The College Crowd Digs Me

"The Buddy Holly Story" - Buddy Holly and the Crickets (1959) I knew I wanted to own a copy of this iconic album.  I really like the cover.  But I was never actively looking for it.   "The Buddy Holly Story"  is not a difficult album to come by, nor is it expensive.  I've stumbled on it out in the wild many times, but whenever our paths crossed, something else would always be tugging at my pockets.  However, last year, I found the album at a local swap meet for $10.00 with the seller taking half-off of everything he had brought.  As I said,  "The Buddy Holly Story" is an album that can usually be found on the cheap. Buddy Holly was only 22 when the plane he was on went down.  It was the winter of '59.  February 3rd.  The day the music died.   Coral Records put this Buddy Holly compilation out in record time. (No pun intended.)  It was on the shelves less than a month after the tragedy.  The album holds twe...

Fairy Tale   by Stephen King (2022) Hardbook, 599 pages NO SPOILERS: Fairy Tale is an homage of sorts to the fairy tales of old.  The tales that snuck horrific, disturbing acts of nastiness behind pictures of smiling faces.  But Fairy Tale is much more than this.  Stephen King delivers the goods in a piecemeal, meticulous fashion...taking his sweet, wonderful time setting up the details before embarking the reader on a familiar adventure of fantasmic proportions. And don't mistake meticulous and familiar for boring.  King brings to these pages what fairy tales of old seemed to always lack.  Well-developed characters.  We are given persons we can recognize.  And plenty of reasons to like, love, and empathize or dislike, hate, and despise.  And for reasons more than just being good or bad.  We have Charlie, a likable, talented high-schooler, and Mr Bowditch, the grouchy old man on the hill.  And his dog. (The dog exhibit...

"Merkurius" - Baby Grandmothers (2018 ) Baby Grandmothers was a Swedish band and one of the earlier purveyors of the psych juice.  In the early days, the band was asked to support Jimi Hendrix while he was on his Scandinavian tour.  Later, the band would morph into the second formation of the Mecki Mark Men , another Swedish legend.  In 2007, Subliminal Sounds issued Baby Grandmothers' first album which was made up of unreleased 1967-68 material along with their only single.  And the album is a must-own for any collector of psych. In 2018, the original members of Baby Grandmothers recorded a reunion album,  "Merkurius" and the square sounds almost equally as good.  Like they had never left the studio.  Just top-notch stuff.  The undercurrent of stoner psych still permeates throughout the spin with space-rock vibes and drone-like rushes to feed your head.  Each song is different, but nothing drifts away from the mind-tripping journey....

"It's an iconic line at this point.  People scream that to me still to this day." ~Courtney Gains ~ We've all seen the original  "Children Of The Corn."  (1984)  Many, like myself, watch it whenever it pops up on the TV.  The redheaded horror icon, Courtney Gains , is known to fans everywhere as Malachai ...one of the young leaders in charge of killing any adults who happen through their town.  Sure, it's a guilty pleasure, but what can you do except grab a box of Pepper Jack Cheez-itz, pull up a nice piece of chair, and give in to the quirky horror fun.  We'll soon be coming up on the 40th anniversary of "Children Of The Corn" and October is nearly in our pocket.  The perfect time to revisit the friendly kids from the cornfield. However, if you thought that Courtney Gains was merely a one-and-done actor, better think again.  Gains has been working in this medium for decades and has racked up nearly 150 film and television credits since ...

"MTV Unplugged In New York" - Nirvana (1994 - Rei 2013) I wasn't expecting to come home with this.  Let me be upfront by saying that I was never the biggest fan of Nirvana .  Don't get me wrong.  I like the band.  But I was never going to marry them, as a common retort might suggest I do.  And I'm not trying to sound cheeky, but Nirvana just didn't quite "do it" for me.  That's just me.  And whaddyagonnado? However, when I watched the band perform on the MTV Unplugged series, I was mesmerized.  Nirvana sounded both powerful and fragile at the very same time.  If that is even possible.  Whatever it was, it was special.  Magical.  In the back of my mind, I told myself if I ever stumbled on a vinyl copy for a decent price I would grab it.  And now I have a copy that captures a memory I've carried around for a long time.  Nirvana made three studio albums and this live unplugged statement of who they were.  I wasn...

"Pet Sounds" - The Beach Boys (1966)         I found this copy of "Pet Sounds"...The Beach Boys  11th studio album...at a record swap at the table of 'Garageman G.'  The front and back cover is VG with no seam splits, but the spine is more than a bit crumbly.  The back cover has initials on the bottom and what looks like drink spillage near the bottom.  Not badly, but I couldn't clean it up.  Before purchasing the album, the G-man was forthcoming and pointed out the rough spine.  And as I said, it was a bit rough, but I appreciated his honesty on the sale.  He didn't have to say a word, it's my responsibility to check, but he did anyway.  That's a good person right there.  And still, front and back, I thought the album looked very nice. As for the vinyl, I couldn't take my eyes off the shine.  When I finally had the chance to spin it, the square sounded so good.  For a record over 50 years old, it sounded a...

"Rob Jo Star Band" - Rob Jo Star Band (1975 - Rei 2013) The French band... Rob Jo Star Band were five guys who recorded an album in 1975.  It was a one-and-done affair with an album caught between what was to come and what had been.  The music rubs shoulders with glam and dips thumbs into some psychedelic pie.  The band also adds some spacey rock sounds similar to Hawkwind and tops it all off with an almost garagey protopunk attitude.  As I said, the guys are from France, but they sing in English.  And they're doing it, man. The self-titled album starts off okay and grows legs as it spins.  Side two is definitely the stronger.  The album was reissued by Born Bad Records and the sound quality is fantastic.  Well done on their part.  The one drawback with this album, for me, anyway, is there is a bit of a 'sameness' to a few of the tracks.  Still, the lysergic elements are fun.  And though many of the waters have been waded in befo...