Before we get to more tales of times I've felt sandbagged and scapegoated, let's examine the CD's I've bought in the past few months.
Humble Pie - BBC/Natural Born Boogie: I had downloaded a bootleg of a very early `70's BBC appearance by Humble Pie and was hoping this might be a clearer recording of the same appearance. It's not, it's a random sampling of songs from different times in Humble Pie's career. The recording quality is only so-so, in fact a track or two sound about like the bootleg. Many of these tunes are from before they went to their hammering, hard rock/proto-metal style. Not quite what I was hoping for but any Pie is rare Pie, since most of their CD's are out of print, so this is still a cool find.
Humble Pie - As Safe As Yesterday Is: This one I was really surprised to find in the used bins. It sells on E-Bay and Amazon used for $40 or $50, but the alternative rock nerds at the used CD store here don't know anyone values `70's hard rock so highly, so I got it for $8 and change! Wow! At this point Humble Pie was still looking for their sound and unfortunately this falls short of the glory of Smokin', but it's still a Humble Pie CD, and an out-of-print rarity at that, for $8.
AC/DC - High Voltage: No matter how glum a call center might make you feel, a dose of Bon Scott-era AC/DC will make you feel better. I used to own three Brian Johnson-era AC/DC discs but quickly pared back down to just Back in Black. I presumed the Johnson era was the best, but thanks to illegal MP3 downloading, man did I ever find out different! Now that I've heard most of the Scott albums in MP3 I'm snagging the real CD's when I see a good deal at the used shop. "I saw you in the front room moving to the beat/I saw the wet patch on your seat/Was it C-c-Coca-c-c-Cola?"
AC/DC - Highway to Hell: Just grabbed this one Friday. Whereas High Voltage had a lot of humor and some unusual riffs, by this, Bon Scott's last album, they were becoming a more "typical" hard rock band. It sounds good, but doesn't have the humor of songs like "Little Lover" or "Big Balls." Mutt Lange had stepped in by now and at least one of these songs sounds identical to Def Leppard. However the guitar tones are still perfect, the riffs are catchy, the songs build and sweep you up and Bon Scott's voice never failed. Great stuff.
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Winterland: A year or two ago I got a six-CD set of all the material recorded on the Jimi Hendrix Experience during a three-night run at the San Francisco Winterland Ballroom. Despite owning that, I snagged this at the used CD store. Another out-of-print album, and this pared-down version is great for the drive to work. "Noel has two valve tubes left and Mitch is on his last set of arms..."
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?: Just picked this one up Friday after reviewing my old Kiss the Sky deep cuts collection. The remastering makes some of the vocals a bit pointy, I think, but overall a really, really nice debut. Unlike with most bonus tracks these actually have some relation to the original album in that they were B-sides to singles from the album, or singles released at the same time that weren't included on the album.
Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus (Remastered): Did I already tell you about this? I heard about this remaster coming out years ago, and it finally hit the used CD shop in mint condition for about $10 for two discs. This is what you call a "deserted island album." For sunny weather and warm temperatures there is no better driving music to be found.
As for Humble Pie...the only albums worth having are Live at the Fillmore and Smokin'. Most all the rest of the catalog is sketchy at best.
Yeah, I got Band of Gypsys about a year ago. I like "Machine Gun": "Don't you shoot him down!"
I got Rock On awhile back but still haven't listened to it. I have high hopes, though, because most of Rockin' the Fillmore is from Rock On.
"We care about your hearing, that's why we don't play too loud." -- Jimi