Nashville Cats/Noshville Katz

Former WCBS-FM DJ Bob Shannon set up a message board to discuss oldies music.  Today there was a thread about the novelty song Noshville Katz.  Back it 1967 the Lovin' Spoonful had a hit with Nashville Cats which I have on vinyl.  Murray the K played a parody of that song called Noshville Katz which by the Lovin' Cohens which is about a man who owns a kosher deli.  I used my Googling skills and found it on a radio show on WFMU.  I was able to download an mp3 version of it.  If anybody reading this blog is interested, I can send you the file.

Dylan - Rolling Thunder and the Gospel Years 1975-81

Why I am I listening to Jazz when I am writing yet another blog entry about Bob Dylan?  Duh!  I don't know.  Anyway about two months ago I ordered a DVD from Highway 61 Entertainment run by Joel Gilbert who looks like Dylan and fronts a Bob Dylan tribute band.  He produced a DVD which covers the history of Bob Dylan from 1975-81.  Tonight I only watched the first hour.  There was a long interview with Rubin Hurricaine Carter.  Back in 1975 Dylan wrote a song about the Hurricaine who was wrongly accused on a murder in Patterson, NJ.  In this segment Gilbert also interviewed Rob Stoner, Scarlett Rivera, and others who backed Dylan at that time.  The next segment will discuss the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Walking with Mr. Lee

Walking with Mr. Lee by Lee Allen was a hit in the 1950s.  I have it on a Rhino collection of instrumentals from that decade.  We even played it at Lee's Bar Mitzvah.  Today Karen, Lee and I were walking around Alley Pond Park after stopping for donuts and coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.  No basketball games or movies today.  Back to work tomorrow :(

Too Much Basketball Today

No, Bob Dylan never wrote a song about basketball, but he did write a song about the late Catfish Hunter, the pitcher for the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees.  Today we set out to see a basketball game at CW Post in Brookdale, Long Island.  There was a doubleheader with Dowling College playing CW Post.  Although the women’s game started at 2 PM, we arrived about 3 PM to catch the second half.  The game ended at 3:45 with  Post winning 61-53.  The men’s game started at 4:15.  The defenses for both teams were tight.  The shooting was very poor.  To make a long story short, the game went to 4 overtimes!!!.  Dowling College finally won 80-76.  From there we went to Ben’s Deli in Greenvale about 5 minutes away.  I ate London Broil instead of my usual pastrami.  Enough basketball for me for one day.  Would you believe that Karen and Lee are watching the Knick game on TV?  Maybe I will catch the very end of it.

 

 Today, I dug into my record collection and pulled on a Peter Paul and Mary compilation that was released in 1970.  It included Too Much of Nothing which I talked about in yesterday’s entry.  In this version the name Vivian was changed to Marion.  I checked my Joel Whitburn book which says that this version charted at #35 in late 1967,  Some artists that cover Dylan’s songs change some of the lyrics.  I also listened to the Bob Dylan version that he recorded on the Basement Tapes which I have on vinyl J .  That seems to be an oxymoron.

Too Much of Nothing

Why am I listening to Breakfast with the Beatles when it is 9 PM on Friday when a particular Bob Dylan song is really hitting the spot?  Bob originally recorded Too Much of Nothing in 1967 with the Band at Big Pink.  Peter Paul and Mary had a wonderful cover version of this song.

 

A few years ago Bob produced and starred in a movie called “Masked and Anonymous”.  The Penelope Cruz character stated “His songs are so vague; you can interpret them anyway you want to.”  Very often you can change the names in a Dylan song and the song really fits the occasion.

 

Just change Valerie and Vivian to my two favorite bean counters and bureaucrats. J

 

The copyright belongs to Mr. Zimmerman.  Now since I bought the recordings, I must presume that I have the right to copy it to my blog.

 

Now, too much of nothing
Can make a man feel ill at ease.
One man's temper might rise
While another man's temper might freeze.
In the day of confession
We cannot mock a soul.
Oh, when there's too much of nothing,
No one has control.

Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Vivian
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion

Too much of nothing
Can make a man abuse a king.
He can walk the streets and boast like most
But he wouldn't know a thing.
Now, it's all been done before,
It's all been written in the book,
But whenthere's too much of nothing,
Nobody should look.

Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Vivian
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion

Too much of nothing
Can turn a man into a liar,
It can cause one man to sleep on nails
And another man to eat fire.
Ev'rybody's doin' somethin',
I heard it in a dream,
But when there's too much of nothing,
It just makes a fella mean.

Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Vivian
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion


Copyright © 1967; renewed 1995 Dwarf Music

My record collection still sounds good

I started collecting records in 1964 when the Beatles came to America.  From then until the mid 1980s I bought hundreds of 45s and LPs.  I never threw a record away.  Today Lee requested the Rolling Stones which I only have on vinyl.  He picked out Aftermath which I bought in 1966.  What happened to those 40 years.  The number one cut was Paint It Black which was a big 45 RPM hit.  The quality of this record was quite good.  I bought a turntable a few years ago so I can play my records.

The New York Knicks

Today we went to MSG and saw the Knicks lose to the Minnesota Timberwolves 96-90.  The Knicks and I go back to the early 1960s.  My memory is more precise for the Mets, but I remember watching basketball games on TV with my Dad.  I went to Knick home games in the mid 1960s with my buddies from high school.  Back in those days it cost only $1.25 to get into the old Madison Square Garden at 8th Avenue and 50th Street.  Then the players made only about $10,000/year.  We used to go every Tuesday and Saturday night. My favorite Knicks were Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Barnett, Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier and Willis Reed.  Back then the road games were broadcast on Channel 9 while the home games were on the MSG Cable Network which was only available in Manhattan.  In 1970 the 7th game of the NBA playoffs featured the Knicks against the Los Angeles Lakers.  That night my fraternity had a dinner to induct our new members.  We were listening to the game on the radio.  Today the players are a bunch of overpaid prima donnas.  Latrell Spreewell claimed he couldn’t feed his family on a measley $9 million/year.  Since I have to pay $135 for three tickets in the nosebleed section, I can only afford one game a year.  We only pay $8 to see a game at Hofstra.