The best version of this Cat Stevens-penned song wasn’t Rod Stewart’s, and it definitely wasn’t Sheryl Crow’s. That honor belongs to Norma Fraser, who recorded it for the legendary Studio One label (AKA the Motown of Jamaica) in 1967. This has made it to a whole heap of compilations through the years, most notably the Studio One Soul comp issued by Soul Jazz Records. Soul Jazz was cool enough to upload a playlist of most of the tracks on that record, so don’t stop with this tune.
Futurisk - Army Now (1982) /
Synth punk will now and forever be one of my favorite sub-genres of music, and I think this is one of the better examples of it. It’s not one of the best known examples, which is a shame. Futurisk was a short lived but very good band whose only LP saw a reissue a few years ago. Copies of Player Piano go for about $45.00 on Discogs, and it’s worth every penny in my opinion. If that’s too rich for your blood, you can get it on iTunes as well. This jam is my favorite of theirs (my three week old son seems to like it too), but you should do yourself a favor and give a listen to everything these Floridians did, because it’s all good.
Movie Snippets /
In January of 2019, I started keeping a spreadsheet to track the movies I watch. I assign a rating from 0 to 10 (with 5 being the average, or expected value) and write a little snippet with some quick opinions on the film in question. Here, I’ll post a few of those snippets at a time for your enjoyment.
The Nun (2019)
3.85/10.0
Boring cornball of a horror flick that leans on jump scares and "creepy" halloween store mise en scène. This takes place in the same universe as the Conjuring movies, which although not perfect are generally above average mainstream horror films. This one, however, leaves the fog machine turned on a little too long and uses one too many pairs of white contacts for me to be able to recommend it.
Tales From the Crypt (1972)
6.25/10.0
Entertaining anthology film produced by Amicus and starring Peter Cushing as the Crypt Keeper. I’m a sucker for Amicus and Hammer horror films, and this is right up my alley. The first story is a fast paced Christmas story about an escaped mental patient dressed up as Santa Claus stalking Joan Collins and just might be my favorite Christmas horror story. It also predates Silent Night, Deadly Night by 10 years, and is much more effective. The other stories are also very good. Based on the same EC Comics as the Tales From the Crypt of the 90's.
The Legend of Cocaine Island (2019)
7.5/10.0
Fairly well produced documentary that resembles the work of Errol Morris. Basically a story about a tobacco chewing Floridian that got his hands on the location of $2,000,000 worth of cocaine and set off to find it. It's funny and well made and the characters are absolutely unforgettable. It's worth your time if you've got Netflix and you have the 90 some-odd minutes to kill.