You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2007.
Bob Dylan is now the greatest DJ ever. Gerard and I listened to his XM show all weekend at the farm Up North by the campfire. Bob spoke the Truth, and played songs that were the Truth. Some of the hour themes were Time, School, Mothers, Baseball, and The Bible. The last song we heard was Halleluia, I’m a Bum.
Ol’ Bob plays records from his own collection. He even talked about the thrill of going into someone’s basement and buying a box of records. I’m with you Bob! I wonder if he’s ever bought a record from us?
Well, Mr. Dylan, have you?
I’m finally done listing (or I will be tomorrow) that huge 45 collection. Up it goes tomorrow into cyberspace for all the 45 junkies out there to look at and maybe bid on.
It’s finally Friday. The Rouge Plant Blues lived up to it’s billing, lasting the entire work week as the lone post.
What’s next? Oh, I don’t know. I was thinking about telling you all about Ford Nix, maybe doing Mama Don’t Allow. What I really want to find is yet another Lee Osler song called Quarterback that was brought to my attention by my friend Greg. Could there be more 45s on Mustache?
Could it be true?
Well, it’s Monday. Time to go back to work and grind it out until the next weekend. In honor of working, workers, unions, and the good ol’ labor force, I thought it was time to tell you about the song Rouge Plant Blues.
The long time Detroit blues-funk bar band Stix and Stoned recorded their lone single (pictured above) “Rouge Plant Blues”, inspired by a couple factory worker buddies who formed the band. The Ford Rouge Plant, located on 2,000 acres in Dearborn, is quite impressive. In the 1920’s and 30’s, Henry Ford developed it into the largest industrial complex in the world, as well as the most technologically advanced. If you live in Michigan, you either work for an auto company or know about 20 people that do. I heard so many stories about working on the line at one of the Ford Plants - and the Rouge Plant is the big dog of them all.
I wish I owned that 45 on Bumpshop. Instead, I discovered this song while listening to my Michigan Rocks II compilation.
It’ll lift your spirits as you plug away at a new week.
.
Mom, I love you. Aunt Kathy, Justin loves you, and so do I.
I’m pre-celebrating Mother’s Day by listening to some Luther Allison on Delmark. I know it doesn’t have anything to do with mothers, but that’s OK. You’re just happy that I’m happy. And that’s why I love you. Luther is singing about a little red rooster.
I caught my mom some frogs today. We went to a private pond crawling with frogs. My mom likes ‘em cause she keeps ‘em in her frog pond in her backyard. We caught seven frogs today - I was on fire with frog catching. One jumped out of the net and I caught it with my bare hands. I’m the best damn frog catcher there ever was.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. We love you all. Keep doing what you do.
Love,
Cousins
Just watched the Golden State-Utah Game 4. Baron Davis had one of the nastiest dunks I have ever seen. Turned the corner, went straight at AK-47, rose, cocked the ball and just stuffed it in the basket right over his head. Oooo, it was nasty!
Golden State is fun to watch. Their crowd is way into it, and they play a very entertaining style - with four guards on the court most of the time just running and gunning. Plus they have Jason Richardson. J-Rich, the two time NBA dunk champion, said this about Davis’s posterizing of Kirilenko:
“That would have to be the greatest dunk I’ve ever seen with my eyes in person. It was like he put his whole body in the rim”.
I agree. Golden State is now officially my team out West - I actually dislike most of the West teams and I hate how everyone thinks they’re somehow far superior to the East.
The Pistons are peaking right now. It looks like they’ll finish the sweep on Sunday against the Bulls and then play the Cavs. LeBron always scares me, but I think he just doesn’t have enough help yet to compete for a title. I think they’ll win in five or six and then face San Antonio for a rematch of ‘05. And the Spurs are the one team that the Pistons don’t want. I’d much rather see the Suns. The good thing is that the West will beat each other up while the Pistons will coast, be rested and confident.
Oh that dunk was nasty!
Watch it here. Forget about records for a second. I don’t care if you’re not a basketball fan. Just watch.
The Pistons came back and beat the Bulls. Up 3-0.
Bought a small but nice jazz-soul-funk collection yesterday.
Will I post Rouge Plant Blues tonight? Maybe.
I think I might do a Mother’s Day post some time this weekend.
The 400+ soul 45 collection is almost done being listed. Will go up next week.
I get to hear my soon-to-be-born baby’s heartbeat today after work.
Happy Friday to all!
Breaking news out of Detroit: A Dearborn police officer cooks up some brownies from pot that he confiscated, panics and and calls the police, thinking he’s dead! He pleads with the dispatcher to “send rescue”, complains that time is moving really really slow, and then asks the score of the Red Wings game. True story, as reported by freep.com.
, courtesy of the Detroit Free Press.
And to think this could have been prevented had he shopped at Cousins Vinyl and had this to throw on the turntable:
According to Wax Poetics, Weather Report is one of the most innovative and soulful groups of all time. All Music Guide said that WR “practically refined the state of jazz-rock” during their 15 year run. And Josh recently came over to my house with a WR album in hand, ready to throw it on during a listening session. There’s Weather Report in the air! We have three of their albums currently in stock. Check ‘em out:
Josh and I got together tonight and played an hour and a half of strictly Michigan music, from 60’s small label soul to funk to rock and roll and back around to soul with a little twist of bluegrass and super obscure primitive stuff thrown in. Toward the end, Josh was almost in tears over Lee Osler’s Tarnished Love Affair (the Back to Ypsilanti B Side), and Sally and Zoe the dogs were munching on pizza.
I am attempting to try to put up the sessions, broken into smaller parts, although we’re running into some too-big-of-files problems.
But, we had a ton of fun, and at least we learned how to improve for next time.
*Update: I will post the first two songs, and keep working on the best way to do this.
: Podcast CousinsCast, Part 1. These first two songs are a random sample of a random selection of Detroit 45s that I pulled from the 450 soul 45s (not all Detroit but a good number) I am currently in the process of listing. Look for them all to go up all at once in another few weeks.
What’s next: Another soul 45, a blues-funk song about the Ford Rouge plant, and an incredible jazz/funk track with a break that goes on for days.
*Note: This CousinsCast, all other audio currently posted, and future audio posted on this site is for educational purposes only, made to provide a sample of the original records we are selling, and/or to educate others of the history of music in Michigan.
The crack of the bat, the smell of hot dogs. Yes, it’s baseball time in Detroit once again. The Tigs are 16-11, and starting to click after a slow start.
We came so close last year to winning it all for the first time since 1984, and the second time since the ‘68 season, the Year of The Tiger.
We thought we’d do our part in getting the old karma coming our way to bring home another title in 2007. Here are the two LPs that were put out in ‘68:
Ernie Harwell recaps the season as we listen to highlights of his legendary calls of the post season and championship games. The Year Of The Tiger ‘68 also features the great Tigers fight song, Go Get ‘Em Tigers, composed by Artie Fields. The back cover talks about the worried nature of the citizens of Detroit, dealing with work strikes and racial tension. But the spirit of the people bonded for the common goal of rooting for the Tigers to win the pennant.
Listen:
Another LP put out in ‘68 was by Denny McLain, our star pitcher who went a record 31-6 that year. During the season, he showed off his Hammond X-77 skills in recording this swinging album on Capitol, Denny McLain at the Organ: The Detroit Tigers Superstar Swings with Today’s Hits.
From the back cover:
“I am proud of this album,” Denny says. And then, stomping on the gas pedal of his bright red Pontiac as he swings onto the freeway from the Livernois off-ramp, he makes another comment:
“When it’s all said and done some day in the future,” he muses, “I hope they will remember Denny McLain as an outstanding professional musician.” (Notes by Dave Dexter Jr.)
Of course, Denny will also be remembered for his well-publicized legal troubles. But we’re glad he has now turned his life around, and we’ll of course remember him best for what he did for the city of Detroit on the mound.
So how about about one of these ‘07 Tigers putting out a record? I know Joel Zumaya loves playing Guitar Hero. And how about a modern day fight song? Jeff Daniels recorded Lifelong Tiger Fan Blues Revisited which is really good. I want a better one. Record your own and send it to us and we’ll play it here.
My good friend Gerard Donakowski visited Jamaica a few years ago. While there, he met a local Jamaican who wanted his very rare Adidas soccer jersey. They also struck up a conversation of Rastafarianism. He agreed to trade his jersey for this Don Drummond Studio One record.
Gerard was excited to get this hard to find album. But when he got back to his hotel, he noticed that inside wasn’t the right record, instead it was Disney’s Robin Hood.
Puzzled, Gerard took it in stride. He thought maybe that it was symbolic of the Jamaican Rasta (Robin Hood) justifiably stealing from the Babylonian (Gerard).
Or maybe it was an honest mistake, a failed attempt at providing this record that would teach the rhythm and spirit of the Jamaican/Rasta culture and faith to an interested and open mind.
But we still have the cover, and the story.
Gerard is a former world class runner who still holds the American outdoor record in the 4 mile run. He went on to become a traveling shoe salesman, soul rebel, messenger of the truth, neighbor to mankind, and a very close friend of mine. He currently lives in Boulder, Co, and is putting the finishing touches on his 10 years-in-the-works book, Diary Of A Traveling Shoe Salesman.
Of the book, Gerard told me that Hemingway once said that you don’t always have to tell the whole story, but you better know it.
Legendary songwriter and producer Terry Melcher was known as Terry Day when he began his very brief career as a recording artist, putting out this picture sleeve 45 (his first of only 3) in 1962. Melcher, the son of Doris Day, was a pioneer in the surf sound, made famous by the Beach Boys. He went on to become an extremely important producer, but his own brief work as an artist is often overlooked.
The 45 pictured above is up for auction right now in our store.
