Sunday, April 29, 2018

My First Post on Groovin’ Grandfather


My First Post on Groovin’ Grandfather
I am criminally late in posting to the new blogs that I have staked out but left empty. It will be hard to type behind my back, in handcuffs, but here goes my first posting on Groovin’ Grandfather…(Note: that is not Groovy. That label will be up to others to apply. Or not).
A cousin whose musical tastes overlap mine to a large degree sent me a text that referred me to artists who I was unfamiliar with. A decades old meme of his has been “…the best music you never heard of…”
These days, the challenge of sifting through the ever-growing pile of chaff, in search of a slowly growing harvest of grain, has only gotten more difficult. Mind you, I’m a dinosaur. I don’t knock other people’s musical diet, but I’m allergic to a lot of the “new” music, so, for me, the chaff outstrips the grain by a larger percentage every year.
Over the years, 75 of them if you must know, I’ve relied on various musical gurus to turn me on to new sounds, but I no longer while away my evenings listening to jams with them, so it is time to drag my “dried up carcass” into this now already-teenaged-millennium and try to spark suggestions and discussions with former and future gurus of sound.
Oh, Lordy! I see why I’ve put this off. Music is riddled with more Rabbit Holes than any other field in this endlessly fascinating universe and I’ve got a nose for such in any category...Seems Dylan covered Cocaine in 1962…This is worse than I thought. I went to make sure “dried up carcass” came from the Cash version of Cocaine Blues, the first one I recall hearing and got sucked into this one, which isn’t Cash’ song at all, but Jackson Browne’s Cocaine cover. YouTube’s side bar then delivers a solo acoustic Mr. Tambourine Man that was quite good (along with a million comments), even though it lacks my favorite sound, the delicate guitar part behind his vocals. Some say that was by a guitar player whose unique sound was due to playing with firecrackers and coming up a few fingers short of a full hand…
My cousin texted this: Matthew Sweet & Suzanna Hoff Bell Bottom Blues.  I like that song by Eric, in spite of the syrupy lyrics and vocals, because Scotty Moore’s guitar captured my 13-year-old heart and soul during Elvis’ Sun Session era, before the second-biggest perpetrator of musical War Crimes* bought him and turned him into a Lounge Lizard, B Movie actor and general disappointment to himself and me.
*(Norman Petty was the worst ever! He should have gotten credit for writing The Day the Music Died, since his greed put Buddy on that plane. And he should have not been given credit for having anything to do with Buddy’s rapidly evolving music.)
Side-barred again…Oh, my! A pictorial of Patti Boyd behind Eric’s BBB. Those two guitar heroes might have an ear for music, and an eye for beauty, but they certainly didn’t have the ability to appreciate the complete package they probably never completely unwrapped or else were just unable to control their inner reptile.
Oops! I forgot! (Martin, S.) Matthew and Suzanna are great as well. Looking forward to hearing more of their cover albums, when I have more time.
A lot, pro and con, could be said about covers, but I’ve already tried your patience with this lengthy screed…

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