Blogging is a narcissistic act to begin with—imagine thinking your thoughts are interesting enough to inflict them on the world—but here’s an act of even more profound narcissism on my part: another quarterly review of what I’ve been listening to, as chronicled by LastFM. If anybody gives a damn.
Top artists, April through June:
1. Rolling Stones
2. Lobo
3. Fleetwood Mac
4. Van Morrison
5. Electric Light Orchestra
6. Three Dog Night
7. Simply Red
8. Elton John
9. Steve Winwood
10. Lucinda Williams
I picked up seven of Lobo’s albums back at the end of March, and listening to each of them once inflates the totals. Technically, Simply Red and Elton John tied with the same number of plays, but I gave the nod to Simply Red by counting plays from Mick Hucknall’s new solo album, Tribute to Bobby, as a Simply Red record—Simply Red has been Hucknall himself for the last several years anyhow, so putting his own name on his latest album is a distinction without a difference. The Stones, Three Dog Night, and Lucinda Williams were in the top 10 for the last quarter, too.
Top albums:
1. Singles Collection/Styx
2. The Complete Hit Singles/Three Dog Night
3. A Night in San Francisco/Van Morrison
4. The Best of the Crystals
5. Exile on Main Street/Rolling Stones
6. The Solo Years/Tommy James
7. Great White North/Bob & Doug McKenzie
8. The Harvest Years 1970-1973/Electric Light Orchestra
9. Language of the Soul/Ronnie Earl
10. Frank/Amy Winehouse
Much of that strikes me weird, although there’s an explanation for it. An album with a lot of tracks (like Morrison’s, or Bob & Doug McKenzie’s, for example) is going to place fairly high up the list based on the first play, and then it will show up relatively more often in shuffle mode. Which means that Grant Green’s two-volume compilation The Complete Quartets With Sonny Clark, which I listened to in its entirety earlier this week, is likely to be up near the top of the list for the third quarter. (Last quarter’s complete rundown is here, if you care.)
To repay your indulgence, here’s a Lobo single. “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo” made Number 5 in the spring of 1971; that summer, both sides of the followup got airplay. A rocker called “She Didn’t Do Magic” was the A-side; many radio stations, including WLS, preferred the B-side, a mid-tempo love song called “I’m the Only One.” For all its awkwardness (“trees are things that move and tell you when the wind blows”), there’s a sweetness about it—when you’re in love, Lobo seems to say, even the most mundane things seem like secrets made for the two of you to share.
(Big Tree 116, chart peak: #46, July 31, 1971)
“She Didn’t Do Magic”/Lobo
“I’m the Only One”/Lobo (buy all the Lobo you need here)
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“when you’re in love, Lobo seems to say, even the most mundane things seem like secrets made for the two of you to share.”
That’s one of the best and truest things I’ve read on the internet, period.
I’m a closet sucker for sappy songs from my youth. Lobo places high up there on that list for all of his early 70’s output. Songs like “How Can I Tell Her About You and “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend”.
I was doing clinical rotations in a small facility a few years ago and spotted a tattoo on a womans arm. I couldn’t see it clearly and asked her to raise her arm and what did it say? Lobo. I said that I knew a singer with that name from way back. She told me that it was for the same. She so loved him that, before tattoo parlors, she took a needle and ink and did it herself!
The only rabid Lobo fan I ever met.
I like much of your selections. Lobo, Three Dog Night, and especially Tommy James. How did you come upon Tommy James, the Solo Years? Dale
Dale: The cutout bin, man. A record geek’s best friend.