Vinyl Spins - Zappa

The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out released in June 1966 was the first full album I went out and bought with my own money. I had been buying singles but this was different. This was a 2 LP set. I used some money from my birthday or Christmas and got it in early 1967 after reading  an interesting review somewhere. I was 15 and very impressionable.

The first song Those Hungry Freaks Daddy had me. I was hooked. Who Are The Brain Police, Help I'm A Rock, Your Probably Wondering Why I'm Here all had me wondering what the heck I was listening too but knew it was important.  I liked how the album was musically all over the place. I especially loved the doowop songs as much as the weird psychedelic music.

This was the beginning of a long appreciation of Frank Zappa and the start of a large collection of his work. I first saw The Mothers of Invention perform in 1969 at the Atlantic City Pop Festival.  Another memorable concert was seeing them in 1974 on the Apostrophe tour. The opening band that night was a very intense Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Vinyl Spins - The Boss

Back upstairs in my music room today doing some more reorganizing and since The Boss has been in the news a lot lately I thought I'd spin his live record. I think this is the last vinyl album I bought before moving on to CDs. I had seen him many times in Philly in the mid 70's  and it was great to finally have this 5 LP set live album.

Vinyl Spins - Jimi

I'm cleaning up my third floor music room and it's going to take some time so it's a good opportunity to play some old records. I bought the Electric Ladyland album when it was released in October 1968, played it countless times and it still sounds... perfect.

This was always my favorite Hendrix album top to bottom. I especially loved some of the less radio played songs such as Gypsy Eyes, Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, Come On, Have You Ever Been, and Rainy Day, Dream Away. Of course the hits were amazing; Purple Haze, All Along The Watchtower, Crosstown Traffic, etc. Everything on that album was great. It was also a 2 LP set which meant getting up and putting it on the turntable four times. We've become spoiled now with our CDs and even more so with iPod playlists playing entire albums and more.

On George Bush No. 43

This post was triggered by reading a recent review of a new biography of George W. Bush. Bush by Jean Edward Smith.

http://www.buffalonews.com/life-arts/book-reviews/the-worst-foreign-policy-decision-ever-made-by-an-american-president-the-man-who-made-it-20160904

I've read several books on the Iraq War and on the Bush presidency. I'll added this to my "to read" list on Good Reads.


I've often speculated what a single paragraph bio of George Bush's presidency would look like. I think it would go something like this.

"After ignoring intelligence warnings, George W. Bush responded to the worst terrorist attack on American soil with an unfunded invasion of the wrong country based on misleading and deliberate false information which directly led repressive laws assaulting the civil liberties of Americans and a decade long economic recession. Historians have concluded that Bush's decision to invade Iraq was the worse foreign policy decision ever made by an American president."