I, too, have wondered about him/Eric. I am hoping he is doing well and busy elsewhere.
Has anyone heard from bdp24 lately?
He just passed through my thoughts this evening, and when I checked I saw that he hasn't posted since September. I hope that he's OK.
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So true! That made me laugh. He would say so many silly things, and now and then I would call him out on it, even though I like him. Once, someone was talking about building a speaker kit, and he jumped in (sarcastically I guess) and said that he was building one at that time. I pursued it and asked him what it was and was he finished yest etc., but he never answered. At a later date, when we were having a pm disagreement offline, I mentioned it, and he denied that he had ever said it. I think that he's still a good guy though. |
All right, I’ve let ya’ll suffer long enough 😉 . What happened was, I got a call from my storage facility in SoCal, telling me my space had been broken into. Actually, not just mine, but also those on either side of mine. I still have most of my vintage drum collection (20 kits, 40 snare drums) in the space, having not yet brought it up here to Washington. Bummer. So I flew down, rented a car, and drove to the facility. The thieves had rummaged though the other spaces, but were unable to get into mine. They (or he) cut through the plate holding the padlock, but I also had the door fitted with a cylinder lock. I slid open the door, and all was well. Phew! I got a bunch of cartons and spent a week packing. I then spent some time in L.A. and Northern California, visiting the old friends of mine who are still alive (they’ve been dying one-by-one for the past 20 years). I was without a computer the whole time (I don’t have a laptop), and by the time I got back home I had page after page of emails, and had completely lost track of Audiogon threads. I’ve been checking in every so often, but lately none of the topics have been of much interest to me. And there now seems to be a lot of younger audiophiles, asking somewhat "beginner" questions. Nothing wrong with that (we all start out as beginners), but there are others who can offer advice (or opinion) better than I. After all, I am a music lover first, an audiophile second. Plus, how many times can I recommend the Eminent Technology LFT-8b? If people continue to ignore that amazing loudspeaker value, nothing I say is going to change that. And then there has been the family situation. I moved up here because both of my sister’s husbands had recently died, and the sisses, though younger than I, are in poor health. They keep me pretty busy, driving them to all their doctor appointments, doing all the shopping, cooking and cleaning, etc. I am now a houseboy 😁 . The younger of the two collapsed in the hallway last Saturday, and was incoherent. Yet another call for paramedics, and she’s now in the hospital for a week or so, her thyroid, kidney (she has only one), and heart not doing so well. Though the oldest, I am definitely going to outlive them both. As for hi-fi, my system is disassembled for a coupla reasons. The sister who owns the house (we all live together, just like when we were kids. Weird, ay?) decided to have all the floors in the house redone. PITA! Most everything of mine is still boxed up, And yet I have still been buying LP’s (and some CD’s) like crazy. Consumer alert: Vinyl Me Please announced their upcoming titles late in 2023, and the January/February/March Country offerings were good enough to prompt me to do a 3-month subscription. January is Guy Clark’s Old No. 1, February Billy Joe Shaver’s Old Five And Dimers Like Me, and---best of all---March Rodney Crowell’s The Houston Kid. The latter is in my all-time top 10 favorite albums, and has never before been available on LP. Hallelujah! I’ve also been seeing a fair amount of live music, including Jim Lauderdale last Saturday at a club right down the street from the Aladdin Theater in Portland, where I last year saw Iris Dement (and at the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic lock down). After his set Jim was at his merch table, so I went over and introduced myself. I told him the first time I saw him onstage was when he took over for Lucinda’s guitarist/harmony singer/band leader/producer Gurf Morlix, on her Car Wheels tour (I saw them at The Wiltern Theater in L.A., a mere quarter century ago). Both Jim’s and my locks and whiskers have turned silver in that time. He stills sounds great. At the risk of perhaps providing ammunition for the member who a while back accused me of telling my musician stories in order to make myself look good, I’ll share the following: About 10 years ago I got an email from an old friend (in the early-90’s I had been in her husband’s band), who told me she was managing Jim, and that he would be playing at Pappy & Harriets in Joshua Tree in a few days. I went up the hill to see him, and he and his band were great (last Saturday he played solo, a disappointment). The wonderful Rosie Flores was in the audience, and joined Jim onstage for a coupla numbers. If you aren’t familiar with Rosie, consider giving her a listen. So on Saturday I asked Jim if Michelle was still managing him (I didn’t see her name on his website, where his team is listed), and he said no. I sensed the relationship may not have ended amiably, so I didn’t ask any follow up questions. I also asked him if Lucinda was as difficult to work for as Gurf has stated, and his answer was "diplomatic": "She has calmed down a lot." I couldn’t help but ask if he knows Rick Shea, a longtime player in the healthy SoCal Country Music community. I saw Rick live many times when I was living there, an old friend of mine---Dave Drewry---his longtime drummer (I subbed for Dave for one Shea gig he couldn’t make). Dave is one of those friends who has died. Rick is a great Telecaster and steel guitar player, and as I suspected Jim does indeed know him. You may want to give him a listen. So as usual I have blabbered on too long. That’s enough outta me.
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Agreed About ebm, there is the chance he is just hanging out there and thinking its:
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Glad to hear you are ok, @bdp24. A year or more ago, I was reported here as dead, and a few folks posted. While it was interesting to see those first couple comments, it felt weird, and I had to post to say, "Nope, all good here." Like I said, glad you are kicking. What the hell are you going to do with all those drums, man? |
Glad to hear you're still with us @bdp24. Love your musician stories. |
With the above encouragement (thanks fellas, I feel better now 😊 ), I will comment on a couple of Audiogon issues that came to mind as I attempted to catch up.
First was the passing of Dwight Twilley, who died on October 18th of last year, yet merited not a single comment here. I can’t tell you how heartbreaking that is to me. His good friend Tom Petty (watch the early Dwight Twilley Band videos to see Tom playing a Rickenbacker bass, and doing corny "rockstar" moves. Look also for the choker Tom is wearing 😂 ) received his deserved accolades when he died. Yet Dwight suffered his final indignity, the last in his long list of career slights. I implore you to compare the debut and second albums of The Dwight Twilley Band to those of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Twilleys are VASTLY superior. IMO, of course. Petty’s debut and follow-up are above-average Rock Band albums. Twilley’s first album Sincerely is astounding (and it’s follow-up Twilley Don’t Mind is almost as good), one of the greatest debuts in Rock ’n’ Roll history, making Meet The Beatles sound like a Garage Band! Thank you Dwight, and fellow bandmates drummer/singer Phil Seymour (dead in 1993) and guitarist Bill Pitcock IV (dead in 2011). Personal note: After my divorce from my first wife, she hooked up with Bill, who then moved in with her and our son. Bill offered to give the young lad guitar lessons, but the kid was only interested in Rap. Knucklehead!
The second is a thread that was a discussion of music from various decades. A longtime, highly-respected AG member---and owner of surely one of the best hi-fi’s in the world---mocked the notion of any quality music being produced in the 1980’s. I was flabbergasted! Everyone is entitled to his or her own musical tastes, but to make the case that the entire decade of the 1980’s produced no great music is absurd. You can make your own list of quality 1980’s music, but mine would include that of Los Lobos, Richard Thompson, Ry Cooder, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, Evan Johns, Vince Gill, Bob Dylan, T Bone Burnett, John Hiatt, Rockpile, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, NRBQ, Tom Petty, Dwight Twilley, Emmylou Harris, Carlene Carter, Rosanne Cash, Foster & Lloyd, Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Steve Earle, Chris Isaak, Dire Straits, REM, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt, The Beat, Cheap Trick, The Plimsouls, The Blasters, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dwight Yoakam, Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush, Linda Ronstadt, Lou Ann Barton, Leonard Cohen, Chris Hillman, The Desert Rose Band, The Long Ryders, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Peter Case, Victoria Williams, Lone Justice, The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, David Lindley (he also died last year), Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. That’s just off the top of my head, and from my somewhat narrow (but deep) tastes. I’m sure others can name hundreds more.
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When discussing Vinyl Me Please I forgot to mention another upcoming release. Craft Recordings recently announced a limited edition reissue of the Tony Rice album Church Street Blues (Tony was Art Dudley’s favorite "flat pick" acoustic guitarist). It quickly sold out as a pre-release, but VMP has it scheduled for release in April (I believe), priced at $39 ($35 for members. All VMP orders ship free). Originals sell for around a hundred bucks, though I found a copy locally for $80, in Mint condition and still in it’s shrink wrap. |
Always good to hear from @bdp24 |
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Welcome back @bdp24 As you can tell, your blabber has been missed! |
Absence makes the heart grow fonder 😉 .
Regarding my opinion of Twilley vs. Petty (I’m probably the only one to see them as "competeters"): While I like the first two Dwight Twilley Band albums quite a bit more than Petty’s first two, after those two albums the tables were turned. Drummer/singer Phil Seymour left Twilley after those albums, getting his own deal with Neil Bogart on Broadway Records. His first album is great, and produced a hit single ("Precious To Me", which Phil wrote). Twilley guitarist Bill Pitcock worked with Phil (I saw them do a show at The Country Club in Reseda, they were fantastic live). Phil can be heard providing backing vocals on three songs on Petty’s debut, and playing drums on L.A. Pop Band 20/20’s debut album, as well as on Moon Martin’s Shots From A Cold Nightmare album (Moon is also an unjustly overlooked artist. That first wife of mine ran his fan club.). After his two Boardwalk albums, Phil joined Carla Olson in her band The Textones. He returned home to Tulsa when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, which eventually took his life Twilley soldiered on after Phil’s departure, but it just wasn’t the same (some viewed Phil as The DTB’s lead singer, though I think that’s an over-statement). The Twilley/Seymour vocal blend was REALLY excellent, something I find missing on Petty’s albums (as well as on Dwight’s). Dwight’s first solo album did pretty well (Pitcock plays on it), but his record label (and the two that followed) ran into financial troubles, sabotaging the album’s chances. His career never matched his talent, and when the Northridge earthquake destroyed his home he moved back to Tulsa, thereafter releasing albums on his own "vanity" label (Big Oak Records). Pitcock also returned home, playing in local bands and releasing one album of his own (it’s really, really awful 😞 ). Bill died from lung cancer (he was a 2 pack-a-day smoker). Petty, on the other hand, improved as time went on, and built himself an excellent career, one album at a time. Though I don’t like him as much as do most others (many here, if I’m not mistaken), he certainly earned and deserved his success. Twilley was robbed, a victim of plain bad luck.
@mitchagain: PM received, reply coming soon.
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