for those who never gave up on turntables and records
I MOVED FROM PENNSYLVANIA TO CALIFORNIA in 1978, ending up in Napa. It was a nice little city that more or less served as the northbound gateway to the wine country. I immediately made friends with the owner of the city’s only used-record store, who I will call Haitch. [Continue reading]
IN 1967, DONOVAN RELEASED “THERE IS A MOUNTAIN.” At the time, Donno was an established hitmaker: in the UK, he had had five previous Top 10 hits. In the US, he was coming off of a pair of huge hits: Sunshine Superman (#1 on both Billboard and Cash Box) and Mellow Yellow (#2 on Billboard and #3 on Cash Box). [Continue reading]
I WOULD BE REMISS in my love for the Hollies if I did not mention the exploits of their on-again/off-again lead singer, Harold Allan Clarke. In his second (?) sojourn from the group he helped found in Manchester, England, in 1962, he took a rather different approach stylistically to the material with which his fans had come to associate with him. [Continue reading]
RELEASED IN 1975, Springsteen’s third album for Columbia, BORN TO RUN, was a virtual apotheosis of all that the rock musicians of the previous generation had hoped to achieve with the form. But that was not how the first two years as a recording artist went down. [Continue reading]
THE SINGLE RELEASE of Blinded By The Light / The Angel (Columbia 4-48405) may not have been a big hit in 1973 with record-buyers, but it has been a big deal with record-collectors ever since! It is among the rarest and most sought-after of Bruce’s collectable records and record-related artifacts. [Continue reading]
UNLESS YOU’RE OLD ENOUGH to have been there THEN (the early months of 1973) but weren’t paying attention or you were not a Springsteen fan (and who was back then outside of a small circle of friends near Asbury Park?) [Continue reading]
HERE ARE THE LYRICS to Bruce Springsteen’s original recording of Blinded By The Light as best that I can decipher them. I used a couple of lyrics sites and then listened to the recording repeatedly (and yes it’s “deuce” not “douche”) each time comparing the words I had typed with the words that I was hearing. [Continue reading]
IT’S 6:36 IN THE MORNING and I had just dropped Berni off at work. I turned on the radio to the oldies station and lo and behold, there was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Blinded By The Light.’ Delighted I sat back and listened, then realized that I had never heard the record on the radio before! [Continue reading]
THIS BRIEF PIECE on the Duke of Earl was inspired by an equally brief article on my other site titled “earl earl earl, earl of grey.” That piece is not about a duke duke duke of anything, but about my enjoyment of Tazo’s Earl Grey tea, a beverage I have loathed for decades but—for some inexplicable change in my aging, testosterone-deprived taste buds—I currently crave the stuff! [Continue reading]