HUN-GRAY!

I don't know how I could lose a pair of glasses in this wee apartment, but somehow I have. Quite irritating.

I want to give a shout-out to the Penn State Library, whose music collection I've been ransacking. Stuff I've been hearing for free, free, free: Fiona Apple, Erykah Badu, Chuck Berry, The Cure, Miles Davis, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Ice Cube, George Jones, John Lennon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Memphis Jug Band, Randy Newman, Stevie Nicks, Teddy Pendergrass, Wilson Pickett, Prince (finally heard "Erotic City"!!), John Prine, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Rolling Stones (I have the classics, I just wanted to hear "Mixed Emotions" for the first time in 15 years off Forty Licks - btw, Jessica Hopper was right about "Has Anybody Seen My Baby?") and the Tommy Boy & Def Jam box sets. I already had material from a lot of these artists, but I'm happy to hear more from all.

While disappointed that the 2CD The Legend Of Paul Revere doesn't have "Crisco Party" (that would be on the later comp The Essential Ride), I'm amazed how much I'm digging this comp. I've already got five Raiders full-lengths, but this retrospective is like an alternate history of sixties rock: from "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" to "Steppin' Out" to "The Great Airplane Strike" to "Happening '68" to "We Gotta All Get Together" to "Powder Blue Mercedes Queen." Only song of theirs I knew before I started checking out their stuff two years back was "Kicks," and even that I knew only from my Best Of The Monkees...Then And Now tape from kindergarten. Solid, exuberant work with none of the pesky auteurism of the groups they aped. Mark Lindsay is The Man and their fashion sense was impeccable. Good times.