Good Music from the G Spot of my Collection ( #AtoZChallenge ) ( #BOTB Results )

        Good music is what I search for and that is mainly what I have kept in my collection after over fifty years of accumulating vinyl LPs.  Of course it's all a matter of opinion, but I don't think there is a bad album in this post--or any of this year's posts.

        Gershwin is gone from my vinyl records, but he's been amply replaced in my CD shelves.  Same with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, one of the greatest albums ever in my view--I've added the deluxe CD version of that one.  I never replaced my copy of the first Grand Funk Railroad album, which I like a lot.   But there is still a healthy representation of good albums under the letter G.  Just look and listen...

Links to the music are included throughout the post if you want to hear the music.

  Groundhogs  "Thank Christ for the Bomb"  (1970)  After the Groundhogs caught my attention when I heard them on a local radio station (kind of surprising to hear them on a Knoxville area broadcast), I checked out the University of Tennessee bookstore to see if they had the album that I had already sampled and there it was.   I bought the album at full price and never regretted it.  This is a dynamite group that certainly should have gotten more recognition than it did.  But at least I added one of their albums to my collection and have no intent on getting rid of it.

Grapefruit  "Deep Water" (1969)  Once I had purchased my copy of Lillian Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia in 1969 it became a guide for me to find interesting rock albums.  This now limited scope compendium provided me with hours of reading about rock music at the time and led me to purchase albums like this one by Grapefruit, the first group signed to the Beatles' Apple label.  I used to think that maybe they actually were the Beatles or maybe Badfinger undercover.  They weren't and they didn't last as long as Badfinger.  Still, they were a good group.  My friend Marvin scored their first album in a cut-out bin and that was a decent album.  So when I saw their second album in cut-outs, I grabbed it.  This is a decent album with some psychedelic sounds that found an appreciative audience with me.

Stephane Grappelli and Yehudi Menuhin  "Jalousie"  (1973)  I first heard about this album on an NPR show on the Knoxville university radio station.  As a violinist and aficionado of string music, I had become well aware of the legendary jazz fiddle player Stephane Grappelli who had achieved international acclaim with his work with the great guitarist Django Reinhardt.  Likewise, Yehudi Menuhin was well-known to even a young violin player like me.  The team of these two pairing up to play classic standard pop tune by the likes of Gershwin, Porter, Kern, and others seemed like a must have for my collection.  I paid a premium price for this one brand new and it's well worth keeping.

Guess Who "American Woman" (1970)  I found this album at a used record store on Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville sometime in the eighties.  Naturally I was very familiar with the hits from this album and like the music well enough to buy this album.  Definitely worth owning a copy because this is great rock and roll music.

Grateful Dead  "Anthem of the Sun"  (1968)  Before I really knew much about The Grateful Dead I found this album in a cut-out bin (in Big K I believe) and bought it for 99 cents.  It had a pretty cover, some long songs, and I figured it must have some kind of status.  Even though I didn't know their music at the time, I had heard about the group.  It's kind of a weird album even for me.  It's the only Dead album I have on vinyl though I've gotten a few since on CD.  Not that I'm a "Dead Head" by any means, but I like a good music library.

Good Rats           The Good Rats (1969)  One day in spring of 1970 when I was attending the University of Tennessee, I was in the Undergraduate Library perusing about and ran across a magazine that focused on classical music.  Oddly, in the review section, they had a piece about the first Good Rats album and gave it some high marks.  Since it was coming from a classical music magazine I figured the album was respectable enough for me to seek out.  I checked the University Bookstore, where I typically went to look for the more obscure albums, and sure enough they had a copy which I bought and enjoyed for several years.  Never heard anything more about the group until 1981 when I started running across many of their later albums in the cassette cut-outs.  Now obsessed, I found every other album they made and discovered that they were all better than that first album I had purchased ten years earlier.  Later I acquired LP versions of many of those cassettes as well as one on CD.  I haven't purchased many albums in recent years, but the most recent one was the "Good Rats...Live at Last" album which I bought at a used record store that my youngest daughter Angie took me to maybe 5 years ago or so.  When I saw this double album still unopened and for only $5 I figured I should spring for that.  This is one of the best live albums ever and the Rats are one of the best rock groups ever.  Many who have discovered this group are likely to agree with me.  You can listen and make up your own mind.

Rick Grech  "The Last Five Years"  (1973)   "Second Generation Woman" with Family  &  "Sea of Joy" with Blind Faith.   I couldn't find the entire album on YouTube but I've linked to a couple of tracks.  This is a compilation of some of the best songs by a virtuoso who has played with a number groups and artists.  I was familiar with his work as violinist and bass player for the supergroup Blind Faith.  This album has some excellent songs taken from other albums.

Benny Goodman "Trio, Quartet, Quintet"  (reissued 1968)  Of course I'd heard of Benny Goodman my whole life, but I didn't have that much of a deep interest in his music until I started college.  When I saw this album listed in a discount cut-out catalog that I used to get in the mail I figured it would be a worthy addition to my record collection.  The bargain price was definitely an incentive to buy.   A lot of great songs performed by Benny's small ensembles.  

Battle of the Bands Results

     My Battle was "Stormy Monday" as done by The Candymen and The McCoys.   I really like both of these.  Listening after over 50 years, The Candymen sounded much better than I remember.  Going in I figured I'd be voting for the McCoys, but in the final analysis I decided I liked the Candymen a tad better.

Final Vote Tally        

 The Candymen       5 votes

The McCoys            6 votes

Next Battle on May 1st

        But there's still more alphabet to go for the A to Z.  Tune in tomorrow!