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JOE SIMON - Nine Pound Steel / The Girl's Alright With Me - SoundStage7-2589 - 1967

I recently grabbed a small stack of Joe Simon 45's and they are all pretty impressive. He got into more of a funk sound later in the 70's, which isn't exactly my bag, but his earlier, more soulful songs are incredible.

Both sides of this record are great. One side's a slow mourner, the flip is a dance floor burner.

Enjoy.

Nine Pound Steel:


The Girl's Alright With Me:

THE VELVELETTES - He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' / Throw A Farewell Kiss - V.I.P.-25013 - 1965

This is another group I heard for the first time on the One Kiss Can Lead To Another box set. If you don't have it, make it a priority, it's essential.

It took me a while to find a clean, fairly-priced copy of this record. Worth the wait though. Both sides are nice.

He Was Really Sayin Somethin':


Throw A Farewell Kiss:

AARON NEVILLE - Tell It Like It Is / Why Worry - Parlo-101 - 1967

I had the great misfortune of renting Pirate Radio this week, primarily on the strength of it's soundtrack and it's trailer (better than the feature.) I have no delusions of being a film critic, but goddamn what a sack of shit. I have to assume they spent the bulk of their budget on Philip Seymour Hoffman and licensing for the songs (which were all pretty great) and couldn't afford to hire anyone to write a decent, or even coherent, screenplay. It sucked in a very serious way. As I mentioned, the soundtrack is excellent, but the official release left off some key tracks. Most notably absent is Aaron Neville's 'Tell It Like It Is.'

I grew up relating the man's name to warm 101.3 (Rochester's soft rock radio station) and commercials for cotton, which didn't inspire much confidence when I saw this single in a thrift store, but in the spirit of binge-buying and shit-collecting, I bought it.

I guess 'Tell It Like It Is' was quite a major hit in '67, but I wasn't around for that and was therefore unaware. I dropped the needle on 'Why Worry' first and pretty thoroughly neglected listening to the A-side for ages. These things happen when you buy too many records to digest at once. As it turns out, both sides are top notch.

On a side note; Am I the only one who thinks it's strange when there's commercials for naturally occurring things like cotton?


Tell It Like It Is


Why Worry

CLIFF NOBLES - Love Is All Right / The Horse - Phil-L.A. Of Soul-313 - 1968

I ended up with a useless copy of this record, warped and scratched to shit, and I was dumb enough (luckily) to risk my needles to see what's the deal. Totally worth it. So I searched for a cleaner copy, and here it is. This is flawless music.

The other side is the same song with the vocals stripped, which somehow became a big hit. Don't really get it.. sounds so bare without Cliff's vocals.


CLIFF NOBLES - Love Is All Right


CLIFF NOBLES - The Horse

JODY REYNOLDS - Fire Of Love / Daisy Mae - Demon-1509 - 1958

"I gaze at evil with softened vision and want to kiss it's filthy mouth."

This is the note I wrote to myself, and actually nailed into the dresser next to my bed, in my sleep at some point recently. I've been self-medicating for the past few days in an effort to dull the intolerable wisdom tooth pain in my face, drifting in and out of cat naps, and never actually sleeping like a human, so I can't pin-point exactly when this little note-to-self was written, but, unfortunately, I get it. What the fuck is wrong with me..?


Jody Reynolds - Fire Of Love:


Jody Reynolds - Daisy Mae:

FRANK SINATRA - Rain In My Heart / Star! - Reprise-0798 - 1969

Winter, so far, has been fucking brutal. I seem to recall last year's winter being much more tolerable, I'd almost go as far as to say it was a warm one.

I remember a particularly strange day from last winter, right about this time of year, when I woke up on Johnny's couch, all confused, and decided to call out of work and take the train down to Coney Island. I walked around, up and down the boardwalk with my coat in hand, the wind feeling suspiciously warm. I could write some real syrupy shit about how beautiful it was, but that's not exactly true. In theory, it could've been, but there was a lot of darkness for me to sort through. At one point I remember sitting on the sand, thinking to myself "there's something wrong with everything." Some woman with the brightest yellow coat I'd ever seen walked past me and asked if I was OK, said I looked worried. I told her I thought I was going blind, which made no sense at all. At another point I was sitting at the end of the pier and I had this retarded urge to just jump off the edge, or maybe punch myself in the face really really hard, or, if nothing else, just sit and weep like a small child. I'm glad I didn't follow through with any of those things though, I would've looked like a fucking idiot. Eventually my sense of loneliness scared the shit out of me and I went back home.

I think I can say that this year isn't feeling as dark as last, although I can't exactly say that it's full of light either. Maybe it's most accurate to say that it's being filled with a bunch of really confusing colors.

What connection does any of this have to Frank Sinatra? I dunno, maybe none, but there's something quite heavy about this song. At moments it makes me wanna empty my bank account, spend it all on a custom suit, and walk straight into the ocean.


Frank Sinatra - Rain In My Heart: