At Home He's a Tourist

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I was on the Upper Westside yesterday so I went over to 96th Street to see if the Salvation Army had reopened. It had closed a few months ago and I could tell the space was being renovated but I wasn't sure if it would reopen again as the Salvation Army or not. The renovations looked like it could be a yogurt place or a 1950's style burger joint but it wasn't, because it was still the Salvation Army when they reopened. I looked at the LP section and they didn't have anything great, although I was tempted to buy a double LP of Sha-Na-Na on Kama Sutra in excellent condition. But then I decided against it. I also passed up a worn copy of the First Mama's and Papa's LP on Dunhill. I looked into the cardboard box full of cassettes ( it's funny they closed for a year of renovations but they kept the same cardboard box that they sell the tapes from). I found an excellent copy of Neil Young and Crazy Horse's Sleeps with Angels. I never realized how great a band name that is, it's like Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the two people, are standing next to each other. I haven't heard this tape before but I figured for 75 cents it was worth a listen. I used to have Decade which seemed uneven, and sad when I read Decade meant the 70's was Neil Young's decade, like the 60's was Dylan's decade. It's probably just gossip because it's such a preposterous idea. Zuma is a great record. Live Rust? I was like why all the fuss? Boring and thin. I bought Everybody's Rocking after reading a four star review in Rolling Stone, I love that record because it's a very 80's sounding rock and roll record and in fact it is actually the best rock and roll record made in the eighties. I have Comes A Time on tape, it's good, although mellow, and sometimes ridiculous. I love the Sonic Youth song About Neil, Creme Brule. Prewar covered that song, we're going to add it to the new version of M104 we are putting together. Although most of the audio equipment at Salvation Army is broken, you can still sift through the LP's, CD's, and tapes and find good releases. On the Upper Westside you'll always find tons of 70's singer songwriters, classical, and musicals. I've gotten tons of stuff there and priced 50 cents to $1.00. You can't go wrong. I've picked up a double JMC 7", Blood on the Tracks in excellent condition, and the Fugs second LP in very good condition. The Fugs are a great band. They are indigenous antifolk. I read Turn!Turn!Turn! by RItchie Unterberger, dense and ponderous it is a great study on the 60's fold rock revolution. Almost all of the folk rock groups were from or based in California, The Fugs in contrast were from N.Y.C. They weren't as tuneful and slick as the other folk rock groups, they were much more gritty, boisterous, and outlandish. You could really consider them proto-antifolk, since they were already on the lower east side you could maybe say they are indigenous antifolk. I mean look at the contrast from Greenwich Village folk-rock. A lot of california folk-rock was Greenwich Village transplants, but the dates are wrong for indigenous antifolk, 60's has to be proto-antifolk, antifolk has to be from the 1980's on. Like some people say bands like the Seeds and other Nugget bands were the first punk music. That's so ridiculous, they are not even proto-punk, they have to be considered post-british invasion, and what's wrong with that? When I listen to Ramones and Never Mind the Bollocks, that is punk, that music is an unmistakable break with music that came before. It's still so punk that when you listen to it, it still sounds utterly different than Nuggets post-british invasion music. Nuggets is a great box set though, and way more influential then punk, so many bands like Cyril Lourdes, Mooney Suzuki, Black Lips, Strange Boys, Black Hollies, and Demon Claws have the Nuggets sound.