Easter Eggs And Vinyl Crates

My Easter Sunday was surprisingly good. The Mercy Town church service was impactful and the potluck lunch afterwards was crazy good with Ham, Brisket, Crunchy Cole Slaw and a few other treats.

The kids had their Easter Egg Hunt and I decided to check out a friend's store in downtown Los Angeles.

I try to avoid going into Los Angeles because I'm not a fan of traffic or the town, in general. I'm more of an outskirts/suburb guy and Pasadena is just the right size.

Anyway, my friend Josh is the owner of this place called The Last Bookstore. He had mentioned that there was a vinyl section and they had many $0.99 items, so I thought I'd give it a try. After 15 minutes of digging, I found a copy of a really obscure album that I had been looking for either in Vinyl or Compact Disc for 15 years. Finding this album right off the bat, made the rest of my excursion all the better.

Here's the list of what I grabbed :

Phil Seymour / Phil Seymour ($0.99) - Phil was an Oklahoma guy. He was in the Dwight Twilley Band and part of the Tulsa "Sound".

A nice footnote is the fact that Tom Petty used to play with DTB before his solo career took off. Way too young, cancer took Phil from us in 1993.

The harmonies that he and Dwight Twilley had were excellent and the pop songs they created were stellar.

When talking about obscure pop or criminally underrated musicians, look no further than Phil Seymour. His music is amazing and "Precious To Me" was every bit as stellar now, as it was then. I'm so glad I found this.

J. Geils Band / Love Stinks ($0.99) - All of the bandwagon jumpers from the 80s gravitated to "Freeze Frame" like stink on a junebug, but for me, this was the quintessential record. "Love Stinks" was the most popular single from this record, but my favorite was "Come Back" because of the wicked guitar riff. Their next album proved to be their last decent outing, as Peter Wolf (singer) and the band parted ways, right after "Freeze Frame" ran its course. Doesn't it always work out that way?

B.J. Thomas / Very Best Of ($0.99) - My dad seemed to always have a pool table and a jukebox in his game room. The music that he would play would start during the Elvis Presley-Chuck Berry era and move on to cover Motown, Dr. Hook and The Spinners. B.J. Thomas is an Oklahoma guy and my dad really likes his music. I got interested in his music, when I heard "Hooked On A Feeling". The electric sitar is such a unique sound and to think this was released in 1968 is amazing to me. "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" is the biggest single on this record, but I feel I got some value with both tracks. Everything else is gravy at that point.

Lionel Richie / Can't Slow Down ($0.99) - One might think that my Easter haul was a bit on the sappy side, but I kept an open mind and went after good value picks for this round.

Lionel Richie is not my favorite 80s pop guy, but I really enjoyed The Commodores and when I looked at the number of hits that this record had, picking it up for a buck was a no brainer.

If you are an 80s kid, "All Night Long", "Penny Lover", "Stuck On You", "Running With The Night" and "Hello" are going to jog your memory. 5 big hits for a $1? Really? Yes, please.

Everly Brothers / Original Greatest Hits (2 LP) ($0.99) - At a whopping $1 bargain, I had to snatch this double LP up! "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Bye, Bye Love" were the obvious major hits, but I'm interested in hearing their version of "Be-Bop-A-Lula". Because of my love for "album" tracks, I'm sure that I will find a few other choice cuts on all 4 sides. Score!

Christopher Cross / Christopher Cross ($0.99) - They say that memories are attached to certain songs. Two memories are attached to this album. The first memory was riding in the car to go see my dad.

"Sailing" would be playing on the radio. I guess it was in major rotation at the time. "Ride Like The Wind" was the theme song for the TU Golden Hurricane football team, the year it came out. I'm a fan of Yacht Rock and Christopher Cross is definitely in the mix, when I make playlists for that.

I need to find more cheap vinyl that is rock guitar infused to counteract the seeming sap that some of my selections have. Value is value. There is no shame in digging his record!

Barry Manilow / Greatest Hits (2 LP) ($0.99) - I know what you are thinking. "What's with these sappy artists, Joe?" The number of hits on this release are staggering! "Mandy", "Looks Like We Made It", "Can't Smile Without You", "Even Now", "Copacobana" and "I Write The Songs" and that's just off of a first glance. I'm sure I'll listen to this and hear several others that I remember from back in the day. I'm a value crate digger and this was definitely one of the better values. I'd say this release and the Lionel Richie album were my added bonuses (besides Phil Seymour).

Don Henley / Building The Perfect Beast ($0.99) - This record trip was all about solo songwriters. I was pleasantly surprised to find this in the clearance rack, mainly because this album spawned 4 solid hits, but also because it was easily worth 5x the price.

I appreciate what the Eagles have contributed to music, but I'm more of a fan of their solo work. Same thing for The Beatles. Anyway, this album featured "The Boys Of Summer", "Not Enough Love In The World", "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" and "Sunset Grill". Huge score!

Various Artists / Burt Bacharach & Friends ($0.99) - I can now officially say I have some swanky music in my collection. Bacharach is a legend and seeing Wes Montgomery as one of the featured artists for this sealed the deal. Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes and The Carpenters were the icing on the proverbial cake.