Roger O Green

Best "Greatest Hits" Albums QUESTIONS

Yahoo had this list of “best of” albums last week. I’ll note if I have ’em. Do you? Or perhaps another album by that artist. Maybe you have suggestions not on the list at all. I’d inclined to have Aretha Franklin and Randy Newman represented.
25) Nirvana–Nirvana:
I have three or four Nirvana albums, but no GH.

24)Greatest Hits—Eagles:
Yes, I have it. And I’m not ashamed. The best selling album of all time in the U.S, if you believe the RIAA figures.

23) The Best Of Blondie–Blondie: Yup.

22) Back To Mono—Phil Spector & Various Artists: This is actually a box set – 3 CDs plus the Christmas album -of music of the Ronettes, Crystals, Righteous Brothers, and much more. Got it.

21) Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy—The Who: Actually have this on vinyl. While I have a more comprehensive Who GH on CD, I do like this one better.

20) The Kinks Kronikles—The Kinks:
No, I have The Ultimate Collection.

19) The Motown Box—Various Artists: “It’s not just any label that can release a boxed set of their best acts and establish both group identity and label identity. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops all carved out their sound within the confines of a Detroit recording studio and the overhearing ears of Berry Gordy Jr.” Got it AND its follow-up.

18) Chronicle Vol. 1—Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Creedence Clearwater Revival had the distinction of scoring a string of #2 hit singles. Not #1. Someone else always hogged that spot for themselves. But Creedence did manage 19 hit singles that are collected here…” And I have it.

17) Echoes—Pink Floyd: Actually, no. though I must have a half dozen Floyd albums.

16) Staring At The Sea–The Cure: Have only one or two Cure albums and this isn’t one of them.

15) Louder Than Bombs—The Smiths: Have some Smiths and Morrisey solo, but not this.

14) The Chess Box—Chuck Berry: No, I have Golden Decade.

13) We Sold Our Souls For Rock N’ Roll—Black Sabbath: Actually own no Black Sabbath at all, except on compilations.

12) The Very Best Of—Prince: Not this, but I have a two-CD collection. I have quite a bit of His Purpleness, actually.

11) The Very Best Of The Doors (2CD)–The Doors: Not this 2007 collection, but another one.

10) The Top Ten Hits—Elvis Presley: I have these two CDs, but frankly I’m surprised they didn’t go for that #1s album, which I ALSO own.

9) Mania—Ramones: Recently bought a different Ramones compilation.

8) Smash Hits–Jimi Hendrix: Have it on vinyl, and a different compilation on CD.

7) Greatest Hits, Volume 2—Bob Dylan: Have it on vinyl.

6) Greatest Hits—Al Green: Have it.

5) Decade–Neil Young: One of those things I bought twice, once the 3 LPs, then the 2 CDs.

4) Greatest Hits–Sly And The Family Stone:. I’ve long had this album as a contender for my island albums. Some people seem to think that bringing a GH to the island is sacrilege, but at least three of these songs never made it to 33 1/3 until this collection.

3) Star Time–James Brown:Not this 4-CD box, but a single disc.

2) Hot Rocks–The Rolling Stones: Have on LP. Have all the songs in some digitized form, though.

1) 1–The Beatles: No. I own every American LP and British CD in the canon. Why do I need this?
ROG

May Ramblin’

Black Television News Channel (BTNC) announced plans to launch the nation’s first all-news cable network dedicated to the African American community. That was sort of interesting; more intriguing to me was this: “Based in Washington, D.C., BTNC is the creation of J.C. Watts, the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma.” I figured that if Hillary Clinton somehow won the Democratic nomination, and I suppose it could still happen, the Republicans would counter by putting a black conservative Republican on the ticket. Actually, I was specifically thinking J.C. Watts. Guess that’s not going to happen.

Speaking of McCain, take the Bush-McCain Challenge, an online quiz to see if you can tell the difference between George W. Bush and John McCain.

And, as I said, Hillary’s not dead yet, but the funeral’s been planned: In Loving Memory of the Hillary for President Campaign.

Is everybody happy? Well, no, and age, gender and race seem to be factors. I suppose a story like this – E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors – while disturbing, doesn’t fill me with as much outrage as it used to, maybe because I’m less surprised than I used to be. I appreciate whimsy more, e.g. Czech crash victim wakes up speaking English. And maybe I can laugh a little at myself more. This is a thread for label suggestions for a homebrew called Old Librarian Ale. BTW, I am NOT responsible for the content. The NSFW item (clearly labeled within) REALLY is NSFW.

So always remember, and never forget: Nothing is more dangerous than a wounded mosquito.

ROG

Since May 15, 1999

I had this dream back in February that Carol and I were going to be getting married. We were in this enormous mansion, and guests were already arriving, and flowers and champagne were being delivered when I realized that we had neglected to secure clergy for the ceremony. Somehow, I found someone in the crowd to officiate. But then I noted that we had also neglected to get a wedding license, and for that, we had no work-around. After pouting for several minutes, we started telling the guests and the caterers. The food and flowers were given away to the visitors, but the champagne was stored in the basement for another day.

Fortunately, none of that actually happened nine years ago. It wasn’t in a mansion but in our then-church. We remembered all the important details, including the rings. I don’t think we HAD champagne, but only because the church basement, where we had the reception, was “dry”.

I had to laugh when I read this post from Alan David Doane: “Sunday Stuff — Mother’s Day is here again, my annual reminder that I didn’t really plan my wedding anniversary (in less than two weeks) with any kind of budget or common sense in mind.” Well, if he botched it, I botched it worse, for, this year, Mother’s Day and our anniversary are only four days apart. Of course, we didn’t know for sure that we’d even have a child.

Happy ninth anniversary, honey!
***
I neglected to mention Rocco Nigro’s birthday yesterday. But our mutual friend Fred Hembeck did. BTW, Fred and Rocco, Coverville did a Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds cover story this week. I’ve only gotten through side one so far, but I like it.

Side 1?
ROG

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As I’ve noted, I often play music based on artists’ birthdays. This week, I have quite a few albums by these folks:
May 9, 1949, Billy Joel
May 10, 1961, Bono (Paul Hewson) (U2)
May 12, 1948, Steve Winwood
May 13, 1950, Stevie Wonder
May 14, 1953, David Byrne
And at least one from these people:
May 9, 1937, Dave Prater (Sam & Dave)
May 9, 1944, Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield/Poco)
May 9, 1945, Steve Katz (Blues Project/Blood, Sweat & Tears)
May 10, 1946, Dave Mason (Traffic)
May 10, 1946, Donovan (Donovan Leitch)
May 11, 1941, Eric Burdon (Animals)
May 13, 1966, Darius Rucker (Hootie & The Blowfish)
May 14, 1936, Bobby Darin
May 15, 1948, Brian Eno
May 15, 1953, Mike Oldfield
May 16, 1966, Janet Jackson
So sue me, I bought that first Hootie album. Oh, and the exact dates of the birthdays I’ve seen different by a day or two.

Last night, Carol and I saw a musical based on the music of one of these folks as a pre-anniversary present for ourselves. Wanna guess which one?

I was thinking about a couple questions Eddie (yes, him again) posed:
1. Is it any slight to the original artist when someone else’s version of a song becomes the definitive one? Even if the original artist wrote it?
I can think of at least a couple examples where the original artist acknowledged the superiority of the cover. One was Otis Redding’s Respect; he said of Aretha Franklin something like “That girl done stole that song from me.”
Then even Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails noted, somewhat wistfully, that Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt” had become the definitive one.
[And speaking of which: Trent Reznor for intellectual property czar.]
I suppose it depends how the songwriter feels about the song. If it it’s his or her “baby”, then losing it might not feel so hot. But if the writer is open to new possibilities, then I’d think it’d be an honor. Unless…
2. What do you think about cases where a cover is actually quite inferior to the original, yet is wildly more successful?
I’m trying to think of an example of this, actually. Do you have something in mind? Can anyone think of an original, written by the artist, that the cover was not good, yet sold well? Purists might pick Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”, but Whitney Houston’s version was not technically terrible, just mind-numblingly overplayed.

ROG

Obamatics

I’d been meaning to write about Barack Obama again ever since I watched Meet the Press back on Sunday, May 4 and saw Tim Russert’s interview spend THE FIRST 15 MINUTES talking about the Reverend Jeremiah wright. Lest you think I exaggerate, check out this. Given ABC News being ridiculed for doing a similar thing during the “debates”, Russert should have known better. This came up after both George Will and my local paper scolded Obama for not severing his association with Wright sooner; a related story generated mucho comments.

But assuming that Obama is the Democratic party nominee, the conversation shifts to who will be the Vice-Presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton shows up in the mix, of course, and her strengths (support among women and older, rural Americans, et al.) are as well known as her liabilities (generally, the baggage of being a Clinton), so that she’d be portrayed like this.
Gordon let me know about the buzz over John Edwards.
I’m still keen on Bill Richardson. In fact, I’ve been touting him since December of 2005, when I thought that Russ Feingold was running for President.

Obama’s Vision (30 minute video).

Tangentially, I was reading this quote on CNN yesterday:
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, an uncommitted superdelegate, said the delegate numbers are in Obama’s favor, but the popular vote is important to the people of his state.
“I think we see what happened in 2004, when Al Gore won the popular vote, and where the country has gone and the feelings toward government since then. I put a lot of stock in that,” he said on CNN’s “American Morning.”
I just had to know: did the governor of West Virginia really think that Al Gore ran only four years ago? No, the transcription of the video was wrong.

Tom Hanks Endorses Obama (video). Actually quite funny, I thought.

Observations from my favorite Albany grouch and my favorite American expat in New Zealand.

Finally, at the request of a good friend of mine, I was asked to comment on some specific comments about racism and the race in this dialogue on the Daily Kos. Part of the thrust of the conversation was about Hillary Clinton, whether her campaign engaged in racist campaign tactics. And I find I can’t go there. Those liberals fighting is far more irritating than the conservatives I check out, maybe because I care more. I must admit that while I sometimes read the stories, I seldom follow all the comments, especially when they descend into Sturm und Drang; they tend to exhaust me. But no, I didn’t think the comments you made were racist or even insensitive, but I’m sure some of the participants would disagree…

Photo courtesy tsevis’ photostream

ROG