Roxanne Tellier – We All Loved You, Frank Gutch Jr – Tributes, Tales, and Tears

Yesterday I went through all of the private messages I’d shared with Frank Gutch Jr, since I’d first encountered him. It was in 2013, just after I’d begun writing this weekly column, and right from that first message, it was as though we were separated at birth.

Frank Gutch Jr: For Vinyl Newbies: A Primer On Cutouts and Promos; 5 Seconds of Summer (Is 5 Seconds Too Long); Plus Aural and Visual Gems (Otherwise Known As Notes)

See what I did there? I made it seem like you might learn something. Jeez, the hoops we writers have to go through to make you pay attention. I was thinking I might have to revert go porn, but maybe explaining the fun side of the record biz might help. As Ron Davies wrote and Long John Baldry made famous, it ain’t easy.

Frank Gutch Jr: Dad Gave My Dog Away (A Look At Letting Go); A Music Tsunami (The Real Shade, Wilson Marks, Diane Patterson, Rich DePaolo, and— holy mackerel!— The Green Pajamas!); and The Irrepressible Ricky (Okay, Not Ricky, But We Got Notes, By the Gods!)

 

My dad?  Give my dog away?  Give me a break!  My dad was the coolest when it came to animals, though he didn’t want them unless it was necessary.  Sure, he caved when we were kids and begged and begged a dog, one my sister named Putsy after Slim Gaillard‘s hit Cement Mixer Putty Putty, but it wasn’t his choice.

Frank Gutch Jr: It Is Catch-UP Time Again, But First, Let’s Talk Petunia (In a Viperly Sort of Way)… Plus Note(s)

I don’t know if it’s music or it is just the way things are and I just miss it all the time, but there is a tsunami of music headed our way and I can’t keep up.  As many videos and songs and albums as I can find, there are mountains awaiting to be discovered on what seems a daily basis.  I don’t know what to do.  I’m drowning and I’m on the freaking shore.  So set yourself.  We are going on a little ride which might be a long one because I am going to pack as much as I can into one column if for no other reason than to ease my conscience.  That’s right.  It bothers me when so many musicians cannot even scratch the surface— the good ones anyway.

Frank Gutch Jr: RIP Steve Young; The Minnows and Their On-the-Money Video; Annabel (lee); Bongo Boy Making Their Move; and a Plethora of Videos…

Although I don’t know how much more.  The wind was taken out of my sails last week when I found out that Steve Young had died.  The musician and not the football player— jeez, I have said that so many times over the years but always with a chuckle.  Not this time.  Steve is really gone and things just don’t feel right.

Frank Gutch Jr: Terry Manning, A Look Back (with Pseu Braun, Bill Phillips and Max Wisley)… Plus Notes

I’m not going to blow smoke up your skirts about what a legend is Terry Manning.  Manning is just a man like other men but one who has been at the right places at the right times often enough to have had legend grow around him.  He is a musician, recording engineer, music producer and label owner all-in-one, and now adds photographer to the list, though that might have been there and I just missed it.  He has worked with unknowns and superstars and businessmen of various character. What he has had and done is a simple matter of longevity.  That’s not to say he isn’t a genius, of sorts (after all, he produced and played on one of my all-time favorite albums, Cargoe), but that he has lived long enough to make his past history in a real historical sense.

Frank Gutch Jr: Part 1 of 2 Starting with Notes!

Frank Gutch Jr: Due to circumstances beyond our control, you will be getting my column in two segments this week.  I had the Notes ready to go but last night had to deal with a kidney stone the size and shape of the original Batmobile, and I am not talking the model.  I was just about to take a sharp spoon and attempt to dig it out, kidney and all, when the pain slowly subsided and I was allowed some rest. 

Frank Gutch Jr: The Best of Notes (and new notes too)…..

I wrote half a column about my father before I realized it was way too personal to put out in the Net, so I’ve decided to glean what I consider the best Notes I have posted over the past few years.  Notes, for those new to my process, are the small items I usually place at the end of each column, usually the more newsy or just musical items.  Lots of videos, a bit of news and a lot of fun to put together.

Frank Gutch Jr: 2014 – A Look Back…..

One hell of a year for music.  Not so much for musicians— at least the musicians no longer with us.  Hard to balance a year like that, pluses and minuses popping up like ads from a virus, canceling one another out or piling one on top of the other ad infinitum until the system collapses from the weight.  We all felt the weight whether we all know it or not.  So many musicians now on the other side but, lucky for us, so many new musicians taking their places.  Jesus.  My head spins.

Frank Gutch Jr: Dumpster Diving For 45s, Ken Nordine….. Plus Notes To Die For

I feel sorry for kids these days.  They do not know the pleasure of the 45 RPM record.  They do not understand the thrill of buying a hit and finding a song on the flip side that gets as much or more play time as the hit.  They do not know, in this day of pay-per-track that they should be getting two songs for the price of the one.  It’s the law.  Or should be.  I am sure that asshats at corporate chuckle every time us idiots order a song, knowing that they are shortchanging us.  Yep, we used to get two songs.  Like I said, it was the law.  Labels and distributors, though, write their own laws these days.  I know I’m a dinosaur, but anything less than two is a fuck you to us music junkies.  Well, fuck them.