"I got that Joy, Joy, Joy, down in my heart..."- Rod and Todd Flanders

I had some spare time (ha!) and ventured out to Jerry’s Records Exchange on Colfax. I first heard about this place from Thurston Moore, singer for Sonic Youth, when they opened for REM at Fiddler’s Green, or now known as, Coors Amphitheater. He stated quite plainly, “You should go there.” So I did and do.[1] Jerry’s was the first place I bought my Krautrock albums, my first LP bootlegs by Magazine and Robyn Hitchcock, and a place where I go when I need a lot of friends.
Record flipping, or digging, is a slower process than CD’s. When I go to Cheapo Discs, even I am amazed at how fast individuals can peruse the CD racks. I mean, what happens when they blink. There has to be a gem or two lost because of the fury they search with. With Jerry’s, I slow my roll, I glance and view. Sometimes, certain albums just have an interesting look to them. I don’t recall the author, but someone once said to, “…look for albums from the seventies with black and white members who all look to have taken acid. These albums have the best music in them…” and this is a focal factor I apply to records. I kind of have Jerry’s Records memorized, and I don’t go all through all the racks as often anymore, but I defiantly hit up the “New Music” sections without a second thought. I found two gems, even though they weren’t on my list, I still wanted them. Plus, they were inexpensive, and that is a beautiful thing.
I got L.L. Cool J’s “Going Back To Cali” single for $8. Do you remember this video? It has Martha Quinn a former VJ in it. I’ll link a YouTube video for you to view if you need further recollection here. I also got a Neal Pollack CD titled, “Never Mind The Pollacks”, for $3.50. I just got this book for Xmas and didn’t know there was an album accompaniment. But here it is, and this forced me to start reading the book. I am in love with both items, now. If you haven’t already, go and read the book and buy the album. You will feel well just supporting a fine slice of literature and music. Plus you will be as cool as me, and you can tell people that you know a guy who met Elvis, and didn’t sue Elvis when he ran over and killed his father.[2]
And since I was close by, I went to Wax Trax. The woman behind the counter was plying Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and I told her, “This is my favorite divorce album."

She looked me and asked, “What is your second favorite, then?”
“Shoot out the Lights”, I said.

She laughed and rolled her eyes at me. I’m glad that I didn’t have to state another one, because I don’t know of any other’s, anyway.
At Wax I found two more LP’s, again not from my list (This list that I keep speaking of, I’ll place it here later on. It is an endless list that grows just as fast as I kill it off. It is a snake head eating the other side, but acquiring nutrition from its own body…therefore growing with each…segment…swallowed…? Yeah, that’s it.) Anyway, I got the single for “Ball of Confusion” by Love And Rockets for $4.00 and Killing Joke’s Night Time for $4.00, as well.
I love Love And Rockets cover of The Temptations song. I am surprised The Temptations only put this on a greatest hits compilation without it being the lead track on a sure to be great album. But, what the fuck do I know. To be honest, I didn’t know it was a cover until I heard the song in a Red Robin restaurant, when I was a lad. (I had a recorded version of this album, and there wasn’t any credit information on the blank cassette, except for the titles, so I couldn’t have known Daniel Ash and David J. didn’t write it.) I was fifteen, out with my parents returning from a soccer game, way the hell out in Colorado Springs, and The Temptations version came on. I told my parents, “This band is covering Love And Rockets, this is their song.” My parents laughed at my naivety, and I pleaded ignorance not stupidity. I still plead this. Killing Joke made some good albums, but if you know about Nirvana, then you may know why I got Night Time. I had only heard Killing Joke’s song once on KTCL a long, long time ago, but I can hear with certainty why Nirvana took the baseline from “Eighties” and used it for “Come As You Are”. This is also the first thing I learned to play on a guitar, the Nirvana version, that is.[3] Now, I did buy the album for the one song, originally, but I am quite pleased with how it sounds, and I will have to venture for more Killing Joke albums, adding to my stupid list, yet again.

[1] I also remember Michael Stipe telling a girl, in the front row, that she should wash the patchouli she had drenched herself in, because, “It stinks”. I laughed and laughed. It was beautiful. Mr. Stipe does have a sense of humor, be it small in reserve and scope, but there nevertheless.
[2] This is a book of “historical fiction” with true names and events, so this is an example of the fiction. Go read this book!
[3] The cartoon Daria, her best friend Jane, who’s brother Trent; he would play that opening line over and over as well. I won’t dig up the cartoon for proof, but just trust me, it is true.