Yeah, the bubble gum companies in those glory days must have been busy. With the 1978 Kiss packs being my first love, I came to associate Donruss with them (even though I understood they were primarily a gum company first and foremost), yet I was surprised to learn that a set of The Monkees cards were also produced by Donruss 11 years before that (1967).
Thanks for sharing. I had never seen those before. That "Number Of The Beast" card in the pic looks particularly vivid.
His fame apparently came way too early! If he had come along during the youth-boom 50's, during Beatlemania, or during the larger than life 70's, I'm sure he would have ended up on the store shelves.
Top ten rock n roll bands of the 1970's 10 Bad Company 9 Genesis 8 Grand Funk Raiload 7 Emerson Lake and Palmer 6 Yes 5 Fleetwood Mac 4 The Who 3 Jethro Tull 2 Pink Floyd 1 Led Zeppelin
Holland also produced packs of Elvis Presley cards in the later 1970's that I really like. They aren't very "mainstream" or widely collected (at least not here in the US), but they are very cool. I always liked the border design layout on them...
"Top Ten Clapton Bands" 10. "Plastic Ono Band" 9. "Eric Clapton & The Powerhouse" 8. "Rainbow Concert" band 7. "ARMS Charity Concerts" band(s) 6. "Delaney and Bonnie and Friends" 5. "John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers" 4. "The Yardbirds" 3. "Blind Faith" 2. "Derek & The Dominos" 1. "Cream" Honorable Mention: "Crossroads" concerts & "Unplugged" band.
Top ten Pink Floyd Albums 10 Obscured By Clouds 9 Atom Heart Mother 8 A Momentary Lapse Of Reason 7 The Final Cut 6 The Division Bell 5 The Wall 4 Animals 3 The Dark Side Of The Moon 2 Wish You Were Here 1 Meddle
Very cool. We see what you did there! Lists like this should be pimped out to a musical periodical or a widely known blog: this takes some kinda work. Impressive!
I don't remember seeing a list for 2016, which I've been thinking about because we've already done so many of the "passed away a year ago" things. I swear I think 2016 was the worst ever. This is MY Top Ten, and yes, I'm leaving off plenty of people from YOUR Top Ten....but anyway....here's MINE.... 1) David Bowie (69, Jan 10) 2) Glenn Frey (67, Jan 18) 3) Paul Kantner (74, Jan 28) 4) Maurice White (74, Feb 4) 5) Keith Emerson (71, March 10) 6) Prince (57, April 21) 7) Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic) (72, June 24) 8) Leon Russell (74, Nov 12) 9) Greg Lake (69, Dec 7) 10) George Michael (53, Dec. 25) It really is insane to me that there's easily another dozen I could have put on there, just from the list of people *I* care about, before I even start with your list. But you know what struck me every bit as much? The producers and moguls we lost. The first few don't need much introduction, but some of the rest of them might, so I included links to everybody's Wikipedia pages. You own something by dang near every one of them, if not, like me, something from all of them. Quite a few of these fellas also led very interesting lives outside the office, plus of course I only named a handful of artists and albums for each, so it's worth taking a look to see the rest of their stories. 1) Robert Stigwood (81, Jan 4). Cream, Bee Gees, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Saturday Night Fever, on and on and on. 2) Giorgio Gomelsky (81, Jan 13). He owned The Crawdaddy Club in London, and hired The Rolling Stones as the house band. When they left, he replaced them with The Yardbirds, whom he also managed. Production for Rod Stewart, Soft Machine, early pioneer of digital video, and key figure in bringing the American blues to London in general. 3) George Martin (90, March 28) UFO, Little River Band, The Ivor and Basil Kirchin Band, The Scaffold, people like that. (BTW, put together these first 3 names with the first FIVE on the other list -- Q1 2016 was BRUTAL) 4) ) Chips Moman (79, June 13)- left Stax to found American Sound Studio in Memphis, went on to work in Nashville as a producer and writer. You KNOW his credits: From Elvis in Memphis, Petula Clark, Aretha -- he also played guitar on her Atlantic sessions -- Wilson Pickett, Herbie Mann, Dusty Springfield, etc. Wrote a bunch of hits, too. There was one week that he'd worked in one way or another on a full quarter of the Billboard Top 100. As a result, he has quite likely touched a disproportionately large portion of your 60s and 70s American pop/R&B discography. Do peek at his bio. 5) Sandy Pearlman (72, July 26) - produced Blue Öyster Cult, The Clash, The Dictators, and The Dream Syndicate, highly respected professor, consultant on music preservation to Library of Congress, etc. 6) Jerry Heller (75, September 2)- agent for Creedence Clearwater Revival, promoted first US tours for Pink Floyd and Elton John, worked with CSNY, Guess Who, Black Sabbath, The Who, Journey, NWA (Paul Giamatti played him in the movie), Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, Humble Pie and on and on and on. One of the giants. 7) Lewis Merenstein (81, September 6)-- most famously produced Astral Weeks and Moondance, but also The Spencer Davis Group, Cass Elliot, The Mamas & the Papas, John Cale, Curtis Mayfield, Charlie Daniels, The Association --plus three of my favorites, the original run of Glass Harp, featuring Phil Keaggy! 8) Chris Stone, (81, Sept 10) founding partner of The Record Plant, first in NY, then LA and Sausalito. Chris touched more famous albums than you can imagine -- Electric Ladyland, Rumours, Hotel California, artists like John Lennon, Alice Cooper, Todd Rundgren, soundtracks like Flashdance and Wrath of Khan, etc etc. Later sold 50% of the LA facility to Chrysalis Records under the management of one George Martin. 9) Phil Chess (95, Dec), founder of Chess Records, home to Chuck Berry, Etta James, Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, etc 10) Bob Krasnow, (81, Dec 11) founder of Blue Thumb Records (where he signed The Crusaders, The Pointer Sisters, Hugh Masekela, T. Rex, Love, Captain Beefheart, Ike & Tina, etc etc), then left for Elektra (where he signed Chaka Khan, The Cure, George Benson), plus Metallica, The Cars, etc etc. Another one of the giants to me. There's a whole 'nother list of SIDEMEN we lost (start with Scotty Moore), but I'll be honest. There were just way too many for me to stick to 10, and it was getting too grim. I'm just about at the point where any list like this is too long, but I do find myself thinking that we're off to a relatively gentle start to 2017. Here's hoping!
Great list but, you may have a change to your list when Willie Nile's, "Positively Bob" album comes out next month.
Super Deluxe Box Bonanza! Here are ten albums that are more than deserving of a super deluxe box set, in my opinion, and which I'd open up my wallet for without hesitation if they were done attractively: 1. Their Satanic Majesties Request: The Rolling Stones 2. Beggar's Banquet: The Rolling Stones 3. Let It Bleed: The Rolling Stones 4. Kiss: Kiss 5. 1999: Prince 6. Every Picture Tells A Story: Rod Stewart 7. The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle: Bruce Springsteen 8. Come Fly With Me: Frank Sinatra 9. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Elton John 10. Going To A Go-Go: The Miracles
The "Go Figure" List... Here are ten random and perhaps contradictory things about my taste (or lack thereof) in music: 1. I'll spend $75-100 on a well-presented Super Deluxe box of a favorite album, but never splurge (significant) money on tickets to see an artist live. 2. Likewise, as a general rule, I'd much rather hear what an artist can craft and create in the studio than hear them live (Peter Frampton excepted). 3. I still use (blank) cassette tapes, for custom compilations. 4. I'm a firm believer that albums should always be commercially released as they were first sequenced and released, yet I have no problem whatsoever in tweaking albums to my personal taste or making playlists. In fact, it's immense fun! 5. I love themed playlists and the notion of uninterrupted music, yet I'm generally not a fan of artists releasing albums with CD's as their target format, for I find that focus is often substituted for more tracks. The artist's intent is good, but it often results in a less cohesive work. 6. I'll ramble on (pun intended) about how great Led Zeppelin were as an "album artist" and often speak of their craft in vinyl terminology, yet I think they sound spectacular on CD and usually listen to them on that format. 7. I embrace contrasting albums (generally speaking), maybe because they are contrasts. Maybe it goes back to the saying of opposites attracting? For instance, my two favorite Beatles albums are Sgt Pepper's and The White Album. I love listening to the Stones Satanic Majesties album and then putting on Beggar's Banquet. I adore Elvis Presley's soundtrack albums and also have no problem putting on the 1968 Comeback Special or his debut album. I love an album like "Hotter Than Hell" by Kiss and also love 1980's "Unmasked", for instance, just as much. If not for almost entirely different reasons. 8. I absolutely love strings or orchestration in pop music (a la something like Good Night, The Long And Winding Road, The Rain Song or Purple Rain) and yet I'm not a big fan of classical music. I'm sure that's just largely a cultural thing or not being exposed to classical music from a foundational sense. 9. Despite being seemingly alone in this regard (from what I hear others say), I've yet to ever "burn out" on an album I truly love. Oh, I might immerse myself in a record for two weeks and then give it a rest, but exposure has never ruined an album for me. Why should an album as great as, say, "Led Zeppelin IV" be diminished just because I opted to listen to it one too many times on classic radio? And even if you did choose to listen to "Stairway To Heaven" 700 times, there's apparently a reason you left it on the dial 700 times! 10. I don't like the concept of music videos because I feel they impose images into my head that influence and paint my own imagination for me. I feel there's a reason films are films and music is music. Yet I have no problem watching legitimate "music motion pictures" (Grease, Blue Hawaii, Gimme Shelter, Help!).
Top 10 Bands with hits in the UK and much less success in the US: 1. The Jam 2. The Small Faces 3. The Pretty Things 4. The Move 5. T-Rex 6. The Nice 7. Blur 8. The Buzzcocks 9. Status Quo 10. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, & Tich I am not a fan of the Smiths, though I'm sure many would have them on a list such as this
Top 10 Dylan Covers by My 8 Other Favourite Artists: Neil Young - Blowin In The Wind Van Morrison - Just Like A Woman Bruce Springsteen - Chimes OfFreedom Lou Reed - Foot Of Pride Warren Zevon - Chimes Of Freedom Townes Van Zandt - Man Gave Names To All The Animals Jack White - Isis Neil Young - All Along The Watchtower Lou Reed - Don't Think Twice Its Alright Jack White - Black Jack Davey
My top 10 pieces of guitar gear I've owned or played since 1974. 1) 1932 Martin OM-28 2) 1931 Martin OM-18 3) 1929 Martin 00-42 4) 1930's Larson Brothers mahogany J-185 shape flat top 5) Collings Cowboy 6) 1931 National Triolian 7) 2010 Fender Custom Shop 57 Super Relic Dakota Red Stratocaster 8) 1959 Fender tweed Deluxe amp 9) 1990's Tone King Imperial amp 10) 1956 Gibson gold top Les Paul with P-90's And...a few bonus picks... 1966 Martin 000-18 1961 Supro 1X8 amp,elephant gray with white stripe around middle
Top 10 Rolling Stones tracks, approximately from 1-10: Mother's Little Helper 19th Nervous Breakdown Dandelion Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadow Get Off My Cloud The Last Time Out of Time Paint It Black I'm Free Time Waits for No One Heavy on '65-'67, my favourite Stones period.
My Top 10 Ways To Store Vinyl Albums (From Best to Not Recommended)... 1. On a clean wooden shelf, neatly filed and standing up so the spines can be read. 2. In a clean wooden crate, flip-through style. 3. Stacked on top of one another on a wooden shelf (not really recommended). 4. Stacked up in the closet (not really recommended). 5. Stacked up on the floor or against the wall (not really recommended). 6. Stacked up somewhere in the basement (not recommended). 7. Stored somewhere at an ex's home (probably not recommended). 8. Stored at the house of some hottie you are very amorous with (actually, move this up to about #2, so long as it doesn't turn into #7). 9. Stored on the turntable, out of the jacket, the needle resting on the deadwax, and three potato chips scattered across the wax (Definitely not recommended. Probably worked great in 1968 though!) 10. Inside of a car (Definitely not recommended).
10 favourite Grass Roots tracks: Only When You're Lonely Where Were You When I Needed You Melody For You Here's Where You Belong Lady Pleasure Let's Live for Today Tip of My Tongue Wake Up Wake Up This is What I Was Made For Lollipop Train Honourable Mentions: Bella Linda Things I Should Have Said Lovin' Things The River is Wide Walking Through the Country
Top 10 Bowie Deep Cuts: Joe the Lion Red Sails Teenage Wildlife Blackout Lady Grinning Soul Stay Always Crashing in the Same Car Win We Are the Dead The Bewley Brothers
My Top 10 Bowie Deep Cuts No order: Somebody Up There Likes Me Up The Hill Backwards Let's Spend The Night Together I Can't Explain A New Career In A New Town Sons Of The Silent Age Red Sails African Night Flight Andy Warhol The Prettiest Star
Top 10 jazz pianists (as leader or sideman): Monk McCoy Tyner Red Garland Bill Evans Sun Ra Junko Onishi Wynton Kelly Sonny Clark Bobby Timmons Danilo Perez
top ten sst records 1. hüsker dü - zen arcade 2. minutemen - double nickels on the dime 3. dinosaur jr. - you're living all over me 4. sonic youth - sister 5. meat puppets - up on the sun 6. hüsker dü - new day rising 7. firehose - if'n 8. slovenly - we shoot for the moon 9. dinosaur jr - bug 10. bad brains - i against i
Look, its long, but what the hey... The Top Ten Greatest Things That I Experienced During the Formative Years of My Life as a Music Fan. A) 1964: Television acknowledges Rock and Roll in my house. Suddenly the local ABC affiliate is broadcasting their version of American Bandstand. Called Upbeat and hosted by a local weatherman, I sit transfixed by what I see and hear for the next four or five years. (Unless it was really sunny and I could go outside and play basketball or baseball). I know that I saw The Left Banke, The Music Explosion and many others during this period. I understood none of what I saw and heard. In fact some if it scared me. But I knew that I loved what was seeing immediately. Hullabalo and other programs were part of the mix as well. But Upbeat was always there at the top of the list. Some of this discovery of rock and roll should be qualified by saying that due to the Merv Griffin Show and Mike Douglas and other talk shows I was also watching comedians with just as much interest and intensity. Dick Gregory made me laugh but, at the time I had absolutely no idea what he was really saying. Alan King made the audience laugh but I sat still until about twenty years later when I heard him again and could relate. Ed Sullivan was a good source for Motown, Frank Gorshin and others, but looking backwards Cleveland had a lot of local things going on that seemed more interesting. OK off topic, but part of the story... B) 1965: That summer I received a transistor radio as a late July birthday present. Across Lake Erie in Detroit, CKLW was broadcasting 24 hours of music and car show announcements. On clear nights and during most of the winter I always caught their top forty countdown if I could. In Cleveland itself, the local NBC affiliate played The Beatles seemingly endlessly. For two years I listened to that 5" by 4" little white box with plastic gold and see-through knobs while falling asleep. Then one night I heard about Little Billy and Boris the Spider... I don't think I have had a decent night's sleep since. C) Somewhere near the end of 1967 I purchased the 45 of Come On Down To My Boat Baby by Every Mother's Son at a drug store located in Great Northern Strip Mall. The next day I played it for the fourth grade class at St. Richards during Show and Tell. Before the song ended the needle was lifted. Then, due to my suddenly discovered immaturity, I was quickly escorted to the Second Grade class down the hall at St. Richards. Luckily Sister Celia moved me back into the fourth grade a day later. Sadly, during my stay in Second Grade, a small girl who said I was "poopy" and then ran off with my baloney sandwich and Little Debbie Cake. Fifteen years later, a few years after I got out of the Army, Tracy and I dated for a while. Thankfully, we ended as friends. But to this day she has never picked up the check at a restaurant. And it is worth every cent to just to hear her talk. D) That same year, heard the Magical Mystery Tour album for the first time. The library in our suburb of Cleveland also gets a truckload of albums by The Mamas and Papas, The Jefferson Airplane, The Fugs, Paul Butterfield, The Fifth Dimension and others. Again, I don't' really understand what I was listening to (Fugs.. Coca Cola....) but S&G, Mamas and Papas and a few others stay with me for decades. For some reason just didn't get Butterfield until I saw him working with Levon Helm in the Last Waltz. My thanks to Scorsese for managing to keep the camera off that handsome guitarist with the silk scarf and sniffles for just a few magic minutes. And a retroactive thank you to Paul Butterfield for his work and life. Growing up on the left side of Cleveland in the mid-sixties the radio generally held a lot of Motown and Top Forty Pop. Since they were the dominate and popular styles of the day on local radio, I didn't really get much of Chess or genuine blues in my diet at the time. What I found at the bottom end of the AM dial was usually Mitch Miller or religious programming. When I did get something unfamiliar I made an effort to listen. But within a song or two I was usually back to top forty to see if they were playing the Turtles or Green Tambourine. E) 1968: Spent the summer working in my Grandma's store. This small, two room building with a bright green, painted roof courtesy of a Stamp Company and a metal door handle that touted the excellence of a local bakery was located in a rural part of Southwestern PA. The store had been open since the mid-twenties and its customers were mostly the families of local coke miners who were working deep in the the land that surrounded the family farm. That summer Ol' Granny and I worked out an agreement: the radio was tuned to Paul Harvey until he signed off. After that I was allowed to search the dial for stations in Uniontown and Pittsburgh that were playing Tommy James with or without any Shondells in tow. F) 1969. Same place in PA. Read about the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that took place in upper NY. Took a vow right then and there to have nothing to do with large groups of people or mud in my lifetime. This is the only promise that I have ever kept. Just ask the Student Loan people, Bank of America and a girl named Leslie if you want proof. G) 1971: The Uncle who ran the farm passes on. My heart breaks as just two weeks earlier head taught me to drive a tractor in the same way he had taught my mother. By putting four inch wood blocks on the pedals, pointing to a few knobs on the big red monster and then getting out of the way so that he has room to fall to the ground laughing. His brother, my uncle, was a priest in the Diocese of Gary, Indiana and my family lived in Cleveland. As he had so many times before, Father John was going to stop at our house on his way back to the Farm. After all, driving from Chicago to Cleveland and on to south of Pittsburgh via turnpikes and brand new highways (Thanks to Ike and Detroit on that one!), is almost a southerly straight line. Father John stopped our suburban three room mansion in his big fat light blue Cadillac and it was decided that I would ride with him while the family followed the next day in Dad's Camper. On the way Ol' Father John let me play an eight track that I was carrying along with a few copies of The Justice League of America (#s 37, 38 & 39...) that I had brought to read while Uncle Joe lay so still in his casket. By the time that The Who had finished the overture to Tommy Gary Indiana's representative of the Pope in Rome and thereby Christ himself had thrown the 8 track out the window. We weren't even out of Ohio. At that moment I knew I would listen to this stuff for the rest of my life and that, if at all possible, I will still be trying to control the turntable five minutes into my own funeral if at all possible. H) July 26, 1972: Poco headline at Blossom Music Center, one of the first big sheds on the touring circuit for the rapidly growing concert industry. J. J. Cale opened. I) September 22, 1972. David Bowie played The Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio under a false name. To this day I have never seen a bass player with longer sideburns in my life. It was a good year for concerts. In the next two years I catch J. Geils, The Allman Brothers, Funkadelic, Jethro Tull and their Passion Play, The Eagles, Michael Stanley, Joe Walsh as well as a few others until I graduated from High School in 1974. During this period I also stole albums by Procol Harum, The Strawbs and Nils Lofgren from a local record store by taking the shrink wrap off and then placing them under the albums I had carried into the store. How could he have not seen Abbey Road withe smiling visage of Nils peaking out underneath? Turns out he did. I would love to tell you that I went back and paid for them, but I can't. It was my father who went back and paid for them. He hadn't appreciated the phone call he had received an hour earlier informing him of my deceit. I stood there at the counter trembling as he seethed under his breath and handed over the money to the owner of the store. Then, I apologized. The dumb, embarrassing and disrespectful things we do due to the influence of friends and smoking. I would love to lay also blame on my age. But come on, I was 15 or 16. I knew better. J) June 1974: While waiting to board a plane to start Basic Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, the Muzak playing overhead in the Airport is making me nervous. At least I think it is. Then, suddenly and inexplicably the entire airport is filled with the sounds of pedal steel as the sound system begins playing Ol' 55 by The Eagles. Then they play Expecting to Fly by Buffalo Springfield. Lastly they play Meadows by Joe Walsh. Without any notice the muzak returns. Absolutely no one notices. A few minutes later I see a few guys from High School walk into the airport. Turns out one of their Uncles is in charge of some things at the Airport and they bought him a bottle of cheap wine to change the playlist. Years later I learn that he drew the line at Maggot Brain. It was Cleveland, everyone that I knew had heard the song. Family, huh. Despite the nostalgia that seems to found some of my childhood, like the early years of many others, the balance of time lived during this period I lived in sheer terror. But Selling England By the Pound, Peter Wolf asking J. Geils for "... a little chickin' pickin, let me hear ya' ", seeing The Music Machine at Cyrus Erie in Elyria (pretty sure that happened...) and seeing The James Gang anywhere that I could, somehow made the all the beatings, fights, broken arms, cowardice, bad dates, failed attempts at athletics and my unfortunate misunderstanding of exactly what the brand new "blow dryer" located in the Boy's Locker Room was actually for, made all of that a little easier to deal with.
Top 10 acts I'll never see live: 1. Queen [w Freddie] 2. Frank: Sinatra/Zappa 3. Led Zeppelin [w Bonzo] 4. Prince 5. Tin Machine 6. The Beatles 7. AC/DC [w Bon] 8. Scott Walker 9. Jimi Hendrix 10. Elvis
