Frank Gutch Jr: Darth Radar? The Dirty Gospel? Bragging Rights? Music Is Even Better Than I Thought!… Plus Notes

New and impressive albums are piling up on me and I have been on a listening tear.  I cannot even imagine how far you are behind.  Way behind, if you’re still giving time to The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.  I would have thought you had memorized those by now.  Like our fearless leader Bob Segarini is always saying, there’s more great music out there than ever, whether you choose to believe it or not.  Set yourself.  This column skims what I think are the best and most overlooked over the recent months.  Starting with…..

Frank Gutch Jr: Life at 45 RPM… My Life as a Vinyl Addict; Plus Copious Notes

I am a vinyl addict. The gateway drug was radio.  When it was riding the crest of the wave before TV came along and kicked it to the curb that wasn’t there.  Before TV which a lot of people thought would be the death of radio, a format already writhing in pain.  You could only get so big and radio was gargantuan— a seething mass of gelatinous goo— an 800 pound gorilla.  By the time I came along, everyone had a radio.

Frank Gutch Jr: The Saga of a Rock Pioneer: Jim Colegrove— Chapter Five

The music business has always been such that the stars become super and the rest pretty much stay in the background.  A case in point would be The Funk Brothers and The Wrecking Crew and the many session men (and women) who do the grunt work while the headliners reaps the profits.  Not that the stars want it that way.  That is just the way it is.  And maybe that’s the way it is supposed to be.  The people within the music industry sure know the supporting cast by name, if the public doesn’t: the session men and the opening acts and the bands which didn’t get the chance or got the chance and didn’t make it for one odd reason or another.