a blog for those who never gave up their turntables or records
EARLIER THIS YEAR, I posted my first Amazon review, this one of the Rolling Stones’ album THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST. It had the over-long and grammatically cumbersome title of “Clearly their answer to PET SOUNDS—or at least Good Vibrations—SGT. PEPPER is actually as disparate an artifact as REVOLVER.”
What the title was intended to mean is this: SGT. READ MORE
IN 1970, local rock star and entrepreneur Joe Nardone opened a teenage dance hall on the Public Square of downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Formerly the Stardust Ballroom, it was a second floor affair where couples had practiced ballroom dancing. It was just above the old Paramount Theater, then a first-run venue for new movies. Its transmogrification from old to new was perfect for the time. READ MORE
IN THE OPINION of many rock critics, the best all-around album by a white female pop singer recorded and released in the ’60s may be DUSTY IN MEMPHIS. But, for my taste, the lady with the best pipes and the best all-around taste in pop music in that decade was Petula Clark. And “pop” was the music she recorded throughout her career, which began as a child star in 1949! READ MORE
I INITIATED A NEW TOPIC on the Record Collectors Guild website in September 2004 titled “The Pseudo Psychedelic ’60s.” I had hoped for a lengthy and engagingly argumentative and informative thread that went on forever. Below is what I got instead: it was fun, but I did not really leave it with more knowledge that when I launched the conversation.
The topic was sparked by a question that I had received on an earlier thread regarding the use of the term ‘psychedelic’ to sell records in advertisements on the internet. READ MORE
THERE IS SOME CONFUSION regarding the use of certain terms for buying and selling records that is rampant on the Internet! It is also true at record stores, record collectors conventions, and through the mail using self-published sale lists, ads in magazines such as Goldmine—but not to the degree that ones encounters it on the ‘Net. Here I will address several terms that are often confused with one another and thereby misused. READ MORE
BY 1963, JACKIE DeSHANNON had released fifteen singles and she had just turned 22 years old! By the end of the decade, she would score a pair of Top 10 hits (What The World Needs Now Is Love and Put A Little Love In Your Heart) but would have problems getting any of her other fine sides played on AM radio none ever came close to the Top 10 again. READ MORE
I WAS 28-YEARS OLD and living in St. Helena, the heart and soul of California’s Napa Valley. I had a day job learning the care and maintenance of plants at Four Seasons Nursery, which I enjoyed, as plant people tend to be friendly people. I was hardly wealthy—hell, I was barely solvent most of the times—but I felt blessed: I had a job and I was in love with a beautiful woman who was in love with me. READ MORE
WHAT’S A “MARIJUANA OVERDOSE”? That rhetorical question was inspired by the headline “Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose” to an article in today’s HuffingtonPost (September 4, 2013). It states that US Attorney General Eric Holder wouldn’t intervene as Colorado and Washington implement plans for a system of legalized marijuana:
“In a joint letter written to Holder on Friday, law enforcement organizations warned that his move would lead to more crime, violence, and even death. READ MORE
BUYERS AND SELLERS of collectables, whether records or record related memorabilia or bloody Beanie Babies, often fail to achieve their goals of financial success because they do not understand a few basic concepts concerning the nature of a collectable—any collectable. Because this a record collectors website, I will refer to records in this essay, but you can substitute almost any other collectable and the comments remain virtually unchanged. READ MORE