1094. Grant Green: "Am I Blue"
1095. Urbie Green & Nat Pierce: Old Time Modern
1096. Green on Red: Gravity Talks
1097. Green on Red: No Free Lunch
1098. Nils Lofgren/Grin: 1 + 1
1099. Guadalcanal Diary: Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man
1100. Guadalcanal Diary: Jamboree
1101. Guess Who: Share the Land
1102. Guess Who: So Long, Bannatyne
1103. The Best of the Guess Who
1104. Guinn
1105. Gun Club: Fire of Love
1106. Gun Club: Miami
1107. Gun Club: Death Party
1108. Gun Club: The Las Vegas Story
1109. Gun Club: The Birth, the Death and the Ghost
1110. Gun Club: Mother Juno
Mixworthy: "I Lost a Number," #1098; "Gilbert Takes the Wheel," #1099; "Do You
Miss Me Darlin'" and "Coming Down Off the Money Bag/Song of the Dog," #1101;
"Rain Dance," #1102; "No Time," #1103; "She's Like Heroin to Me," #1105. Nils
Lofgren gets first-billing on the Grin album, but I've always filed it in with
the G's (meaning in the G-section, not that he gets filed alongside Snoop Dogg
and 50 Cent). So does Christgau in the '70s book, so please refer all objections
to him.
Spent: "American Woman," "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature," "Hand Me Down
World."
Do I want to revisit my Gun Club love affair circa Fire of Love and Miami? No--I
wrote about that in Nerve. I don't think I mentioned (or at least didn't fully de-
scribe) the autographs that decorate my copy of Fire of Love. It looks like one
of the walls at the Tate-LaBianca crime scene: "Off the Pigs, Terry"; "Don't Fuck
With Me Honkey!, Jeffrey Lee Pierce"; "Whites Off Earth Now, Rob Graves"; "Elvis
Is From Hell!!!" (uncredited but the work of Pierce); "Free Huey P., Ward"; "Peace
Love Badness, Terry." Pretty corny, I know, and extremely messy--the pen was running
out of ink, so everything is either badly smudged or practically engraved, ink-free,
onto the cardboard's surface...Part of the fun of doing this for me is trying to
piece together the story of what I liked at different times in my life, and when
exactly I liked it. The Guess Who figure prominently in that story. They were my
second favourite-group; not my second-favourite after someone else, but the second
time I was consciously aware of having a favourite musical act. The first, as I've
mentioned many times before, was Ray Stevens; my grade-school friend Martin had a
copy of Ray Stevens' Greatest Hits, and we used to love "Gitarzan," "Ahab the Arab,"
and "Bridget the Midget." A couple of years after that wore itself out, I talked
my dad into taking me to see the Guess Who at Toronto's old Exhibition Stadium
(original home of the Blue Jays, now a parking lot). That would have been either
'73 or '74; Rockin' would have been the only full-length LP I was familiar with at
that point, although I knew all their hits well from the radio. I'd go back every
August for the next two or three years with my cousin Glen, each time their encore-
version of "American Woman" getting longer and more elaborate. I owned a bunch of
their albums at one point--American Woman, Wheatfield Soul, Artificial Paradise,
Live at the Paramount, #10, Road Food, possibly one or two more--but most of them
either went to Randy or, the ones that were bought before I started collecting in
earnest, were discarded because of wear and tear. There was also an 8-Track of The
Best of the Guess Who I used to play endlessly. The mere fact that I've listed a
non-hit in the mixworthy group tells you all you need to know about how much of a fan
I was--I mean, I actually used to get wrapped up in Burton Cummings' emotional well-
being, something he was never shy about documenting on those mid-70s albums no one
remembers anymore. ("Those Show Biz Shoes" from Artificial Paradise was a good exam-
ple of Burton as Sylvia Plath.) It all seemed very adult, very FM, very rock, very
meaningful. I didn't realize till later that most of what made the Guess Who so
good was the exact opposite of how I then perceived them--they were AM, they were
pop, and they were often quite loopy ("Rain Dance," "Glamour Boy," "Albert Flasher,"
etc.). But that's OK. They really were pretty great, and looking back, they made
for the perfect segue from Ray Stevens to all my later high-school obsessions.
________________________________________________________________________________
1111. Gwen Guthrie
1112. Gwen Guthrie: Portrait
1113. Gwen Guthrie: Just for You
1114. Gwen Guthrie: Lifeline
1115. Bobby Hackett and His Jazz Band: Coast Concert
1116. Merle Haggard and the Strangers: Songs I'll Always Sing
1117. Merle Haggard: His Best
1118. Bill Haley's Greatest Hits!
1119. Half Japanese: Sing No Evil
1120. Daryl Hall/John Oates: Ooh Yeah!
1121. Roy Hall: Diggin' the Boogie
1122. Tom T. Hall: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
1123. The Best of George Hamilton IV
1124. M.C. Hammer: "U Can't Touch This" 12-inch
1125. Hammer: "2 Legit 2 Quit" 12-inch
Mixworthy: "Sing Me Back Home," #1116, which I first got to know through a non-
Haggard version in Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road, still the greatest Canadian
film ever made.
It's Hammer time!...Four Gwen Guthrie albums? Jesus, that's bizarre. Even weirder,
none of them has "Ain't Nothin' Goin' on But the Rent," the only song anyone might
conceivably remember her for...A character who was almost a match for Willie Weck-
esser: Don Fendley, the pro at the golf course where I worked my last couple of
summers in high school. He used to sing Tom T. Hall's "Old Dogs - Children and
Watermelon Wine" over and over again while puttering away in his workshop, except
he'd never get any farther than the title lyric. Soon after I quit, he fled town
with a member's wife and relocated in Florida, where I bet he's still regripping
and degripping the same three-wood he always seemed to be working on 25 years ago.
________________________________________________________________________________
1126. Herbie Hancock: My Point of View
1127. Pearl Harbour and the Explosions
1128. Pearl Harbour: Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost Too
1129. Hagood Hardy: Maybe Tomorrow
1130. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: The Best Years of Our Lives
1131. The Harptones
1132. The Harptones/The Impressions/The Cadillacs/The Passions
1133. Major Harris: Jealousy
1134. Simon Harris: Bass!
1135. Debbie Harry: KooKoo
1136. The Best of Donnie Hathaway
1137. The Haunted: Vapeur Mauve (Purple Haze)
1138. The Haunted: Part Two: I'm Just Gonna Blow My Little Mind to Bits
1139. Richie Havens: Mixed Bag
1140. Coleman Hawkins: Body and Soul
1141. Coleman Hawkins/Bud Powell: Hawk in Germany
Mixworthy: "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)," #1130; "Sunday Kind of Love" and
"Life Is But a Dream," #1131; "1-2-5," #1137. #1132 is a La grande storia job, mix-
ing original stuff (the version of "Life Is But a Dream" is a duplicate of #1131's;
"Sunday Kind of Love" sounds somewhat different on the two albums) with awful live
recordings from the Cadillacs. I'll list "Speedo" when I get to compilations.
I'd never heard Steve "Silk" Harley's "Make Me Smile" until Velvet Goldmine, an er-
ratic film with an excellent soundtrack...The Hagood Hardy album (yes, I'm a little
defensive about that one and feel the need to explain its presence) was part of the
last huge record buy I ever made, 75-100 classical albums I found at a garage sale
after moving back to Toronto in the mid-90s. The seller was essentially giving them
away--I think I paid $10 for the lot. Most looked to be unplayed, and there were a
lot of doubles. It was such a great deal, I actually started to spin some ridiculous
scenario in my mind whereby the albums were being sold unbeknownst to the real owner,
who must have been away on vacation at the time. When I suggested this to the wife of
a friend, she gently brought me back to reality: "Um, it's 1995--no one wants albums
anymore." Good point. It took me over a year to make it through half of them, and
eventually I just gave up; some are filed away still unplayed, the only part of my
collection that hasn't been listened to at least once. Getting back to Hagood--who
isn't classical (I'm not sure what he is) but was part of the deal--Maybe Tomorrow
leads off with "(Love Theme From) Missouri Breaks." I've never seen The Missouri
Breaks, which is generally viewed as one of those auteurist debacles that gradually
transformed the American film industry in the mid-to-late '70s. I always thought it
was Nicholson and Brando and a bunch of horses. I didn't know it needed a love theme.
________________________________________________________________________________
1142. The Best of Ronnie Hawkins
1143. Screamin' Jay Hawkins: ...What That Is!
1144. Issac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul
1145. The Best of Issac Hayes
1146. The Best of Dick Haymes
1147. Heads Hands & Feet: Old Soldiers Never Die
1148. Heart
1149. Heartbeats: A Thousand Miles Away
1150. Heartbreakers: L.A.M.F.
1151. Heartbreakers: Live at Max's Kansas City
1152. Heavy D. and the Boyz: Living Large
1153. Richard Hell & the Voidoids: Blank Generation
1154. Sunny by Bobby Hebb
1155. Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?
1156. Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love
1157. Jimi Hendrix Experience: Electric Ladyland
1158. Jimi Hendrix Experience: Smash Hits
Mixworthy: "Theme From Shaft," #1145; "A Thousand Miles Away" and "After New Year's
Eve (Is Over)," #1149; "Get Off the Phone," #1150; "Manic Depression" and "Are You
Experienced?" #1155; "She's So Fine," #1156. Heart has two or three good singles,
but would I ever include one of them on a tape or play it on the radio? No. That's
still basically the guiding test for this section.
I wish I could find a scan of the Screamin' Jay album--not sure what I paid for it,
but I have to believe I bought it primarily for the cover (1969, so well after "I Put
a Spell on You")...Odd sort of symmetry here: bad junkies on one side (Hendrix, Rich-
ard Hell, Heartbreakers), healthy appetites on the other (Heavy D., Ann Wilson, Ronnie
Hawkins). Issac Hayes was just very bald...Not much to say about Jimi Hendrix. I loved
Smash Hits in high school, but if you listen to Mullethead Radio at all--and I'm parked
on Q-107 more than any other Toronto-area station--you know that "Purple Haze," "Foxy
Lady," and "All Along the Watchtower" are on 24-hour standby within that universe.
"Manic Depression" is my favourite, the other two are more borderline, but I love how
much "She's So Fine" sounds like Cream...If I ever knew this in the first place, I'd
long since forgotten: L.A.M.F. was co-produced by Thunderclap Newman's Speedy Keen.
Co-produced? It took two people to navigate the complex soundscape that is L.A.M.F.?
________________________________________________________________________________
1159. Woody Herman and His Orchestra: The Beat of the Big Bands
1160. Woody Herman: Hollywood Palladium 1948
1161. Herman's Hermits: Hold On!
1162. Herman's Hermits: 15 Greatest Hits
1163. Winston Hewitt: Pretty Brown Eyes
1164. John Hiatt: Slow Turning
1165. Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks: Last Train to Hicksville...The Home of Happy
Feet
1166. Andrew Hill: Point of Departure
1167. Andrew Hill: From California With Love
1168. Piano Man: Earl Hines, His Piano and His Orchestra
1169. Earl Hines: Dinah
1170. Duke•Peacock Remembers Joe Hinton
1171. Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra: The Rabbit's Work on Verve, Vol. 1
1172. Johnny Hodges: Creamy
1173. Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra: Not So Dukish
1174. Johnny Hodges: The Smooth One
1175. Johnny Hodges: Everybody Knows
Mixworthy: "Blue Flame," #1159; "A Must to Avoid," #1161; "Mrs. Brown You've Got a
Lovely Daughter," #1162.
"Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" represents a leap back to the very, very
beginning of my pop-music consciousness; when I think about sitting in the back seat
of the family car at the age of five or six, 1050 CHUM on the radio, the two songs
that soundtrack that corner of my mind are "Downtown" and "Mrs. Brown." I didn't
catch up with "A Must to Avoid" until many years later--credit to the Stranded
discography--and that I love even more.