903. Elisa Fiorillo
904. The Firesign Theater Presents Waiting for the Electrician or Someone
Like Him
905. Firesign Theatre: Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
906. First Choice: Hold Your Horses
907. The First Edition's 2nd
908. Kenny Rogers & the First Edition: Greatest Hits
909. The Best of Eddie Fisher
910. Fishbone: In Your Face
911. Chick Webb with Ella Fitzgerald: Ella Swings the Band (1946-1939)
912. The Best of Ella Fitzgerald
913. The Best of Ella Fitzgerald Vol. II
914. Ella Fitzgerald: The Cole Porter Songbook
915. Ella Fitzgerald: The Rodgers and Hart Songbook
916. Ella Fitzgerald: The Duke Ellington Songbook
917. Ella Fitzgerald: The George & Ira Gershwin Songbook
918. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong: Porgy and Bess
919. Ella Fitzgerald: Hello, Dolly!
Mixworthy: "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Just Dropped In (To See What
Condition My Condition Was In)," #908; "The Man I Love," "They All Laughed," "Isn't
It a Pity?", "But Not for Me," and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," #917.
Did the Firesign Theater relocate to Canada for their second album? The spellings
are verbatim: "Theater" on their debut, "Theatre" on the follow-up...I went out and
bought the First Edition best-of after the Coen Brothers' excellent use of "Just
Dropped In" during the big Busby Berkley dream sequence from The Big Lebowski. I'll
give the last word on Kenny Rogers to Seinfeld's Kramer: "Bad chicken! Mess you
up!"...If you haven't picked up on this already, within each group of albums by the
same artist, I try to arrange things chronologically. I don't know if I've got the
Ella Fitzgerald Songbook series in the right order; I'm going by catalogue numbers,
but, being reissues, who knows. I bought all of them within a few months of each
other when I was at Sunrise, paying only a little above cost after staff discount,
about $5 per double. The only one I ever listened to on a regular basis was the
Gershwin volume, and, as you can see, I love it--it's one of those albums I still
think of as a complete work, rather than just a collection of songs. I've even had
success playing "They All Laughed" and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" for my stu-
dents. (They hear both in the course of a year, one on Ella's birthday, one on George
Gershwin's.) Middle-school students generally fall into one of two categories when
it comes to music: those who will at least tolerate whatever I play going as far back
as the Beatles, and those who have difficulty with anything that pre-dates the Game,
or whatever else came out two weeks ago. But they seem to like the two Ella songs--
the wordplay in "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," the references to Edison and the
Wright Brothers in "They All Laughed." My strongest personal association with the
latter was when CFTO cued it up following the Jays' first divisional title in 1985,
the game against the Yankees that ended with George Bell catching the last out and
dropping to his knees. Inspired programming.
________________________________________________________________________________
920. The Five Crowns
921. The Five Keys
922. The Five Royales
923. The Five Royales (Vintage Vault Collectors Series)
924. 5 Star: Silk & Steel
925. 5 Star: Between the Lines
926. 5 Star: Rock the World
927. 5 Star: Treat Me Like a Lady
928. Roberta Flack: First Take
929. The Best of Roberta Flack
930. The Flairs: Rock 'n' Roll Hits of the 50's
931. Flame
932. Flamin Groovies: Supersnazz
933. Flamin Groovies: Teenage Head
934. Flamin' Groovies: Home to Roost
935. Flamin Groovies: Still Shakin
936. Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action
Mixworthy: "Dream On," #921; "Tears of Joy," #923; "The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face," #928; "The Closer I Get to You," #929; "She Wants to Rock," #930; "Around the
Corner," #932; "Shake Some Action" and "You Tore Me Down," #936. Teenage Head holds
up pretty well as an album, from what I remember, but no one song on it is as good
as the three I've listed. Apparently it was an ongoing subject of debate within the
Flamin(') Groovies as to whether the apostrophe should stay or go--bands break up
for the silliest reasons. Too bad, because judging from the reviews reprinted on the
back cover of Still Shakin, they had the support of most every major music publica-
tion of their day: Rolling Stone, Crawdaddy, 16, Screw, all the big ones.
I'll never totally figure out why rock critics hate "The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face" so much. The transposition of "ever" and "I" in the title probably doesn't
help--people don't talk that way...The Five Royales were the only doo-wop group to
get a chapter in Stranded, but I never liked them as much as my other favourite doo-
wop music. To me, they seemed closer to jump-blues or something like that, although
I'd have to give them another listen before saying that with any certainty. I'd also
need to find out if I have any idea what I'm talking about when I say "jump-blues"...
5 Star were the Ramones of mid-80s British dance-pop; I bet even they couldn't tell
their albums apart...I'd completely forgotten: the Flairs LP is my second autographed
album from Richard Berry. "To Phil, Just for you, Thanks for the write-up, I mean
[underscored twice] what is this? Richard Berry." I'm not sure if he was confused by
the pressing I handed him (United Superior, same budget-reissue series as the Dream-
ers album he signed) or if it had slipped his mind that he was once in a group called
the Flairs. "She Wants to Rock" is amazing--I don't know how many times gunshots have
ever turned up on a pop record, but I'd be surprised if they're found on anything
earlier.
________________________________________________________________________________
937. Flaming Ember: Sunshine
938. Flamingos
939. The Sound of the Flamingos
940. Fleetwood Mac: Greatest Hits
941. Fleetwood Mac: Kiln House
942. Fleetwood Mac
943. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
944. Fleetwood Mac: Tusk
945. Fleetwood Mac: Mirage
946. Fleetwood Mac: Tango in the Night
947. The Fleetwoods: In a Mellow Mood
948. The Fleetwoods' Greatest Hits
949. Flesh Eaters: No Questions Asked
950. Fleshtones: Roman Gods
951. Fleshtones: Hexbreaker!
952. Flies: Get Wise
Mixworthy: "I'm Not My Brother's Keeper," #937; "A Kiss From Your Lips," #938; "I
Only Have Eyes for You" and "Where or When," #939; "Albatross," #940; "One Together,"
#941; "Landslide," #942; "Hold Me," #945; "Mystified," #946; "Put All That Behind Me"
and "Jesus Christ," #952.
Spent: All the big hits from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours.
Forget what I said earlier about Dumptruck being obscure--when I did a search on For
the Country's album cover, I had about ten different images to choose from. The Flies
are obscure. I would always have trouble finding any kind of information on them when
I bought the album almost 20 years ago, and even today, when I could probably find
out what my neighbour's having for lunch on the internet, the only thing turned up by
a variety of searches ("Flies + Get Wise," "Flies + Homestead," "Flies Wise Jesus")
is a B+ Consumer Guide entry, which was either cut from the '80s book or added to the
online database after-the-fact. I used to love the two songs I listed, and they still
sound good; the guy's voice may lose some people, but the guitar player is exception-
ally lyrical...Almost every album I own is in excellent shape. That was a decision I
made right from the outset, when I started collecting records in the mid-70s: that
I'd be really particular about how I handled them, and then, when I started buying
used LPs a few years later, that I wouldn't buy anything unless it was in very good
condition. Maybe this was a by-product of having seen so many junky, scratched-up
records among the four of five piles kept in the basement by my parents, I don't
know, but I'm glad it was something I continued to be mindful of over the next 20
years. (The biggest test came during the half-dozen years in and around university,
where album-playing often went hand-in-hand with beer and pot and acid and ether and
all those other things Ian MacKaye warned us about; I'm surprised my copy of the Re-
placements' Let It Be isn't octagonal, but it seems fine.) Anyway, The Fleetwoods'
Greatest Hits is possibly the only album I have that is in fairly poor condition.
To look at it, it seems like it might play OK--a lot of light surface scratches--but
I remember it sounds bad enough that I don't even want to check right now. I'm not
sure why I felt at the time that I couldn't wait for a better copy--it's not as if
used Fleetwoods albums are immediately scooped up the moment they're put out. I've
always thought of the album as only being provisionally part of my collection, and
that I'd replace it sometime. Its provisional status is now entering its third
decade.
________________________________________________________________________________
953. Flipper: Album Generic
954. Flipper: Gone Fishin'
955. Float Up CP: Kill Me in the Morning
956. A Flock of Seagulls
957. Eddie Floyd: Knock on Wood
958. Eddie Floyd: Rare Stamps
959. Fludd: '71 to '77: From the Attic
960. Flux of Pink Indians: Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible
961. Flying Burrito Bros: The Gilded Palace of Sin
962. Flying Burrito Bros: Close Up the Honky Tonks
963. Flys: Own
964. John Fogerty
965. Folk Devils: The Best Protection
966. Force M.D.'s: Chillin'
967. Force M.D.'s: Touch and Go
Mixworthy: "Way of the World," "Living for the Depression," and "Sex Bomb," #953;
"Got to Make a Comeback," #957; "I've Just Been Feeling Bad," #958; "Get Up, Get Out
and Move On," #959; "Christine's Tune," #961.
That's great that the Force M.D.'s did a tribute album to their favourite pigfucker
label; I'm also a big fan of Ready for the World's Blast First...I just listened
to side one of Album Generic, and it remains as wild and as insanely funny as ever.
Never played the flip much, but one's possibly the greatest single side to come out
of the whole Amerindie morass of the '80s, encompassing everything from Wild Gift
right through to Daydream Nation; I almost listed "Life," too, and the fifth song,
"Nothing," starts with the best joke on the album: "Okay, one--wait, everybody start
at the same time, ready?"...The Flux of Pink Indians' album title says something, I
think, about why I was hardly paying any attention at all to British music by 1982,
something that remained true until Psychocandy captured my imagination four years
down the road. I know I missed stuff, and I also know that I spent a lot of time
listening to some really marginal American music in its place; I've got the titles
of two Fleshtones albums and one by the Flesh Eaters staring me in the face as I
type. But honestly, Strive to Survive Causing Least Suffering Possible? Even Tracy
Chapman would reject that title...Eddie Floyd is pictured with an axe on the cover
of Knock on Wood, poised to chop down a large tree in the middle of a forest. (If
a tree falls in a forest and no one except Eddie Floyd's around to hear it, does
it make a sound?) Highly unusual visualization of what the phrase "knock on wood"
means.