Hot Tuna- “Hot Tuna”

I put in a request to  my friend Ralph Rumpelton (the most famous, unfamous computer painter) for a Hot Tuna painting.
He did the first Hot Tuna album, front and back.
Here’s the front cover:

 and here’s the back:

Later on for some reason it got reversed. The front became the back and the back became the front. I think he nailed the front cover. The back has more of the Rumpelton style then the original back.
It’s weird that he picked this cause this is the first Hot Tuna I ever bought. I think the store was called Masters, then it changed to Modells. That’s where I got them.  They were like a Woolworths. They sold every thing there. This had this table with all RCA albums on it for $1.99. I picked up some Hot Tuna, Paul and Grace stuff and some Nilsson stuff there.
This Hot Tuna album is excellent. It’s a live album with Jorma Kaukonen on guitar, Jack Casady on bass and Will Scarlet on harmonica. Scarlet was asked to sit in on a song or two and stayed for most of the album.
When the CD was first released it sounded just like the album with a lot of hiss on it. It didn’t bother me cause I used to the album. Then it was re-released with some bonus tracks on it. So I bought it again for the bonus tracks. The real bonus is that they got rid of the hiss and it sounds a lot better. This is one of the first unplugged albums. Highly recommended.

You Can't Make Them Happy

No matter what, you can’t make Beach Boys fans happy. I’ve been a fan since 1964. Followed them up to the present. None of my friends were Beach Boy fans, but they always had a special place in my heart cause the first 45 I ever bought was “I Get Around.”
With the internet, I got to see what other Beach Boy fans say. They whine and cry about everything. Mike Love is big and evil. He messed up “Smile.” He held Brian back. He sings too much. If he doesn’t sing they don’t need him. The fact is, all these people that complain, they don’t know what really went on, they weren’t there.  There’s three sides here, Brian’s side, Mike’s side, and if somebody wrote a book ( doubt they spoke to Mike or Brian) their side which is the least truthful.
Now, this brings me to the new album and tour. I think it’s great that they’re on tour and the new album, I can’t say enough about it. I’ve been playing it over and over.
Now we have the people that say, “It’s not the Beach Boys up there. Too many backing musicians.” The fact is, this is what’s left of The Beach Boys. For reasons beyond our control, Carl and Dennis couldn’t make it.   As for the backing musicians, this is probably their last go around. If they want it to sound like the records, they need them there. If they weren’t there, then people would be complaining about how thin they sound.
I hear people complaining about the new album. “It sounds too much like a Brian Wilson album.” Isn’t this what they wanted, Brian to write the songs again like he did in the early years. Now that he’s doing it, people complain. Well, who’s gonna write the songs for The Beach Boy album? Mike Love. That would go over great. Then people will complain that Mike is taking over the band and not letting Brian write.
You better be happy with what you’re getting. Cause after this, I’m afraid surf’s out.

BEACH BOYS AND MADONNA

I’m on Youtube checking out the Beach Boys current tour. They’re doing, “I Just
Wasn’t Made For These Times.” On the top of the page is a link to watch Madonna
live from Paris.
This just hit me as being funny. Like I’m gonna go from Brian Wilson singing “I Just
Wasn’t Made For These Times” to Madonna.

Jerry Garcia

Bob Dylan at Budokan

(from the Ralph Rumpelton Collection of Fine Art)
I remember having this in album form. I hated it. Then when the CD came out I figured, why not and bought it. Still hated it so I gave it away. Then it was the only Dylan CD I didn’t have so I bought it again.
I read a couple of things about this album. Dylan needed money for alimony so he went to Japan to do a couple of shows. The promoters there wanted him to do his hits. Dylan did not like being told what songs to do so he changed them radically.  You got flutes and horns, reggae versions of songs, and big band versions.
After all these years it’s still not one of my favorites, but I don’t hate it like I used to. It’s just a part of Dylan’s career. When I listen to it like that, I like it.

Couple Of Thoughts

With today being Sunday, I figured I’d buy the NY Times. I haven’t bought it in a long time and I thought that while I was watching the ball games, I’d read the paper. I walked into 7-11, walked over to where they sold the papers and saw the Times was 5 dollars. Saw that and waked right out of the store.
I was watching some sitcom on TV land, the one with Wayne Knight in it.  I noticed that every line had to be funny, or what the writers thought were funny. Well it’s not funny. A laugh track after every line isn’t even funny. Take away the laugh track and nothing is funny.
I know somebody that has been watching baseball for a year. He thinks he knows everything cause,. he’s been watching it a year. We’re watching the Yankees play the Red Sox at Fenway. We’re talking about how shallow the left fielder is playing. Ball goes over his head it’s trouble. So, the “guy who knows everything,” say’s “catch it off the wall.” Now we didn’t say anything to him cause we didn’t to make him look stupid. We just ignored him. The more we ignored him, the louder he’d yell, “catch it off the wall.” Finally I had enough and yelled, “you can’t catch it off the fucking wall.” That was it, he didn’t say a word and we finally had peace.
Now when somebody thinks they know everything, but they really know very little, we yell, “catch it off the wall.”
A lady that lives by me got a dog. There’s a lot of dogs where I live. When they get to know you, they don’t bark at you. I was walking by and this new dog starts to bark at me. The lady is trying to shut him up. I said to her, “as soon as he gets to know me, he won’t bark. The lady says, “he don’t like you either.” I learned to just keep walking and not even bother.

To Tell The Truth

(from the Ralph Rumpelton Collection of Fine Doodles)

Sea Monkeys

When I was little I  mailed away for Sea Monkeys from the back of a comic book. I also mailed away for a million little soldiers which all got lost around the apartment and my mother picked them up in the vacuum cleaner.  She wanted to kill me for that. When I got the sea monkey kit I was all excited. I was expecting a little sea monkey family. All I got was some little slimy things swimming around. What the hell was this! Where was the sea monkey husband, sea monkey wife and sea monkey little kids. These things were gross I didn’t even want to look at them.  Slimy little things swimming around in the slimy water. It was so gross. I had my mother throw the things down the toilet. Then I was afraid to use the toilet cause I thought they would swim back up. I didn’t even want to take a bath. What if I was taking a bath and, there they were in the tub. This is like a bad Sci-Fi movie.

Dual Beer Holes

There’s a Miller beer commercial that has people popping a second hole in the top of the can. They use whatever they can to make the second hole. I idea is to make the beer pour faster out of the can. That’s not really what the commercial is about. It’s about how cool you can look popping the second hole. I’m not making this up. The commercial is  nothing about the beer, it’s about coolness. Personally I think it’s stupid. I won’t punch a second hole in it just because of the commercial. I have seen people popping the second hole (lets keep it clean here), and making a big deal out of it. “Look at me, I’m imitating the commercial. I’m so cool.”

Do You Like Worms?

(from the Ralph Rumpelton Collection of Fine Art)