4000
johmbolaya
4,472 Posts
Well, I've hit the 4000 mark, and I am celebrating in an egotistical manner by doing what? Making a post about it.I haven't bought a heap of records in months. The last album I bought was last week, some blues harmonica record on Capitol by Ben Benay. I wanted to take a chance, thought maybe it might have something nice. I'm not solely about breaks and raers, I just want to hear good music. Well... it wasn't. Great musicianship, but it's more a pop record than blues, or Capitol's attempt in trying to make a blues record.I'm gearing up towards an EP scheduled for release next year, on a label other than mine. Hopefully that will result in an album, as I have the concept behind it, it's a matter of putting and piecing everything together, as I see it. For now it's the EP, and hopefully something that will turn a few heads. I already have a dance track ready to go, trying to do something different from the norm, and simply creating a wide range of stuff, but stuff I would like. The heady stuff I do is still very much there, and I think once the album materializes, I hope people will feel what I'm trying to achieve. My goal is to be able to meet my own expectations. I have my book ideas, one of which I'm doing now, but I have to meet the subjects face to face, and that will involve a trip back home. I still have my documentary film idea, but still don't know when that will get off the ground. All I know is that if I don't do it soon, the people whom I want to cover will no longer exist.So much to do, so little time.And yet when there's $2.20 in my pocket, I ask myself "two McChicken's, or a trip to Goodwill?"Yeah, I'm just blabbering on. In a way, kind of like what I do here on a regular basis. Still waiting to bust out of this place (Pasco, not the board), still eager to do some damage. Still wanting to play some pinball. Where are some places in Seattle or Portland that has some pinball machines?Need to go to Amoeba (any location) and go broke.Need to end this post before I make a complete ass of myself.Speaking of ass, can someone make me a Jessica Alba graemlin, with her saying "pure ass"?Alright, I'll shutup.
Comments
Sometimes it boils down to that.
Well done.
You sound like me, broke as fuck, yet ambitious, creative & just wanting to do stuff regardless of financial renumeration.
Shit bro, you're like an artist or sumfin.
Keep writing. I'll keep reading.
Black Knight 2000 was transcendant.
I ruled High Speed 2: The Getaway.
Someone put THIS LINK on here earlier this year, and I spent the next few months playing all my favorite old pinball games again. I did grow bored with it after a while, though. It's just not the same when you can't beat the shit out of the machine.
I moved last year, I'm just in a different part of Pasco, and a much better place. Hopefully it will not take another 6 years for me to make the next move. I'm hoping to move again, hopefully to the Seattle or Portland area, by next September. A few opportunities have come my way, something that hasn't happened in the last six years so I'm hoping some of the writing jobs I've had in the last few years will help me meet my goals.
Correct. Ben Benay wasn't some early white blues pioneer like Paul Butterfield; from what I can tell, he was a L.A. sessionman. His blues pedigree wasn't entirely suspect - I've seen his name turn up in the credits of several R&B-related albums. But no, that Capitol album isn't exactly what you'd call authentic. I think "R&B Muzak" is more to the point. (That album IS all-instrumental, isn't it?)
"It's the Black Night, It's the Black Night, GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY" Hahahahah, that shit kills me! Getting up to that upper play field can be a beotch though. Right now I'm the proud owner of Jungle Princess and Buck Rogers, looking to aquire Fire Princess.
Primarily instrumental, if you can forgive the background singers saying "I got my mojo workin'" every now and then.
But yeah, no lead vocals.
I wasn't looking so much for authenticity, more as a curiosity since Capitol weren't exactly known for their vast blues catalog.
I've seen this album around in the field. I have a 7" promotional EP for the album, and the four songs pretty much match your description in that first post. Not bad but not enough to make me wanna get the LP either.
I'm doing a search, and apparently this Ben Benay guy has been around. He is credited with playing on Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic[/b] and that Rhythm Heritage album:
It credits him as being on guitar, so I questioned that. Then he played on a bunch of other records, including Dusty Springfield In Memphis[/b]. I'm looking on the back of the harmonica album, reading the bio, and it says as a kid he played a bunch of instruments, blah blah blah, and got into playing the guitar during high school. At the end, it says he was into "doing a little arranging". Since some of these albums also feature Gary Paxton, who played on this harmonica album, it's safe to say it's the same guy. Perhaps this was an album that made him hopeful of becoming something, and when he didn't, he got into becoming a session musician.
I have a T-Bone Walker album from 1973 with session photos of the backing musicians inside the gatefold...Benay is pictured with a banjo in his hand.
There we go. I had never heard of him, and come to find out he's been out there. Capitol has always been a label of interest, so as always, I'm always willing to take a chance. A decent listen, nonetheless.