May 30, 2023 · 10:00 pm

Tina Turner, channeled

Promo image for SiriusXM Tina Turner tribute channel, May-June 2023

Here, in its entirety, is my review of the Tina Turner tribute channel on SiriusXM:

Too much nice and easy. Not enough nice and rough.

If you tune in to SiriusXM Channel 49 through this Friday (June 2), you’ll hear a playlist with lots from Tina’s solo career and considerably less from her Ike and Tina career. I get it.

My friend Larry Grogan said pretty much everything I wanted to say about that on last night’s Funky 16 Corners Radio Show, “a tribute to the mighty Tina Turner.”

“Most of the world knows her by her 1980s resurgence as a solo superstar, and there’s even another part of the world that only knows her from, say, ‘Proud Mary’ on in the late 1960s.

“Ike and Tina Turner were working together from the very earliest part of the 1960s, making some of the greatest R&B and soul records of the era, period. Her vocal through that time makes her one of the preeminent female vocalists of the classic soul era. Just an absolute monument to her power and nuance. Just absolutely an amazing, amazing singer.”

That neatly sums up SiriusXM’s priorities in programming its Tina Turner channel. Play all the songs that most of the world knows. Play some of the lesser-known songs. Either way, make people happy, which is good.

I came in with that other part of the world, having had “Proud Mary” blow my 12-year-old mind upon seeing it performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in early 1970 or my 13-year-old mind upon its release as a single in early 1971.

I also got swept up in the big wave of her resurgence in the ’80s, then started exploring that earliest third level some 20 years ago as I got back into collecting records and rounded up all the Ike and Tina albums I could find. These 16 albums, dating from 1965 to 1985, upper left to lower right.

Collage of covers of 16 albums by Ike and Tina Turner from 1965 to 1985.

Larry opened his show with 9 scorching minutes of Ike and Tina live from a 1966 film, part of a half-hour set that also featured Tina live (from the 1965 record at upper left) and three from The Ikettes.

I listened to four hours of the Tina Turner channel while in the car this afternoon. Larry’s set and SiriusXM overlapped only with “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” from that same 1965 “Live!” record (and played only once in 21 hours today).

Of the 16 Ike and Tina records seen above, Sirius XM has played cuts from at least six of them on the tribute channel today. So give it a listen in the next couple of days. If you’re patient, you’ll hear a wee bit of the good vintage stuff.

But don’t miss the first half-hour of Larry’s tribute show.

Then please enjoy some of my favorite cuts from a couple of older posts, one that showed some love for Tina Turner when she was still with us, and the other featuring a Carnegie Hall show from 1971.

Rest in power, Tina Turner.

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May 5, 2023 · 8:30 pm

A dollar for your thoughts

Nielsen radio ratings diaries

The dollar sitting on my desk was a bribe. Listen to the radio for a week and tell us what you listened to. Janet received the same bribe, thus these two envelopes.

Greetings from the Nielsen family of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Nielsen radio ratings diary

Some fun facts from my radio ratings diary. Make of them what you will.

— I listened to the radio on each of the seven days of the survey week.

— I listened to Brewers baseball on a local FM station on four of the seven days, enduring right-wing news talk promos during the commercial breaks. (The Brewers went 1-3 in those games.) Been listening to the Brewers on the radio — the same Panasonic RF-930 desktop radio — since they arrived in Milwaukee in 1970.

— I listened early in the morning, while working out in the 5 a.m. hour. Most days, they pipe in a local oldies FM station to the pool area at my neighborhood Y. I swim there for a half-hour each day. I did not hear a song by a Black artist on any of the days it was piped in that week. WOGB apparently stands for Whites Only, Green Bay.

— On Thursday afternoon, the first day for the diary, I listened to “Testify!” on the Give the Drummer Radio streaming sub-channel on WFMU radio out of New Jersey. That was a beautiful memorial to your mother, Larry.

— I listened to a wee bit of “Funky Friday,” streaming it in the car on the WXPN app out of Philadelphia. There you go, Bruce.

— I meant to return to WXPN at home a couple of hours later and typed in WFMU by mistake. There and then, a pleasant surprise. “Downtown Soulville,” hosted by Matt “Mr. Fine Wine” Winegarden, a friend of my friends Larry and Paul.

— I listened to a wee bit of “Chris Carter’s British Invasion” on XM21, Underground Garage, one of my regular stops on Saturday afternoons.

— I must apologize to JB for not getting his Saturday night ’70s show on Magic 98 out of Madison into the diary. I would have, but I was at a wedding reception (and trying to listen to Evan’s livestreamed concert from Maryland).

— On Monday night, I listened to the “Funky 16 Corners Radio Show” preshow on Mixlr.com. Don’t know whether Nielsen considers that radio. I do, so I put it in the diary. (I didn’t listen to Larry’s actual show, though. Evan had another livestreamed concert from Maryland at the same time.)

— Wednesday, the last day for the diary, brought the longest stretch of listening —  almost 2 1/2 hours, digging Fufu Radio No. 198 on Mixlr.com. There you go, Vincent. Same deal. Don’t know whether Nielsen considers that radio, but I do, and it’s in the diary, too.

Green Bay radio is a new music desert and a cool music desert, thus my choices. Besides, you can’t beat listening to your friends.

Thank you for your interest in my radio listening habits. We now return you to your regular programming.

(One last note, in the interest of fairness. WOGB played a song by a Black artist during my pool workout this morning: “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Thin Lizzy. They may not realize a guy from an Irish band could be Black.)

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April 30, 2023 · 9:30 pm

Digging that ’60s pop

Not quite sure that the dry spell of almost a year has ended, but we’ve put a dent into it over the last couple of weeks.

Record Store Day was two Saturdays ago.

There’s usually not much for me among RSD releases, and I’m not one to wait in line or fight the crowds early in the day. This year, though, there was one RSD release I really wanted. I figured all the cool kids would snap it up and leave me looking in vain as in past Record Store Days.

But there it was at UFO Museum Gift Shop and Records, the relatively new record store run by my friends Timebomb Tom and Pierre. Not only was it there, five copies of it were there. Gotta say, Green Bay, you’re sleeping on this.

Dolly Parton The Monument Singles Collection 1964-1968

“The Monument Singles Collection: 1964-1968,” this compilation of Dolly Parton’s girl group-influenced pop singles and earliest country singles on the Monument label, is highly recommended.

Shoppers at the Green Bay Record Convention, April 29, 2023.

The Green Bay Record Convention was yesterday, on Saturday.

I helped set up and collected $15 from the earlybirds — the professional diggers — until the doors officially opened at 10 a.m. That left me about an hour and a half to dig for myself, before I had to leave for a wedding.

The gent wearing a brown cap and flannel shirt at upper right, keeping an eye on shoppers from inside the tables, is my friend Dave. Not long after this picture was taken, the crowds poured in, drawn like bugs to a light to Dave’s always solid records. I didn’t get a chance to look through Dave’s records. Another time.

But I did get to look through the records Rich brought up from Milwaukee. He always has interesting records at his Atomic Records table. Clive was at the next table over, and I went though his new arrivals. Bought these from those gents:

Rustix Bedlam LP

“Bedlam,” Rustix, 1969. Looked interesting. Another white band signed to a Motown label. Signed before Rare Earth, in fact, and to Rare Earth Records before that label had a name, if Wikipedia is to believed. A blue-eyed soul group out of Rochester, N.Y.

Looked interesting. Produced by R. Dean Taylor. Wasn’t all that interesting. So it goes. Described on YouTube as psychedelic rock and funk. Ahhh, no. Blue-eyed to be sure, but not sure it was soul, either. As always, you be the judge.

El Chicano Celebration LP

“Celebration,” El Chicano, 1972. The third LP from this Latin soul band out of L.A.

Much better. Right out of the gate, they revisit their hit “Viva Tirado” and get right down to cooking.

Al Caiola The Power of Brass LP

The most fun record I found was this $1 record.

“The Power of Brass,” Al Caiola, 1968. In which the well-known solo and studio guitarist, while vacationing in Miami, hears a 10-man group made up of University of Miami music students playing in the lounge at the Crossway Airport Inn, digs their sound and decides to make this record with them.

The Power of Brass is the name of their group. For the record, they are Wallace E. McMurray Jr. (trumpet), Doug Smith and George Doukas (trumpet, fluegelhorn), Ed Bevil (bass trombone), Val Houston (tenor trombone), Mark Bruce Hurwitz (sax, clarinet, flute, oboe), Steve Wittmack (piano), Kenneth D. Conklin (bass), Tony Vino (guitar) and Richard Docen (drums).

The Crossway Airport Inn, long gone, is said to have been “a true IN place on the mainland of Miami’s celebrity crowded nightlife.” It was next to Miami International Airport.

Imagine, if you will, Felix Unger and Oscar Madison as spies.

“The Odd Couple,” Al Caiola, from “The Power of Brass,” 1968.

Then savor the sheer joy of sunny ’60s pop with this song from the British comedy film “Prudence and the Pill.”

“The Morning After,” Al Caiola, from “The Power of Brass,” 1968.

Here’s the whole thing for those seeking more of that sunny ’60s pop groove.

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March 30, 2023 · 7:00 pm

Raquel Welch, singer

OK, first things first again. Anyone here not know Raquel Welch?

I gotta ask because two younger co-workers had no idea who I was talking about last month when I mentioned she’d died. Both were like “Um, I’ll have to Google her.” One of those co-workers — a guy in his early 30s — did so, and then concurred with my description of her as a Hollywood sex symbol who was “smoking hot.”

Raquel Welch was so much more than that, of course. Single mother of two for most of her early Hollywood career, litigant (wonder how 1982’s “Cannery Row” would be different had she gotten the female lead), entrepreneur, author.

A singer and a nightclub performer, too.

Raquel Welch "This Girl's Back in Town," 12-inch dance single jacket, 1987

Not long ago, I found “This Girl’s Back in Town,” a 12-inch dance single released in 1987. It is of its time, peak late ’80s, full of synths and drum programming. It’s OK. It just didn’t stand out from everything else that was being heard in 1987.

I dig crossover finds like this. I also have LPs by actresses Goldie Hawn and Teresa Graves and hope someday to find another copy of the Lynda Carter record I had but inexplicably sold. Each has moments that are better than you might have thought.

The video above is just the music, not the music video you might have seen on MTV. Though so much of Raquel Welch’s appeal was visual, the music video for “This Girl’s Back in Town” just ain’t it.

The ’80s were a challenging time for Welch — she did no films and just a handful of TV appearances — but Raquel Welch always was royalty. The music video doesn’t reflect that. You can find it on YouTube if you’re curious.

Discogs shows just two other music releases credited to Raquel Welch.

One is a 1977 French single, “L’Animal,” from the film of the same name. Whether that’s actually Raquel singing toward the end of this clip (it’s cued up to when the music starts), well, you be the judge. That French action comedy was her last film appearance until an uncredited cameo in “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult,” 17 years later, in 1994.

The other is a DVD of “Raquel!” the 1970 CBS-TV special in which she covered a bunch of hit pop songs from that time, duetted with Bob Hope on “Rocky Raccoon” and did a Little Richard medley with Tom Jones. (The video is the entire show, but is cued up to that medley.)

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February 25, 2023 · 10:00 pm

Sweet sixteen

Before we get started, a word for all you Substack loyalists. Long before there were Substacks, writers wrote things called blogs. This is one. Please feel free to explore this blog’s vast archive — more than 800 posts — as you would any museum.

It was 16 years ago this evening — Feb. 25, 2007 — that I sat down and wrote the first post here at AM, Then FM. I had two good eyes back then.

Because I’m recovering from eye surgery to repair a detached retina, typing is a bit of a hassle, so I’ll keep this short.

Though the audience grows smaller every year, thank you to all who have visited and read and commented and offered encouragement over the years.

In the third year of this blog’s existence, I went to see Chuck Berry at our local casino ballroom. Of that night, I wrote:

“He opened with a little ‘Roll Over Beethoven,’ then a little ‘’Round and ‘Round,’ then a little ‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’ all played only slightly faster than a shuffle pace … then announced: ‘If you guarantee at this moment that we are in tune, we would like to open our show.'”

It was indeed sweet. So, from a record I’ve had for almost 50 years …

"Chuck Berry's Golden Decade" LP cover, 1972

“Sweet Little Sixteen,” Chuck Berry, 1958, from all from “Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade,” 1967. My vinyl copy is the 1972 reissue.

Dig this, too. A lip-syncing but still swaggering Chuck is introduced by host Dick Clark and guest Johnny Carson on the second episode of the “The Dick Clark Show” on ABC. This is from Feb. 22, 1958, barely two months after “Sweet Little Sixteen” was recorded and just a month after the single was released.

Chuck may be gone, and Substacks may rule the day, but this old blog is gonna keep on keepin’ on.

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