Chester Jankowski

In which I go to Best Buy and get a bunch of CDs

Stones: Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out; Sticky Fingers; Exile on Main Street; Black and Blue. I’m filling out the Mick Taylor period here. Now have pretty much everything I need, Stones-wise. Although I do still pine occasionally for the octagonal “Through the Past Darkly” that I bought in the Village on my very first trip to NYC. I’m still not sure how I feel about Tyalor’s playing. Despite his oft-mentioned Bluesbreakers pedigree, his solos tend to be noodly and scalar. If I want to hear that, I can just pick up my own damn axe.

RATM: Rage Against the Machine; Evil Empire; The Battle of Los Angeles; Renegades; Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. That’s right–all of ‘em all at once. I did that with the Police, bought all their CDs from Amazon. I got an email back saying “Dear Corporate or Library Buyer, we noticed…” Saving stuff is great. I always knew that I would love these guys. And I do. Love. These guys… Tom Morello is a very creative player, but see below. WAKE UP!!!

Hendrix: Band of Gypsies. Can you think of a better way to ring in the new year 1970? Jimi Hendrix live at the Fillmore East. Listening to Tom Morello, I think, “cool, he’s using a ring modulator–that’s creative.” Then I put on Band of Gypsies and Jimi’s first solo is ring modulated. In case you’re wondering, btw, Jimi really is that good. Players as diverse as Morello and Stevie Ray Vaughan can cop mere aspects of style, with plenty left over for the rest of us to steal.

Faces: A Nod is as Good as a Wink…. Because I’m into that whole Jeff Beck -> Rod Stewart -> Ron Wood -> Stones thing.

Queen: A Day at the Races. Because I’m a huge Marx Brothers fan.

Stevie Winwood: The Best of, The Millennium Collection. I’m not a fan of retrospective collections, but I need me some Stevie.

CSNY: So Far. Same as above.

Jeff Beck: Wired; Beck’s Guitar Shop. Uhm, it’s Jeff Beck. I don’t have to defend anything here.

Echo and the Bunnymen: Porcupine; Ocean Rain. Because I’ve been enjoying “Crocodiles” since picking it up in an Atlanta Borders two summers ago.

Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian: Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian. Because everyone needs a little Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian.

The Who: Who Are You. How did I not have this already? Although, I must admit that I’m rather down on them at this point. I think it’s rather sad that “they” are touring again.

Bachman – Turner Overdrive: The Anthology. Because it’s the kind of thing that Will would get.

Gentle Giant: Free Hand. Wow. What a record.

Credit remaining on my Best Buy gift card: $20. Why the hell else do you think I was buying CDs at Best Buy?

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Chester Jankowski

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8 responses to “In which I go to Best Buy and get a bunch of CDs”

  1. bert Avatar
    bert

    That was some gift card.

    Reply
  2. krunkbot Avatar
    krunkbot

    Damn straight. My first thought was to use it to get a Wii. But they are pretty much ungettable these days. And besides, the CD collection was feeling a little neglected. Still have an Amazon gift certificate, which will be traded in for the Beethoven String Quartets.

    Reply
  3. Bill Rue Avatar
    Bill Rue

    Chester–I’m envious! Nice gift card!
    I was just listening to Honky Tonk Women from the Get Yer Ya-Yas album the other night. This version just starts out so darned listlessly…they just can’t seem to find a groove…perhaps because they have one of the SUCKIEST bass players in rock…Anyway–you can hear Keith just chunk-a-chunking along on rhythm guitar probably thinking about where his next fix is coming from and newbie Mick T’s anemic Stratocaster on the left channel and buried WAY down in the mix throwing in these totally innappropriate pre-fabricated sub Clapton blues ‘licks’ that sound just so unimaginative and passion-free. Chester–You nailed it when you described his playing as ‘noodly and scalar’.

    Gotta love ‘Exile on Main Street’ though! What a great scuzzbag LP. I still have my vinyl copy of it! our little local library has the CD which I added to iTunes…I then realized that some of that wonderful 1972 ‘scuzziness’ had somehow been excised when they converted it all to binary code. So I recorded my old LP (in pretty good shape, though there’s a bit of surface noise at the very beginning of side 2 (sweet Virginia))and transferred it into sound files (don’t try this at home folks–please contact http://www.vinylhaven.com for this service….er..that’s me folks disclaimer).

    There are just certain albums that have lost a little something when heard/experienced in CD form. Exile on Main Street is one of these albums. The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experieced? is another…Led Zeppelin 1 is yet another…

    In fact–I’m sure any of the Faces or Small Faces albums, too, fall into this category…How to capture that off the wall, blisteringly drunk…er sloppy Pub-drunk Rock Star excess the Faces call their own in mere ones and zeroes? You can’t. Case in Point: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake LP–can’t even reproduce that amazing cover for a CD package now can you?

    Final word: why on Earth did you buy ‘Black and Blue’? I hated that LP back in 8th grade. It’s so LAME! “Oh man–the new Stones album totally su$ks”). That and the release of ‘Presence’ drove right me into the arms of those dark princes of gloom and doom–I’m talking Ozzie and Iommi–Sabbath dude!

    And then along came ‘Technical Ecstacy’…

    That’s when I discovered John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra…and then a year later October 1977 WPLJ played a tune “Liar” by a band called…

    The Sex Pistols (“mommy–what’s a sex pistol?”)

    And that’s when I woke up.

    Reply
  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    BR – great comments as always. I thought perhaps I was being too hard on Mick T. He does sometimes put together a solo that has a nice shape to it. The solo on “Can’t you hear me knocking” works pretty well. But then again, do you think maybe Mick had listened to Abraxas a few too many times?

    And I know what you mean about GYYYO. The Stones are weird live. It shouldn’t be difficult music to pull off, but they mostly don’t manage to do it. Honky Tonk Women starts off listlessly. Sympathy for the Devil starts off like like something played in a progressive 70s church. And what is going on with Stray Cat Blues?

    Yes, that scuzziness is there on all their best work. Isn’t Rocks Off a great tune?

    Black & Blue was strictly for completeness’ sake. I’ve barely listened to it yet. That completeness, btw, does not extend anywhere past Tatoo You, nor much earlier than Beggar’s Banquet (on those relatively rare occasions that I want to hear some rock from ’65, it’s mostly the Yardbirds I turn to).

    And it’s funny what you say about Presence, I’ve heard that a million times. And yet, I’ve always really liked “Nobody’s fault but mine.” I’ve never taken Zep all that seriously, so I guess I was never so offedned by that album.

    Do you know Gentle Giant? The first three tracks on this record are mind-blowing.

    Reply
  5. Avatar
    Anonymous

    nice haul and you managed to hold back a little for the new Stooges next month!

    Reply
  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Ches, my humble advice is that you pick up with your remaining credit, if not deleted, Keef’s 2 solo outings (Talk Is Cheap 1988; Main Offender 1992). While the man is no Pavarotti and makes Tom Waits sound like Kiri Te Kanawa, the songs are great and the band is tight as all get out thanks to executive producer Stevie Jordaan. Better than anything the Stones have released since Tattoo You. Off topic, you and Miss Nora up to a Sherlock bachelor party in T.O in the spring?

    Reply
  7. krunkbot Avatar
    krunkbot

    A JMS bachelor party? What’s the next one up after “hells yeah”? We’re there!

    Reply
  8. will Avatar
    will

    Got it (long long ago). Nice haul, but soon y’all got to emerge into the last 30 years (any point of yer choosing). That said, I’ve watched Gimme Shelter more than once over that last two months…

    Reply

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