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Rare Earth, Indeed!
03/19/08 | by Mr. Moderator
Townsman General Slocum has sent along the following thoughts for contemplation and discussion.
Today I was at one of my favorite places to pick up meat and potatoes music from the era of my youth, if not music I actually knew back then, the local CVS. It is staggering to me that some of the things I have found there made it through whatever wasteland of needless production and acquisition industrial mechanisms, to be passed by or to get the blinking, blank stare of the Emmaus polyesterati. I have found some great early '70 Rod Stewart (yes, relatively great - sit down and be nice), some country from the same era, and today's paydirt: Three Dog Night's Seven Separate Fools and Rare Earth's Ma. Fine records, both. But especially the Rare Earth.
For the cover alone in the incongruously bland setting of a CVS, I thank them. The 17-minute title track is the least engaging, but good background grooves. The rest of the album is a lot of fun. You have to dag on one of the only white bands on a Motown label (an imprint, possibly called Rare Earth, actually, so no fear of fat-ass bass here) putting out a record written and produced by Norman Whitfield, the black, funk, spirit of the record. At least it seems so.
Lately I have been finding a lot of this era and broad genre in such places. Uriah Heep, Mott, Cactus (!), all manner of forgotten records turning up in the sub-basement of America's most out-of-touch outlets for anything cultural. My question is, What have you found? Not in thrift stores, though feel free to share - I mean, the kind of find that just startles you to see it, and you maybe buy it just to reward the serendipity of the encounter. Gives you faith sometimes, in small doses.
13 comments
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
I bought Heart's Dog and Butterfly on CD at my local Walgreen's last year for the reasons General Slocum outlines.
03/19/08 @ 14:06
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
Here's another one that came to mind: now, I was in a record store, but a record store in Budapest. I was flipping through a small bin of albums, mostly Nick Cave and other "dark" stuff that Hungarian rock fans favored, when I came across a Best of The Delphonics album. I had to buy this TSOP album, even at inflated Eurpean prices. It was just the taste of home I needed that day. I still play the album a lot, still feeling like I'd satiated some hunger for my hometown even while I'm a mere 6 miles from it.
03/19/08 @ 16:30
Comment from: BigSteve [Member] 
I once spent a perfectly dreadful afternoon being dragged by a friend from store to store on Antique Row in Ponchatoula, a small town across the lake from New Orleans. It's kind of a fine line, but these were antique stores, not thrift stores. Either way, it's my version of an afternoon in hell.
For some reason, one of these stores had a small box of still shrinkwrapped CDs, which appeared like an oasis in the desert to me. Especially when I found copies of Phil Lesh's Seastones and Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos in there. There couldn't have been more than 50 CDs total in that box, and I found two things I'd always wanted copies of. I think they were $3 apiece. My friend looked at them and accused me of buying CDs just to buy CDs. And then he dragged me to some more stores to look at random collections of worthless but pricey junk.
For some reason, one of these stores had a small box of still shrinkwrapped CDs, which appeared like an oasis in the desert to me. Especially when I found copies of Phil Lesh's Seastones and Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos in there. There couldn't have been more than 50 CDs total in that box, and I found two things I'd always wanted copies of. I think they were $3 apiece. My friend looked at them and accused me of buying CDs just to buy CDs. And then he dragged me to some more stores to look at random collections of worthless but pricey junk.
03/19/08 @ 16:59
Comment from: mwall [Member]
Back in the fall, at a Border's Books that had absolutely nothing but a few of the most obvious CDs, I also found Mississipppi John Hurt's Complete Studio Recordings, 3 CDs for 23 bucks. Stunningly beautiful music. But how the hell did it get there?
03/19/08 @ 19:29
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
General Slocum, over the years we've had our share of interesting discussions about your lack of whole-hearted appreciation for Motown. What's your feeling on Norman Whitfield's better-known Motown productions for The Temptations, stuff like "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and "Ball of Confusion"? Do I see a possible backdoor for your further appreciation of this label's productions, or are you limited to digging the rock-influenced stuff from this period?
03/19/08 @ 21:30
Comment from: general slocum [Member]
Mod wonders:
Do I see a possible backdoor for your further appreciation of this label's productions...?
I think:
To the extent that Motown represents almost entirely that one sound (as far as their best-known releases go,) I can't get in the door. But when they branch out, I'm fine with it. Some of it is singing/songwriting style, the overwhelming thing, though, is production/arrangements. The Temps tunes you reference, are indeed some of the ones I can stomach. In fact, it took me years to get around to them, because I would see albums in a thrift store and see that label, and pass it by. (I already have a tambourine and a reverb unit at home, and if I use them right, I get a pulsing headache right at about 100 BPM - just like the Supremes give me!)Anyhow, it isn't the label, it's the sounds.
Do I see a possible backdoor for your further appreciation of this label's productions...?
I think:
To the extent that Motown represents almost entirely that one sound (as far as their best-known releases go,) I can't get in the door. But when they branch out, I'm fine with it. Some of it is singing/songwriting style, the overwhelming thing, though, is production/arrangements. The Temps tunes you reference, are indeed some of the ones I can stomach. In fact, it took me years to get around to them, because I would see albums in a thrift store and see that label, and pass it by. (I already have a tambourine and a reverb unit at home, and if I use them right, I get a pulsing headache right at about 100 BPM - just like the Supremes give me!)Anyhow, it isn't the label, it's the sounds.
03/19/08 @ 22:07
I recently picked up 'Psychedelic Soul' - the double CD of Temptations cuts from 1968-1974 which features IMHO the GOOD Motown. Good as in hard-driving funk from the Motown house band: (best known - James Jamerson, Bob Babbitt, William "Benny" Benjamin, Eddie "Bongo" Brown, Earl Van Dyke, Robert White, Richard "Pistol" Allen, Wah Wah Watson, and Johnny Griffith - I had to lift the list from Amazon cuz even being big fans of the sound I forget the names...)
'Psychedlic Soul' features a number of otherwise unheard full-length, extended jams that were cut down for release on both singles and LP's.
Also highly recommended - the Millenium collection CD from the Funk Brothers - especially the live Earl Van Dyke penned 'Stingray' - and the DVD documentary 'Standing in the shadows of Motown' which provides a real service by finally throwing the spotlight on 'the band that had more #1 hits than the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Elvis combined...'
Of course if you don't like the Motown groove, listening to 12:04 of 'Papa was a rolling stone' might be like going to the dentist to have your healthy teeth drilled...
'Psychedlic Soul' features a number of otherwise unheard full-length, extended jams that were cut down for release on both singles and LP's.
Also highly recommended - the Millenium collection CD from the Funk Brothers - especially the live Earl Van Dyke penned 'Stingray' - and the DVD documentary 'Standing in the shadows of Motown' which provides a real service by finally throwing the spotlight on 'the band that had more #1 hits than the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Elvis combined...'
Of course if you don't like the Motown groove, listening to 12:04 of 'Papa was a rolling stone' might be like going to the dentist to have your healthy teeth drilled...
03/20/08 @ 09:00
On the subject of Rare Earth, the live version of 'Get Ready' is probably more famous than the original.
Somewhere along the line I heard a smoking LIVE 'Born To Wander' that kicked the studio version right in the balls, twice. With cleats. No doubt it was recorded at the same time as the 'Get Ready' but I can't seem to locate the source - though maybe it's from lack of trying.
Anyone have a clue what I should be looking for?
Somewhere along the line I heard a smoking LIVE 'Born To Wander' that kicked the studio version right in the balls, twice. With cleats. No doubt it was recorded at the same time as the 'Get Ready' but I can't seem to locate the source - though maybe it's from lack of trying.
Anyone have a clue what I should be looking for?
03/20/08 @ 09:09
Comment from: petesecrutz [Member]
Recently I was visiting family in Southwest Illinois and rolled into a truck stop and while there, in addition to purchasing gas and a six pack (not consumed in the car mind you), I purchased a Joe South collection, The Youngbloods "Elephant Mountain", and Ten Years After "A Space In Time".
03/20/08 @ 13:42
Comment from: dbuskirk [Member]
I'd say the 12:04 version of 'Papa was a Rolling Stone' is one of the top ten recordings of the rock era. I bet Lee Perry Was all about this one-chord vamp.
03/20/08 @ 18:58
Comment from: the great 48 [Member]
Couple three years ago, I bought that collection of cheap knockoff covers of late '60s hits sung by Elton John at the Stop and Shop near my house, just cause.
03/20/08 @ 19:08
Comment from: hrrundivbakshi [Member]
"...that collection of cheap knockoff covers of late '60s hits sung by Elton John at the Stop and Shop near my house..."
WOW -- what was it like, recording Sir Elton in such humble surroundings? That album must be really interesting. Can you hear cash registers and lottery ticket machines humming away in the background?
WOW -- what was it like, recording Sir Elton in such humble surroundings? That album must be really interesting. Can you hear cash registers and lottery ticket machines humming away in the background?
03/20/08 @ 19:54
I dug the Ampex pressing of 'Runt' out of the cut-out bin in the basement of Gateley's Peoples' Store. Over by the donut machine...The one with the hot Miss Christine photo on the liner...BOSS!
Also found a copy of 'The Modern Dance' wandering lost and lonely thru my neighborhood. It had no memory of how it had got there from Cleveland, maybe hitching, so I took it home and made it a swell cuppa tea basking in the warm glow of Chinese Radiation...
My favorite buried treasure was finding "ELVIS!" - Elvis's second LP (1956) still in pretty good condition. I found it at the library donation sale for 25 cents. I brought it home and showed my wife - 'Hey hon looka THIS!'. She snatched it and quickly yanked it open like it was 'Thick as a Brick'! The jacket ripped in two and the vinyl flew out, smacked on the floor and rolled up under the kitchen table. I just stood there with my mouth twitching like Ricky Ricardo and gibbering Kim Fowley language...
Oh, and by the way who the hell is Mr. Acker Bilk?
Also found a copy of 'The Modern Dance' wandering lost and lonely thru my neighborhood. It had no memory of how it had got there from Cleveland, maybe hitching, so I took it home and made it a swell cuppa tea basking in the warm glow of Chinese Radiation...
My favorite buried treasure was finding "ELVIS!" - Elvis's second LP (1956) still in pretty good condition. I found it at the library donation sale for 25 cents. I brought it home and showed my wife - 'Hey hon looka THIS!'. She snatched it and quickly yanked it open like it was 'Thick as a Brick'! The jacket ripped in two and the vinyl flew out, smacked on the floor and rolled up under the kitchen table. I just stood there with my mouth twitching like Ricky Ricardo and gibbering Kim Fowley language...
Oh, and by the way who the hell is Mr. Acker Bilk?
03/21/08 @ 01:54
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