Ramblin' with Roger

Now back to our regularly scheduled list:

75. Donovan: Barababajagal (1969)
Love IS hot.

74. Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding (1967)

73. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass: The Lonely Bull (1962)
I preferred the cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights, but I liked the music of this album better, which was not only the first one by the TJB, but also the first album on A&M Records.

72. Big Brother And The Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (1968)
This is the Janis Joplin album with the R. Crumb artwork

71. Crosby Stills & Nash: Crosby, Stills, and Nash (1969)
The first supergroup: guys from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies, though I did not know this at the time.

70. The Jackson 5: Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969)
My near twin Gordon once noted that Michael’s vocal on Smokey Robinson’s ‘Who’s Loving you’ belied his tender age.

69. Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline (1969)
My high school girlfriend really turned me on to Dylan generally, and this album specifically.

FantaCon, once an Albany tradition for fans of comic book, fantasy, and in its latter incarnations, horror films, is returning after a brief, two-decade hiatus. FantaCon 2013, operated by its original creator, Tom Skulan, will be held Saturday September 14 and Sunday September 15 at the Marriott Hotel on Wolf Road in Albany. Ticket for the related Three Nights of Horror at the Palace Theatre on September 11-13 in Albany, will be available from the Palace Theatre box office, starting on February 13.

FantaCo, the store/mail order company Tom started, operated from 1978 through 1998 at 21 Central Avenue, Albany, NY. I worked there from May 1980 to November 1988, worked at the first five FantaCons and attended the sixth.
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Even before I started working at FantaCo, I bought from FantaCo this single by the Spastic Phono Band , a parody of some Beatles and Paul McCartney songs. The store carried some Japanese EPs of the Beatles. How important to you were The Beatles specifically, and music generally?

The Beatles were and are very important to me because they represent a group of individuals who against ALL odds did exactly what they set out to do. That’s a powerful example to learn from.
Musically they are sublime. My Beatles CDs are the CDs I play the least because I just enjoy them so much I never want the magic to wear away. The Beatles (White Album) is my all time favorite. Not only because it has so many songs but because there is a slightly ominous tone to the whole thing. And yes- I love Revolution #9 too. I always look forward to dissecting all the sounds.

Early on, the store also sold some records of some local bands such as Blotto. How much did you follow the local music scene?

When I lived above FantaCo I went to JB Scott’s on a regular basis and saw all the local bands opening for the national acts. It was a fun time “living downtown”. I followed most of them at the time.

No more. Now when one crosses the border back into the United States, one ought to have a passport, or an enhanced driver’s license, available only in four states thus far – MI, NY, WA, VT) or other specialized forms.

Re: Amy’s question about Dusty Springfield: I’ve had a greatest hits album for quite a while, but I’ve only gotten Dusty in Memphis fairly recently, certainly since she died, so it doesn’t have the multiple plays to make the list. Also, there are additional songs on the CD (some leaking into the next decade – 1971) which I like as well or better than the songs on the original LP.

I suppose if one is just posting cartoons and videos, then Facebook might be the right venue. I know columnists from my local newspaper and reporters from TV stations and indeed TV networks use it to pose questions to get a sense of the “pulse of the the people.” Said content often shows up in their newscasts/broadcasts.

To be sure, occasionally it was just a single YouTube video, but even then, it almost always had a soupçon of contextual verbiage. (Here’s a question for you all – how does one type a ç from a standard US typewriter? The one in the previous sentence I cut and pasted.)