Going Down to the Record Store

February 1970: Shocking Blue's "Venus," Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back," Tom Jones' "Without Love (There Is Nothing)" and the B. J. Thomas cover of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" (after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969) . . . all hits. Forty years later: Michael Jackson, Mariska Veres and Paul Newman are dead, Sly Stone and Tom Jones are recording again, Robert Redford abides.

The Record Bar is gone, as are most of the chains (though a few remnants may remain here and there): Harmony House Records and Tapes; Sam Goody; Schoolkids Records; HMV; Music Zone; Tower Records; Planet Music, Camelot Music. Of these, I liked Schoolkids Records.   

But never fear, independent records stores persist, and are celebrated annually on Record Store Day every April. For more on that happy thought, please see: http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home













Good short story collection: Jill McCorkle's Final Vinyl Days and Other Stories (Algonquin Books, 1998).  I was working at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill when her first two books came out in 1984: The Cheerleader and July 7th. 

Today's Rune: Warrior.

1970: Radio Burnin' Up Above

I've kept only a handful of long-playing records from the 60s through 1970, mostly from my sisters' collections. Still have the Goldfinger soundtrack, some jazz and blues compilations, two original Doors albums and a 1970 anthology that includes Shocking Blue's "Venus." Can still picture these spinning on little portable record players, played loud. Nothing quite like it, even now with iTunes and all that jive.

AM radio was a major conduit for hearing an eclectic blend of things, anything from Johnny Cash to Led Zeppelin to anything Pop. Plus news. No Rush Limbaugh.

Today's Rune: Joy.

Shocking Blue -- Venus (1970)

I've always dug this song -- still have my sister Vickie's original vinyl record from 1970. And it still plays, pops scratches and all.

Today's Rune: Journey.

Shocking Blue: Send Me A Postcard, Darling

I had an ideal setting as a kid: my parents provided for the family a house, a warm, stable setting, regular family meals, lots of books and music and a color TV, a yard and game room to play in, pets, and our own rooms. I was ideally situated with two older sisters and a younger brother. It was the perfect milieu for learning and exposure to ideas, sports and general culture, all encouraged by my parents.

One of my favorite things besides reading and watching movies and world news was exploring my sisters' record collections and talking about music. Now, when I listen to the Shocking Blue compilation Singles A's and B's, I feel like those halcyon days are in the present once again.

Besides "Venus," which I'm always thrilled to hear, Shocking Blue evokes a synthesis of a big chunk of the sound of the late 60s and early 70s. Robbie van Leeuwen (b. The Hague, Netherlands/Holland, 10/29/1944), the band's guitarist and primary creative artiste, had an excellent sense of what makes a catchy, well-performed pop song of the slightly rough variety. Hearing the songs performed with the powerful vocals of Mariska Veres makes them still a tasty aural treat. A song like "Send Me A Postcard" stands on its own right, replete with high drama; it also brings to mind Jefferson Airplane, Iron Butterfly, Creedence Clearwater Revival, T. Rex, The Band, The Lovin' Spoonful, Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and countless others. Active and catchy guitar licks, big bouncy drums, organ, with zany additions of sitar, bongos, harmonica, echo and occasional extra flourishes like mandolin and Spanish guitar. Plus some country twang, some girl group dewop, ballads, and so on.

Mariska Veres' singing is potent, more akin to Grace Slick than Janis Joplin in that she is singing a song, not putting her whole life on the line while singing it; it is also exotic. Her English is good, with interesting inflections -- like van Leeuwen, she was born in The Hague (ca. 1949), but has German, Hungarian, and Gypsy lineage that's apparent in photographs. Van Leeuwan wrote his lyrics in English, making them quirky and refeshing, even when delving into pop cliche. Combined, there are endearing oddities -- Veres beginning "Venus" with "A Godness on a mountain top . . ." and, I still swear by this, singing "Making every man you met" instead of the printed lyrics, "making every man mad," a slight rewording of the more typically American "driving every man mad." One of the interesting aspects of Shocking Blue is how much they turn to America for their inspiration, even when the results are slightly off-kilter.

Shocking Blue had great success in Europe (less so in the USA) between 1969 and the mid-1970s; once van Leeuwen left the band, it was bye-bye time. Abba was in the wings, though. Both bands had their own version of "Waterloo."





Some of the coolest songs on Singles A's and B's besides "Venus:"
Mighty Joe
Send Me A Postcard
Long And Lonesome Road
Never Marry A Railroad Man
Ink Pot
Rock In The Sea
Dream On Dreamer
Hello Darkness
Shocking You
Sally Was A Good Old Girl
Blossom Lady
Out Of Sight Out of Mind
Eve And The Apple (cheesy! "Well, she took the apple and we lost Paradise!")
Oh Lord
Roll Engine Roll
Harley Davidson
Keep It If You Want It
Give My Love To The Sunrise
In My Time of Dying (traditional)
Everything That's Mine

Today's Rune: Partnership.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby! Here's to the Detroit Tigers in Game One of the 2006 World Series.

Shocking Blue: Venus

The advantages of having older sisters when growing up were many. I could listen to their stories and glimpse their outside social relationships, happily delve into their music and book collections, and discover things, including what kind of music (and people) I liked. One song among many that still sticks and thrills me is the pop song "Venus" by the Dutch group Shocking Blue. It's catchy, ultra-cool, and taps into ancient human lore.

"Venus" was playfully covered by the British group Bananarama in 1986. When my cellphone rings, it sounds like a knockoff of the same song. "Venus" has Proustian possibilities. Growing up, I liked to play with the lyrics, which are simple but groovy when set to music.


A Goddess on a mountain top
Was burning like a silver flame
The summit of Beauty in love
And Venus was her name

She's got it yeah, Baby, she's got it
Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire
At your desire

Her weapons were her crystal eyes
Making every man mad [variation: making every man she met]
Black as the dark night she was
Got what no-one else had
Wa!

Venus shot to Number 1 on the pop charts worldwide in early 1970. The four-member group sounds at times like Jefferson Airplane, with lead singer Mariska Veres in the role of Grace Slick. They've got that great period sound, echo, basic backing plus sitar. Several of their other songs (they lasted from 1967 to 1974) were European hits, and many have been sampled or covered -- take, for example, Nirvana's 1989 cover of "Love Buzz." Another Dutch band, Golden Earring, also had an enduring smash hit (in 1973) with "Radar Love."

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Viva Shocking Blue and "Venus"!