So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Basvarken]

I think Shine A Light is okay-ish.
But Truth As My Weapon is just dead boring...

[uwe]

Such mild and supportive words from you of all people about Grandma Suzi - bedankt!

[Basvarken]

Suzi doesn't really need my supportive words does she? 

[Dave W]

The dulcet tones of Shel Silverstein. Although I never heard this on the radio, I saw him sing and play it on Carson back in the day. Rare.

[Dave W]

Gary Talley was lead guitarist of the Box Tops. Here he is with his 96 year old mother, just posted on August 13th. There are others on his YT channel.

[uwe]

Très cute!

[uwe]

The dulcet tones of Shel Silverstein. Although I never heard this on the radio, I saw him sing and play it on Carson back in the day. Rare.

Would have made a perfect Dr Hook number. Interestingly, both Ray Sawyer's (the eye-patch guy)


(BTW another Shel Silverstein number.)

and Dennis Locorriere's (the blue-eyed soul lead vocalist on most of Dr Hook's hits, Cover Of The Rolling Stone excepted) respective voices


(As is this one.)

showed elements of how Shel "sang" - it seems like they patterned their Dr Hook voices after him, they were both just technically better singers.

As a white harmony vocal duo Locorriere/Sawyer were vastly underrated. Dr Hook's spoof & anarchy image obscured how good they were as musicians. They and Shel Silverstein should have been inducted in the RRHoF long ago.

[uwe]

Immaculate.




If Ronnie Lane had slung his bass just a bit lower, he could have strummed it with his knees!

[uwe]

Anybody like(d) Transvision Vamp here? Wendy had animal grace. Parts of me would have liked to be the microphone and, uhum, stand.

[uwe]

Guilty pleasures, I know. I can't defend it.

[uwe]

More Suzi - the Detroit gal honoring black music on her comparatively recent EP:







Not a first for her:

[Dave W]

Would have made a perfect Dr Hook number. Interestingly, both Ray Sawyer's (the eye-patch guy)
,,,

and Dennis Locorriere's (the blue-eyed soul lead vocalist on most of Dr Hook's hits, Cover Of The Rolling Stone excepted) respective voices

...

showed elements of how Shel "sang" - it seems like they patterned their Dr Hook voices after him, they were both just technically better singers.

As a white harmony vocal duo Locorriere/Sawyer were vastly underrated. Dr Hook's spoof & anarchy image obscured how good they were as musicians. They and Shel Silverstein should have been inducted in the RRHoF long ago.

I never thought of Dennis' voice as patterned after Shel's, but now that you mention it, I think you're onto something.

RRHoF? Maybe, but Shel wrote many country hits. Why not the CMHoF?











and a lesser known one I've always liked.

[uwe]

I never thought of Dennis' voice as patterned after Shel's, but now that you mention it, I think you're onto something.

RRHoF? Maybe, but Shel wrote many country hits. Why not the CMHoF?

Queen Of The Silver Dollar was first released by Doctor Hook on their second album Sloppy Seconds I believe, but you're right, Shel's songwriting art had country elements too. As had Doctor Hook. You will laugh about it, but in Germany Doctor Hook were referred to in the early 70ies as "country rock". That said, Shel has seen recognnition:

"Silverstein was posthumously inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.[41] Silverstein was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2014."

Queen Of The Silver Dollar is a great song, cinematic in its lyrical weight:



I don't believe that Dennis' and Ray's vocals were consciously patterned after Shel's demoed voice, but Dennis was only in his early 20ies when he met Shel almost 20 years his elder (even eye-patch-Ray was 12 years older than Dennis) and was according to his own words absolutely overawed by Shel's little everyday life stories and witty street humor. He felt honored to be allowed to sing those songs and probably just opted to sound as close as he could with his younger, more flexible voice.

[uwe]

For some people, Grand Funk without Mark Farner is like - supposedly - Deep Purple without Ritchie, but I've got to say that I find this performance convincing:



They basically never tour tour outside of their US home hunting ground, but I'd see them like this in a heartbeat if they ever came to Germany.

It's nice to see Bruce Kulick with a steady job - the best lead guitarist Kiss ever had.

[westen44]

Good as they may be, the vocals here aren't even close to Mark Farner's.  They're still a good band, but I don't really think of them as Grand Funk.