Album Review: Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilson

Artist: Harry Nilsson

Album:  Nilsson Schmilsson

Released:  November, 1971

This is one of the first albums I owned.  I think I got it when “Coconut” was on the charts (which peaked at #8 on 08/26/1972.  I have a memory of hearing that song at the pool that summer, while visiting a friend in West Virginia.  I turned 12 that summer, and been entering 7th grade that fall.  This would've been around the time that I was discovering FM radio, and the world beyond Casey Kasem, and this album was a good bridge.

It quickly became my favorite record.  And it has remained a staple in my collection.  It doesn't get played every day, or every week.  But it gets played all along.  Not bad for 45 years down the road.  

While Coconut was the hook that caught me, I was quickly taken in by the rest of the album.  My favorites would include: Down, Jump Into The Fire, Driving Along, Early In The Morning....  The drive of those first 2, the groove of the second two...  it blew my young mind.  the Interestingly, the biggest hit, "Without You" is not one of my favorites.  I don't dislike it, and it is certainly a great song.  Just I like others more.  The only song I didn't really like in my youth was I'll Never Leaver You, a dark sounding song, with piano, voice, strings and horns.  It was a bit too far outside my brain at the time.  Still not a favorite, but I've appreciated it on a different level through the years.  This is a piano album, not much in the way of screaming guitars.  Which shouldn't be surprising as Nilsson was a Piano player.

Obscurity Index:  This was pretty popular at the time of its release.  It spawned three (3) hit singles, two including Jump Into the Fire (#27), Coconut (#8) and Without You (#1).  The album peaked at #3, and is certified gold.  It also garnered a Grammy nomination for Album Of The Year.  So, at the time it wasn’t obscure at all.  

Trivia:  The album was released on Dynaflex vinyl.  This was a process RCA came up with in the late 60's, which resulted in thinner records that were somewhat "floppy".  At least compared to normal records.  I think they touted it to be less prone to damage (cracks and such).  I have several dynaflex albums from the early 70's, but the format certainly didn't take over the world.

Allmusic rated Nilsson Schmilsson 4.5 stars, it carries 554 user ratings, also 4.5/50.  I rated it a 5.0 on allmusic (sometime in the past), and will stick with it.  5.0.

This album is available on Spotify and Amazon Music.  Check it out!

Back cover, and the RCA "orange" label, w/ dynaflex" logo:

Leaf Me Alone

A bit part of photography is simply staying aware...  Which is not nearly as easy as it sounds, and something I don't often do particularly well.

Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was was hanging out on the patio, while the dogs had a last chance at the back yard.  And I noticed this leaf sitting on the fence.

Pulled out my phone, and Voila!

Now, I won't try and convice you it's deep art or anything...  But I kind of like it.

Album Review: Lay Low Moon - On The Days Last Year

Another a departure, another one written by my son, and posted to the WPTS (university Of Pittsburgh radio station) web site.  Way better than anything I could write...   Click through the link below:

Artist:  Lay Low Moon
Album:  On The Day Last Year
Released:  August 2018


“On This Day Last Year” by Lay Low Moon – Review

https://wptsradio.org/on-this-day-last-year-by-lay-low-moon-review/

Too Many Sunsets? - Again

Yeah I know...  This one is from a week ago.  Not quite the "classic" sunset, but I rather like this one.  The sun is a little blown-out, but I really wanted to maintain the detail in thr foreground.  I suppose if I was really good I could've done a stacked exposure kind of thing (with multiple images).  Or if I had a graduated ND filter.  But I'm not that fancy.

Taken at Schon park in Glen Carbon.

 Title is in reference to yesterday's post.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas?

So...  I was on a Wal Mart run this evening and stopped by the Garden Center looking for a specific item...  Alas, On Sunday, September 23, they are well into the process of converting the garden center over to Christmas decorations.

September...  more than a month before Halloween.  8 weeks before Thanksgiving.  A quarter of a year early!!!!

I tell you, it just ain't right.

Too Many Sunsets?

Can you have too many sunset pictures?  Sometimes they're so easy they seem almost cheap.  But they're so sweet!!!

This one is from last evening (Saturday),from a humble location:  the parking lot of the Glen Carbon Wal-Mart.  I managed to get an angle mostly uncluttered, but couldn't quite get it clear.

Album Review: Arrogance - Suddenly

Artist:  Arrogance

Album:  Suddenly

Released:  1980

How do I know these folks:  I saw Arrogance in a club in Raleigh, North Carolina when this album was out.  Sometime in 1980, pretty sure it was a place called "The Pier", IIRC, I picked up the album based on the strength of their show.  This album got solid radio play in the Raleigh/Durham area back in the day, but I don't think there was any national splash.  Allmusic calls them "rockers who became local heroes yet somehow never went nationwide...   It's not that they didn't try to achieve stardom beyond their natural stomping grounds. But timing was against them "

I've been trying to think of who they sound like....  My first response is Springsteen,...  But that may be a reflection on the bosses singing style (especially on Burning Desire).  Frankly, I'm not a huge Springsteen fan, so it's had to really say.  My next thought was Robbin Thompson Band's song "Brite Eyes".  But that probably doesn't help y'all much...  Maybe Greg Kihn Band, rockihnroll album?  Or the first Tommy Tutone?   But I did find some of this album on youtube so you can dial it up yourself.

There's some really good songs on this album, starting with "I'm Not Your Taxi", which was a regional hit in North Carolina.  Also Burning Desire, Suddenly, Bring It On Home.  The rest of the album is generally solid, there's no songs that I dislike.  Get Her Out Of My Life is probably my least favorite.

Anyway, if you see this in your favorite used record shop, grab it.  It is absolutely worth having.

There is a review at Allmusic, who gave them 4 stars (out of 5).  There's only 2 user reviews (pending mine), rated 4.5 out of 5.  I'll give this one a solid 3.5/5.0. 

Obscurity Index:   I'll call this "extremely obscure".  

The album was released on a major label (Warner Brothers), but I think it was pretty much a regional thing.  Nothing on the sigles chart.  As best as I can tell, they didn't make Billboard's album chart.  Not on Spotify, the album is not on Amazon.  How many of you out there in internet-land know these guys? 

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Here's the back cover, click through for larger version...

The inner sleeve includes lyrics for the songs...

Black Walnut Fruit

Just a little something I saw at Pleasant Ridge Park during lunch today.  Pretty sure this is a black walnut ... ...  thing.  The hull around the seed that houses the nut.   Shot as found, on a picnic table.  There were lots of these balls around the table, but only a couple on it.

Stuff....

SOOC

This is the kind of image that I love the iPhone for...  These low vantage point wide angle portrait orientation.  This is "Straight Out Of Camera", or SOOC.

Taken Sunday at Watershed Nature Center

And another example, taken on one of our bike trails:

Watershed Sunday

Managed a late afternoon walk at Watershed Nature Center yesterday.  Pretty day, except for the heat 92 degrees, 98 heat index.  So it was a slow walk! 

Lots of green at the Watershed, including a pretty much solid layer of duckweed.3

This one is straight out of camera, with my zoom set to approximate 50mm lens (on a 35mm film camera).  For a challenge at 365project, Nifty-Fifty-StraightOutOfCamera

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I like thsi stand of trees (Birch?), along the edge of the pond.  Looking like they may be close to changing color

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I couldn't resist recording this couple on the Marsh-Walk....

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Farm at Sunset

A couple of photos from an early evening walk last week.    The first shot was about 6:45pm, the second about 10 minutes later.  According to the internet, sunset was at 7:13 pm that day.

This is along the Nickel Plate bike trail, west of Rt. 143, where it parallels Rt. 162.

Album Reviews - A New thing?

OK, I've done a few of these album reviews now, and intend to make it a regular thing.  I'm hoping folk ejoy them, comments (and even requests) welcome.  My interntion has been to focus mostly on stuff I own on vinyl, and stuff that is somewhat obscure.  But, as you can already see, that's not exclusively true.

You can see them all with the tag albumreviews.

Anyway:  here's what I've done so far:

Artist    -    Album    -  Released -   Posted (datecode)

• Arrogance - Suddenly - 1980 - scheduled - 20180922
• Christoper Cross - Christoper Cross - 1979  - 20180915
• The Kinks - One For The Road - 1980 - 20180908
• The Kooks  -  Let's Go Sunshine - 2018 - 20180913
• Louisiana's Le Roux - Louisiana's Le Roux - 1978 - 20180902

Looking here, I see that my first 4 reviews are clustered in 1978-1980 window.  That wasn't my intention, I guess I need to take that into account on the next one.   Hmm, the last record I bought new on vinyl was Kathy Mattea's Untasted Honey (1987).  I know I'll do JJ Cale, along with Brian Protheroe.  Root Boy Slim?  Iron City Houserockers?  The Jags? Allen Collins Band?  I have no shortage of options...

Thanks for reading!

Album Review: Christopher Cross - Christopher Cross

Artist:  Christopher Cross
Album:  Christopher Cross
Year:  1979 (released in December 1979)

Christopher Cross burst onto the music scene in early 1980, seemingly out of nowhere.  The eponymous album yielded 4 hits:  Sailing (#1), Ride Like The Wind (#2), Never Be the Same (#15) and Say You'll Be Mine (#20).  The album dominated the 1980 Grammy Awards, winning Song Of The Year (Sailing), Album Of The Year, Best New Artist and Song Of The year (Sailing).  Certified 5x Platinum.  In other words, a smash that dominated the airwaves.

Of course, in 1980, I was mostly listening to other stuff.  Like The Pretenders.  The Jam.  The Police.  The B-52's.  Anything except Christoper Cross... 

So, why do I have this album?  Well, short answer is that I inherited it when I got married (35 years ago!).  And I'm confident I've never heard the album before I decided to check it out for this review.  Take one for the team, as it were.

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So, what're my thoughts?  Of course I knew the four big hits.  Nobody who lived near a radio in 1980 could've avoided those songs.  The whole album is smooth, well produced and performed.   Michael McDonald sings a very prominent background vocal on a couple of songs, and fits in perfectly. At times I kind of feel a Boz Scaggs kind of a feel.  The song "Ride Like The Wind" is a very good pop song, even with Michael McDonald's contribution...

Bottom line:  this album is very good at being what it is.  An early 80's adult contemporary / pop record.  Lots of pleasant songs that you probably won't remember 20 years from now.  Not a lot of groove of energy.  And that's OK.  I don't hate it, but it won't be showing up in heavy rotation on my iPod.

Allmusic gives it a robust 4.5/5.0 stars, and stating "in truth, Christopher Cross was a hell of a record -- it just was a hell of a soft rock record, something that doesn't carry a lot of weight among most audiences".  I'll acknowledge the position, but not award the points.  I vacillated between 2.5 and 3.0/5.0....  It is a well done album in a style that I'm not a huge fan of.  I'm feeling generous today, and will go 3.0.

Obscurity Index:  The complete opposite of obscure..  I'm not sure how well remembered Christopher Cross is, but there wasn't a bigger album when it was new. NOT Obscure.

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Here's the back cover, click for larger.  The inner sleeve is simply a solid green, with the lyrics in white.

Southern Indiana Explore...

From our trip last month, I'm still working through the photos.  A fun explore: after spending the night in Corydon, Indiana (about 25 miles west of Louisville) we decided to NOT jump back on the interstate, and to wander the backroads for a bit.  

Our first stop was The Overlook at Leavenworth, Indiana.  We had a most-enjoyable lunch here probably 10 years ago [edit, looks like June of 2009].  This day we were there before the restaurant opened, but we enjoyed looking over the overlook:

And the view, looking upriver (with lots of effects).  It was a bit cloudy, and quite windy (see flag above), but not at all unpleasant....

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Eventually we found ourselves here...  A 1-lane bridge across the Little Blue River.  A bit south of the unincorporated community of Beechwood, Indiana.

The blue sign at the lower right says

NOTICE

 Historic bridge ahead

 May be replaced

 For more information

 call

(812) 338-2162

I kind of wanted to call, but didn't.  The weight limit was 8 tons, which doesn't seem too bad.

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Continuing along took us to Alton, Indiana.  Not to be confused with Alton, IL...  A small town, population 55.  Sitting right on the Ohio River, though.  There were quite a few campers parked near the river, I got the impression they were weekend homes rather than folks passing through.  thye just had a "settled" look.  But they did have a dock.  Of sorts:

The town was laid out in a small grid, and all of the streets were (barely) one lane wide (but not one-way).  The photo isn't really meant to tell a story about Alton, I just like dead tech...  Here's a longer view, you can see that it was still pretty overcast...

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Continuing on our wander, we next stopped at the unincorporated community of Magnet, just around the next river bend.  Looking south on the Ohio River...  the clouds were just starting to break up.

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All in all, a really pleasant side trip.  It added a couple of hours to our return trip, but was time well spent.

Album Review: The Kooks - Let's Go Sunshine

A little bit of a departure, this one was written by my son, and posted to the WPTS (university Of Pittsburgh radio station) web site.  Click through the link below:

Artist:  The Kooks

Album:  Let's Go Sunshine
Released:  2018


“Let’s Go Sunshine” by The Kooks – Review

https://wptsradio.org/lets-go-sunshine-kooks-review/

Untitled #6401 - Before and After

A grey day today, after a rainy couple of days.  But it was dry this afternoon, so I went out to the Old Chain Of Rocks bridge for some walking.

I took the base image for a challenge over at 365project.  Called Nifty-fifty-straight-out-of-camera.  The idea is to replicate the old days when we shot film with SLR cameras that had a "standard" 50mm lens.  So the goal is to replicate that experience.  I have a Nikon with a kit zoom...  a 35mm zoom setting is equivalent to a 50mm lens with 35mm film....

Anyway, the image above has little to do with the challenge.  The SOOC version is below:

Brussels Ferry

So...  last weekend I was talking with the wife. and we realized that I have never crossed the Illinois River on the Brussels Ferry.  29 years....   She has ridden it, but many years ago.  So we did a day trip.  Up through Alton to Grafton, the across the Brussels Ferry, and then up the land between the rivers (Illinois and Mississippi) to cross back at Hardin.  South from hardin back to Grafton, where we had a nice meal at the Grafton Winery & Brewhaus.

After some VERY good hamburgers, and a flight of beer samples, it was on to home.

Pulling out from the Grafton dock, looking off the port side.

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Looking out the front of the ferry.  Well the front of the ferry on this crossing.  It is the back of the ferry for the return trip!

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Looking back towards the Graftom landing

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And a little artsy B&W from midstream.  Looking up the Illinois river.  I must say I'm rather happy with this one.  Also posted at 365.  

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Album Review: The Kinks - One For The Road

Artist:  The Kinks

Album:  One For The Road

Released:  1980

This "Live" album  from The Kinks was recorded during 1979, mostly from shows in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  And released in the summer of 1980.  I received this album at the start of the '80/'81 school year (college) from my roommate the previous year. 

The playing is solid, the sound is good.  A double album, and included a nice double sided poster (folded).  This doesn't come off as a "contract filler".  It introduced me to several Kinks songs I wasn't very familiar with, or at least didn't have in my collection.  Such as Hardway, Misfits, Prince Of The Punks, and Celluloid Heroes.  All that said, it's never really been a favorite album for me.  Why?

Well, first flaw (IMHO) is a over-reliance on songs from the album Low Budget.  Low Budget had been released in the summer of '79, so this tour would've been in support of it.  Still, they didn't need to have it dominate this album.  Over 1/2 of low budget is here, and it represents about 1/3 of this album.   I had (and still have) Low Budget, so this level of content seemed excessive.  It's not like the Kinks don't have a solid catalog to draw from.  Nothing was included from Village Green,  and only one some from Muswell Hillbillies, and Lola.  Nothing from '77s Sleepwalker...

The other "flaw" from my standpoint is the prevalence of synthesizers.  I don't know if they were giving new member Ian Gibbons some extra spotight, or if (more likely) it was just a reflection of it being 1980... 

last "flaw":  I thought the album title was unoriginal, deriving from Synysrd's One More From The Road

Bottom line:  This is a decent album, one that gets played all along.  But not a favorite, certainly not essential.  I'd give it 3.0 out of 5.0. Allmusic was a little harsher, rating it 2.5/5.0.  They have 185 user ratings which come in at 4.0/5.0.  Their review calls the album "a fascinating document of trailblazing elder statesmen who paved the way for heavy metal and punk, but never felt a glorious pop song was out of their grasp."

One For The Road was a successful release, selling "gold" and reaching #14 on the Billboard album chart.  It is available on Spotify, and the CD is available on Amazon.  Not high on the "obscurity" meter....

Here's the back cover, inside the gatefold, and the poster (each side)
click through for larger versions...

rear cover

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inside gateway (the blur is not MY doing!)

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Poster - one side

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Poster - other sidce

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