Arden Chatfield
Posts: 6657 Joined: Jan. 2006
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Quote (Mister DNA @ Mar. 18 2008,21:06) | Quote (Arden Chatfield @ Mar. 18 2008,20:06) | Quote | That looks like a sweet set. I've got the 2-Disc King of the Slide Guitar set, which I received for my birthday ages ago. Great stuff. |
Indeed, some of his best cuts are on that, like Shake Your Moneymaker and his demented version of Rollin and Tumblin. Those are from the second half of his career, which is much better documented on CD for some reason. The set I bought nails his first several years. But James was extremely consistent, so it's all good.
I've owned most of his stuff on LP since the early 80's, including some of the really crude late-60's Kent LP's that came without an inner sleeve. But I'm slowly shifting to CD. Oddly I once found a vintage mint 45 of It Hurts Me Too in a junk store in San Francisco, and it sounds better and fuller than any LP *or* CD. ??? |
Damn, that brings back some great memories. When I lived in S.F., every payday meant a trip to Tower Records or taking the BART out to Down Home Records in El Cerrito. |
If you took BART to Downhome much in the late 80's, we probably saw each other. I used to tithe an embarassing chunk of my income there from 1986-1988. Before that I was in LA ('81-'85) where I haunted the old Rhino Records in Westwood, when it was a little hole in the wall with the most arrogant clerks imaginable. (Think Jack Black in High Fidelity.) If they liked your purchase, they would grant your coolness. If you bought something that offended their sensibilities, they wouldn't hesitate to sneer at you. They approved of my Stooges and JB Lenoir LPs, but lord would they give me shit over any British Invasion LPs.
But that was back in the days when a new bestselling album came out that they disapproved of, they would write insulting comments on the shrink wrap with magic marker ON THE DISPLAY COPIES. The main records I remember them doing that to were Michael Jackson's 'Bad' and some LP or other by Ratt. They'd *sell* the LPs, but they wanted to make sure it was as humilating an experience for the customer as possible.
Quote | It was in the late 80s that MCA acquired the Chess catalog, and they started putting out not only box sets, but reissuing all those old "Real Folk Blues" albums from the 60s. |
That was a huge relief -- in the early 80's you could still get most of those Chess LPs, but usually only as fake-stereo French imports. That's how I was able to buy Got My Own Bag of Tricks by Bo Diddley and Howlin Wolf's Rocking Chair album circa 1981. But the MCA's had better sound for half the cost. Their circa-1985 Chuck Berry LP was a godsend.
Quote | That was my introduction to Elmore James; I picked up the "Whose Muddy Shoes" album: 9 Elmore James Chess sides and 6 John Brim Chess sides, including the original version of "Ice Cream Man". I had been listening to a lot of George Thorogood's old (pre-Bad to the Bone) albums, so Elmore James was a revelation. |
Yeah, I still have an ancient MCA vinyl copy of that. 'Tool Bag Boogie' and the title track are the standouts, I think.
Right now I'm trying to figger out which of the SIX takes of 'Strange Kinda Feeling' deserves to go on my ipod.
-------------- "Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus
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