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:: I Search for Tomorrow ::

:: Maiden Wine ::

:: Now's the Time ::

:: Cycles ::

:: I Think It's Gonna Rain Today ::

:: I Just Can't Help Believin' ::

:: Nature Boy ::

:: Contact ::

:: The Man I Would Like to Be ::

:: A Trip to Nowhere ::

:: Piece of Hope ::

A few months ago I wrote of my admiration for Leonard Nimoy’s album, The Way I Feel. Some of you kind readers posted your recommendations that I make sure and get the record he released after that in 1969, The Touch of Leonard Nimoy. Well, I made sure and got all five of the records that he recorded on the Dot label, but you kids sure knew what you were talking about with this one – it’s gorgeous. For many years, my Sunday-morning, pancake-flippin’ music was relegated to Elvis Presley, but since I bought The Touch, well…Elvis has been collecting dust. Not that Nimoy can croon like Elvis or anything, but there is something comforting in his voice as he sings of love, peace and the fellowship of man. The arrangements put together by conductor George Tipton are exceptionally lush and tend to bring out the tenderness in his vocals. Ahh, what am I doing? If this were a livejournal, I suppose I’d sprinkle some hearts and flowers around this paragraph.



My obsession did not stop at merely picking up his records, however. Now, some guys might take their lady friends for a romantic weekend to the mountains, or the beach or one of those bed and breakfast thingies. Not this guy. Last month, I took my old lady on a whirlwind trip to sunny Sacramento for a Star Trek convention, where Nimoy was appearing, to get my records signed. He was kind enough to sign them and pose for a photo with me, for a princely sum of 120 bucks. Hey, the guy implanted the “Live Long and Prosper” motto into our culture, and he’s living up to it – good for him. And good for you, I was going to only post the two songs that Nimoy wrote himself, “Maiden Wine” and “A Piece of Hope.” But the whole record is just so damn good, so have at it.


Phil

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:: The Mayor of Ma's Cafe ::

:: I Finally Saw the Two of You Today ::

:: Mary's Near ::

:: Abraham, Martin & John ::

:: Let it Be Me ::

:: Everybody's Talkin' ::

:: The Sun Will Rise ::


Nimoy overkill, perhaps? Let’s just get through this one short post today. I’ll get it out of my system, and we can then move on to some other crap.

The New World of Leonard Nimoy was Nimoy’s last LP for Dot Records, released in 1970. This was the most difficult of his five LP’s for me to find. It’s more maligned than his others - a good chunk of its songs were included on those bad-celebrity “Golden Throat” compilations. This “new world” of Nimoy’s was a bit country – that’s the style of the arrangements and song selections, with the exception of the sole Nimoy-penned tune, “The Sun Will Rise,” an upbeat hippie folk tune. His vocals may not always be up to the job, but he makes up for it with heartfelt warmth, sincerity and optimism. I know, gay.


Phil

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:: I'd Love Making Love to You ::

:: Where It's At ::

:: Both Sides Now ::

:: It's Getting Better ::

:: Consilium ::

There was a time when, if I saw a Leonard Nimoy album in your record collection, I would have laughed at you while flashing the “Live Long and Prosper” hand-sign, you nerd. Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Truth is, I’ve become completely entranced by The Way I Feel, listening to it a couple of times a week over the course of the last few months. Yeah, I know. I’m a square.



Dot Records thought they’d ride Star Trek’s wave of success by signing Nimoy to a multi-album contract for some “Mr. Spock” records. Unfortunately, the show’s success was short-lived and cancellation was imminent after his first record, so it was time to remake Nimoy into a pop star! Dot gently eased listeners into this transition with The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, the first side being spacey songs sung from the point of view of Mr. Spock, the second side being a menagerie of folk songs and weirdness from Leonard’s “real” side. This is the side from which the infamous, “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” comes, and I’m sure selections from this album are in the Record Robot future.

By the third album, The Way I Feel, the Spock persona was completely gone and Nimoy’s transformation into a fully fledged, socially-aware folker was complete. The only trace we find of Spock is a tiny, unsmiling portrait found in the upper left-hand corner of the album cover art, amongst the collage of flowers, butterflies and hippie shit. Much of this record has appeared on those “Golden Throat” compilations, and yeah maybe his voice doesn’t hit some of the notes the way it should, but I don’t think he’s too terrible of a singer. Perhaps a lot of the unintentional comedy comes out of our visualizing the over-dramatized sincerity of the songs coming from someone who is forever seared into our consciousness as a green-hued, eyebrow-raised, pointy-eared alien – with an acoustic guitar on his lap. Regardless, I’m a tin-eared sucker for this stuff, but hey, it’s hip to be square.


Phil

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:: Kids Of Torrance High - I'll Never Fall in Love Again ::

Way back in 1970, while I was still sloshing around in my father’s nutsack, the students of Torrance High were kind enough to record their Spring “Pops” concert and encase it inside this pretty puke-colored album cover. I’d actually picked this up with the intention of handing it over to everyone’s favorite Torrance resident, Record Robot Mike, during one of our Torrance backyard barbeque summer get-togethers, but as usual - I forgot. This weekend, in flipping through the ever-increasing stack of stuff I haven’t listened to yet, I came across it and popped it on the turntable. Tucked between mind-numbing selections from Music Man and My Fair Lady by the Torrance High School Orchestra was this vocal trio doing a nice little rendition of “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again.” I’d heard The Carpenters version of this song many times before, and just assumed it was one of their original songs. But five minutes ago, I looked it up to find that it’s a Burt Bacharach tune, and both Bobbie Gentry and Dionne Warwick had hits with it. Oh, there’s so many new things to learn when investigating the wonderful world of music, folks.


Last week a few readers requested one more song from The New World of Leonard Nimoy. Here ya go: Time to Get it Together


Phil-anthropist

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:: Ugly, Ugly ::

:: Winkee-Do ::

On Leonard Nimoy's triumphant third albu...JUST KEEDING!

Leo Gooden and Oliver Nelson were both St. Louis-born heavyweights in the worlds of Jazz. Nelson, who arranged these songs and put them out on his short-lived Noslen (get it?) imprint, did lots of arranging, sax wailing and writing before his untimely demise from a heart attack in the mid 1970's. Gooden was a jazz vocalist, songwriter and Missouri nightclub owner who might be best known for penning the Albert King bopper "COD." (That's as in "cash on delivery," not as in someone shouting the name of a fish.)

Biographies aside, this 45 bursts with dirty, bluesy jazz somewhat reminiscent of Wynonie Harris, augmented nicely by some backroom Hammond B3 playing. From what I've found on the internets, one Don James may have been the dude supplying the organ, as he played in Gooden's group Leo's Five, and for Albert King, around the same time as this 45 came out, 1963. But that's not really important -- you should just sit back and enjoy these tracks, baby.


Tony