroft.  Some of them hurt at the time, like the moment when I nearly sliced off one of my fingers with a pocket knife while waiting for breakfast at the Western Cafe. How lucky was I that there was a nurse sitting at the next table over? Recently, I’ve reconnected on Facebook with my childhood friend Andy, a fellow former Cloudcroft resident.  When we were kids, I would go over to his house to spend the night and I’d end up being there for a week until my parents finally would force me to come home to sleep in my own bed. During those times, we’d watch movies with his dad (who was one of the first people I knew with a VCR and a large collection of store bought movies), listen to his brother’s comedy albums by Steve Martin and on an unrelated note, his brother would chase us with a low powered pellet gun. I can still feel the sting of the pellets.

The Cloudcroft community is a strong one and they’ve weathered many storms prior to these latest events.  This too shall pass, as they say, but it doesn’t make it any easier to watch from afar.  To my beloved village and the people that live there, please know that I’ll be pulling for you as you deal with this current situation and I’ll look forward to seeing you all soon “around town.”

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For 1989′s Yellow Moon, the Neville Brothers hooked up with Daniel Lanois, who produced and played on the record, bringing along his protege Malcolm Burn and drafting special guests you might expect (the Dirty Dozen Brass Band) or might not (Brian Eno). The result was the Nevilles’ best-selling (and best-reviewed) set in years — and not only did it reinvigorate their career, but it helped add a little extra fire to their live show. (Not that it was necessarily lacking for heat, you understand, but still.)

Recorded on February 27, 1989, this San Francisco show captures almost two hours of the Nevilles in their re-ascendant prime, running through old favorites, New Orleans standards (“Big Chief”), nifty covers (“Johnny B. Goode”), and cuts from the new album. I wish someone had cut the cord on the chintzy synth that keeps bubbling up in the mix, but that’s just the sound of the era. And this version of “My Blood” is marvelous:

The Linda Ronstadt-abetting Neville, Aaron, has a new record out this week, and despite a near-lifelong disdain for the fluttery-voiced balladeer, I love it. Check out my review here, and listen to the full-length version of this week’s Ticket Stub show courtesy of our friends at Wolfgang’s Vault. See you back here next time!

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He brought some of this on himself — you can’t cultivate a public persona that flamboyant without becoming the butt of a few jokes, after all — but for the most part, aside from a brief string of minor hits in the ’70s, Dr. John has never recorded commercially fashionable music, and a lot of his most important work has been behind the scenes. It’s a shame, and we’re going to do our part to remedy it today.

I’ve been on a big Professor Longhair kick lately, and because Wolfgang’s Vault doesn’t have any Longhair shows for some damn reason, I went hunting for the next best thing: this hourlong 1978 set from one of his most accomplished disciples. After being informed that “the Doctor will see you now,” the audience at the Bottom Line was treated to this tasty version of “Swanee River Boogie”:

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It’s been kind of a traumatic week since returning from my weekend visit to Chicago. While I was there, Popdose colleague Robert Cass shared some disturbing news with me: according to Cass, the ’80s are coming to an end. As you can imagine, I was quite shocked to hear this.  I mean, I’ve heard rumblings of something called “the ’90s” (boy, I bet the music is going to suuuuuuck in that decade), and even talk of “20-10″ something or other, but to hear Cass say something like that so bluntly and without warning — well, I was caught a bit off guard.

The weekend’s events took me back to this one time when I was growing up, a time in which Cass and I were still friends, long before the battles that would come later.

One particular day, I asked him if he had any Billy Squier in his CD collection. CDs are of course kind of new here in the ’80s, but since Cass and I are both innovative trendsetters, we were among the first on our block to get home units from Sony. Test units. (Huh-huh — “unit.”)

Anyway, it turns out that Cass isn’t far enough long in his evolution to know about Billy Squier. And damn, how can you miss him? We just got MTV in our household, and Billy’s been all over the music television, in living color. (Foreshadowing tells us that the “color” will come back to bite Billy in his spandex-wearing ass later in the ’80s, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)

“Cass, how the hell did you miss hearing a stone-cold smash like ‘The Stroke’?” I wondered out loud.

“Dude, I don’t know. I’ve been busy playing Combat, and my girlfriend’s all mad because somebody stole her Cabbage Patch Kid.”

“Cabbage Patch Kids? Dude, that stuff is so 1978.”

“Listen here, Wardlaw — if you’re making fun of my girlfriend, I’m going to kick your ass.”

“What are you talking about? You’re nine years old and barely three feet tall. You’re not going to kick anyone’s ass!”

Realizing that things were getting a little heated, we calmed down, and I called Cass over to the computer (a Radio Shack Color Computer, for those who are interested) to check out an early prototype version of Wolfgang’s Vault via something called the “Internet” that I stole from that stupid redneck Matthew Boles. They’re telling me the Internet is going to be huge someday, which means Boles will figure out how to use it about 25 years after it’s no longer cool.

“What is Wolfgang’s Vault?” Cass asked. “It sounds like something that if I touch it, mom is going to ground me.”

“Oh no, that’s something else that she’s going to ground you for. Don’t worry about it.  Besides, aren’t you grounded anyway?”

“Yeah.”

“See, and you’re still playing with your very best friend. You’ll be fine. Now, let me educate you about Billy Squier. Just a couple of years ago he had an album called Don’t Say No.”

“No.”

“‘No’ what?”

“You said, ‘Don’t say no.’”

“That’s the name of the album, you idget!”

*glaring at Cass*

“Anyway, on that album was a kick-ass song called ‘In the Dark’ and three other equally kick-ass rock jams.”

“Can we listen to it?”

“Sure, just click the player that’s above your head, dumbass!”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool. Whatever happened to Billy Squier, anyway?”

“What? Oh, you must be referring to karma’s visit to Billy, which happens later in this decade.”

“Karma?”

“Yes, karma. We’ll learn much later that Billy Squier was apparently a real douchebag to Jon Bon Jovi when Bon Jovi was trying to become a superstar.”

“That’s funny. With a stupid name like Bon Jovi, that dude will never amount to anything. That would be like me trying to become a rock star using the name Richie Sambora.”

“Perhaps you’re right.”

*door opens and Mama Cass enters unexpectedly*

“Robert! What on earth are you doing?”

“Mom, I’m playing with Wolfgang’s Vault.”

“That’s it! YOU’RE GROUNDED!”

Listen to this entire show at Wolfgang’s Vault by clicking here. Actual events depicted above may differ slightly in real life.

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Which made me think of those Canadian dudes that like to work at nothing all day, Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Now, if you’ve heard “Takin’ Care of Business,” and any live performance by BTO, you might agree with me that the lyrics totally deliver truth in advertising.  Is it just me, or did rehearsals for live performance get left by the side of the highway as a result of their adopted profession of being self-employed, working at nothing all day?

I’m sure that smart aleck do-gooder Matthew Boles will be by here soon enough, to tell us all about that awesome BTO show that he saw, back in the day when his homeland still had power.  For the rest of you, did you ever get to see a really awesome live show from BTO that didn’t involve being heavily under the influence of scooby snacks to provide maximum enjoyment of the experience?

Just curious.  One music fan’s comment on the Wolfgang’s Vault site recalls the BTO show that he saw with new band Styx as the opening act as one of the best concerts that he ever went to.

They did make at least one awesome video.  Let’s roll the video tape, and check that one out, right now:

I’d love to believe that these dudes had a great live show, because I’ve certainly enjoyed many tunes from their catalog through the years, and that moment when I discovered “Takin’ Care of Business” was one of the top 10 most awesome days ever on my planet.  Because the discovery of that one, led me to pick up a copy of BTO’s Greatest, which is one of the greatest, greatest hits compilations ever to be released upon the unsuspecting public.  (And apparently, Young MC was a fan, too.)

But the live performance.  Oof.  Take a listen to “Earache My Eye” “Welcome Home,” captured during the band’s 1974 Chicago performance, and tell me that it sounds polished.  Okay, I guess you’re right – “polished” isn’t quite the word, is it?

Still, I love me some Randy Bachman, whether it’s with the Guess Who, or BTO – the man wrote some catchy little ditties. (And he’s got new music with former BTO partner Fred Turner, billed for legal reasons as Bachman and Turner, no “Overdrive.”)

Too bad they didn’t have Auto-Tune in the ’70s.

Listen to this entire show at Concert Vault by clicking here.

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There will never be another band or artist like Ronnie James Dio.  Recent entries like 3 Inches of Blood and Dragonforce might cover similar subject matter, but the concert dudes at Wolfgang’s Vault note wisely that if any band today were to attempt a show in the vein of what Dio did back in the day, they’d probably be laughed off of the stage.  These are different times, and often, it’s simply cost-prohibitive to mount a tour featuring dragons and a giant castle built to scale.  It’s hard to come across good knights that are skilled in sword fighting in the midst of hazy smoke and lasers, and with security concerns always on the rise, you can forget about getting those swords and suits of armor through customs at the border patrol.  And it’s a real bitch, getting the lawyers to sign off on dragons – something about security concerns, and a shortage of flame retardant Devo suits for the stage crew.

Now, keeping all of the above in mind, I will say that the stage setup for the Heaven & Hell (*cough* Black Sabbath *cough*) tour in 2007 was pretty bad ass.  For anyone that caught that tour, they definitely put a big chunk of the box office receipts right back into making the theatrics of the show as cool as they could possibly be.  With the exception of Iron Maiden and a few other fellow old school bands, you just don’t see enough tours like that these days.

This week’s edition of Ticket Stub remembers the days when exorbitantly over the top stage shows were the norm, and the Dio show came fully loaded with both castle and dragon, and in fact, the rumor is that the dragon might still be lurking in Philly where this particular show was recorded.  While we’d love to confirm rumors that the dragon has been contracted to help with the pending demolition of the Spectrum, we will hold off on creating any unnecessary controversy…until we have pictures of the dragon, that is.  Instead, we invite you to direct your attention to this fine Dio concert, recorded during the early days of touring in support of the band’s second album The Last in Line, which had just been released one month prior.  The album would eventually go platinum, and it had one of the most bad ass album covers released in the ’80s.  (Paging Jefito, we need an Uncovered piece on this album cover, STAT.)  Shawn Colvin wishes that she could have had an album cover this cool.

The Last in Line was one of the final albums to be recorded at James William Guercio’s Caribou Ranch in Colorado.  You know – the same studio where Chicago and Elton John recorded a bunch of albums?  Yeah, that’s the one.  Check out this short timeline of events:  Dio records The Last in Line at Caribou in 1984, and then the studio is destroyed by fire less than a year later in March of 1985.  Coincidence?

If you’re looking for a good show to spin in Ronnie’s memory, this Spectrum show will not disappoint your auditory cravings, and in fact, the 22 minute mashup of “Heaven & Hell” with “The Last in Line”  that I mentioned in my previous Dio thoughts earlier this week, ranks way up there as one of Dio’s finest recorded moments.  (Regrettably, I don’t think that I can embed the whole thing here, since it’s broken up into several tracks, so you’ll have to click through to the link to hear it in sequence.  Which is fine, since you need to listen to the whole damn show anyway!)  The Dio band is in fine form with former Rough Cutt keyboard player Claude Schnell joining the already established Dio lineup featuring bassist Jimmy Bain, drummer Vinny Appice, and Vivian Campbell (who would stick around the Dio camp for one more album, departing after Sacred Heart).

With the exception of potentially the Tracy G. era, the musicianship in Dio’s band was always top notch, and I never saw a bad Dio show.  I’m really going to miss that short demonic little fella.

Listen to this entire show at Concert Vault by clicking here.

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