Month: July 2021

I saw Loggins and Messina with opening act Jim Croce in 1973

I saw Loggins and Messina and Jim Croce on March 13, 1973 at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh. The Mosque was a great concert hall and I have posted about it.

Jim Croce was the opening act. He was much more of a folk musician than you would know from his hit records. I assume all of the rock background was added on the record to make them more popular with a wider audience. On stage, it was just him and Maury Muehleisen who accompanied him. They both died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973 They both played acoustic guitars. Croce told a lot of stories and was very amusing as I recall.

Loggins and Messina had released two albums by that point. They toured with a full band. I don’t recall much except that Jim Messina stood off to the side when he did guitar solos.

Here are videos of them from 1973.

Coronavirus outbreaks – 7/7/21 update

This could be avoided if people were vaccinated

M.U.L.E. – a game for the Atari computer in the 1980s

M.U.L.E. was my favorite game that was ever developed for the Atari. It was on a disc, not a cartridge. It was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 when the company was new. Obviously, it looks primitive today but it was great for its time. It was later made for the Commodore 64 and other systems.

M.U.L.E. was a multiplayer game where players could develop land parcels they owned on the planet IRATA. There could be random events like fires or sunspots that could help you or hurt you. There were no weapons or people getting killed.

Review in Byte magazine

Internet Archive files

I saw the Beach Boys and Steely Dan in 1974 (updated post)

The Beach Boys played the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on April 17, 1974, with Steely Dan as the opening act. Now that was a strange combination.

Steely Dan was introduced by one of their roadies as Mr. Steely Dan. See the description here of a similar introduction.. They had two drummers but no horn section. On “My Old School”, they used a guitar to cover the horn parts.

The Beach Boys had 10 people on stage but Brian Wilson wasn’t one of them. At one point, they had five people playing keyboards. The audience was not interested in their modern work, they only wanted to hear the oldies like “Fun Fun Fun”. This was sad as the Beach Boys were making some good music in the 1970s which built on their old stuff but was more sophisticated.

The photo at the bottom is of a backstage pass for the show that I bought on eBay:

This is a Beach Boys show from that era.

Here’s a Steely Dan show from 1974.

The biggest threat to fair elections

It’s not voter suppression, it’s letting legislatures and judges overturn elections. This is strictly a problem caused by Republicans.

Unemployment and jobs articles – 7/6/21

Job searches fell in states canceling unemployment benefits early

Update on companies who donate to Republicans who voted to overturn the election – 7/6/21

see update on Toyota – pressure must have helped change their minds

<div><br class=”Apple-interchange-newline”>https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-senate-elections-capitol-siege-election-2020-house-elections-62e7985e962e6852ef5041b32c63368c</div>Click to copyRELATED TOPICS

6 months after Capitol assault, corporate pledges fall flat

Five disappointing follow up albums from 1971-1980

Here are five albums that were very disappointing based on their predecessors. I have included my favorite songs from the albums which make them sound better than they are.

Wake of the Flood – The Grateful Dead (1973)

Wake of the Flood was the Grateful Dead’s first studio album since the outstanding American Beauty (1970). It was the first record on their own label. It followed the live Europe ’72 which had many excellent new songs. Wake only has one good song – the first one “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” (with Vassar Clements on fiddle). Some of the others are so laid-back that you could fall asleep – I’m talking about “Stella Blue” and “Row Jimmy”.

Try Bob Weir’s 1972 solo album Ace. It’s much livelier and much better.

Cahoots – The Band (1971)

Even the Band knew Cahoots was a bad album. I saw them perform three times after it was released and they only performed “Life Is a Carnival” from it. That’s the only song from it on the live Rock of Ages which was recorded just months after Cahoots was released. There are two good songs on Cahoots – “Life Is a Carnival” with the great Allen Toussaint horn arrangement and Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece”. My opinion hasn’t budged in the 50 years since it was released. It was a huge disappointment after the first three albums and I doubt it will get a deluxe reissue like they did.

Common One – Van Morrison (1980)

What a disappointment. 1979’s Into the Music was one of Morrison’s best album and Common One is best suited to be a frisbee. Sluggish and quiet. Boring.

Goats Head Soup – The Rolling Stones (1973)

Maybe your opinion of Goats Head Soup depends on what you think of the single “Angie”. I don’t like ballads and I think it sucks. This was a huge letdown after the superb 1968-1972 run from Beggars Banquet through Exile on Main Street.

Diamonds in the Rough – John Prine (1972)

“Diamonds in the Rough is kind of miscast on this list. The performances and arrangements by Prine backed by Steve Goodman, David Bromberg and Steve Burgh are superb. They take Prine’s acoustic performances and sweeten them up for mass consumption. I wish this group had recorded his first album which has too much rock for me. The problem is that the songs aren’t nearly as good as the ones on his debut. “Everybody” is the only one that can stand with them.

The 50 Most Disappointing Albums of All Time (Rolling Stone article)