Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends — the Thrifty Music show, that is! And why exactly does this show never end? Because people will never — repeat, never — stop throwing perfectly good music away. Well, society’s loss is our gain here at RTH, and it’s my job to scour the junk stores and thrift shops to catalog all the cool stuff that folks are tossing in the bin.

This week’s Thrifty Music sampler comes to you from Nashville, Tennessee, where I had the dubious pleasure of spending around 14 hours a few days ago. While on my whirlwind visit, I stopped by my fave thrift store on the outskirts of town, and — lo and behold — somebody had finally lost patience with the vinyl medium and dumped their entire collection of 45 RPM records. In this rather sizable pile, I managed to find a few oddities and nostalgic boomerangs that I thought worthy of sharing. So, onwards!

First up: “Dream Queen” by Rusty & Doug — as in Rusty and Doug Kershaw. I just love this number — a perfect stew of ’50s doo-wop, cajun abandon, and Everly Brothers polish. The number one find of the day, for sure. Dig that doo-wop backup vocal in the chorus!

Next: “Muleskinner Blues” by The Fendermen. Wow — what a wonderfully weird record! Before any Townsman goes conjuring up some romanticized, obscurantist fantasy about two barefoot hillbillies in overalls, a-stompin’ their feet and smokin’ corncob pipes, while waving jugs of “X X X” moonshine over their heads — the Fendermen were actually a couple of teenagers in Wisconsin who had a freak hit with this song back in the early ’60s. But, “authentic” or no, it still kicks major ass, sez I.

Track 3: “I Know I Should” by The Sophomores. I knew it would finally happen — I’d find a dusty old 45 out there about which the Internet seems to know nothing. This one has really grown on me — maybe it has something to do with the weird, circular chord pattern in the verses. Plus, every now and then, everybody needs a solid dose of Vox organ. Enjoy!
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So, look, fellow RTHers — over the past week, I’ve scored a number of very interesting musical bits and pieces in the thrift store bins of Our Nation’s Capital. But today I want to focus on two or three in respectful tribute to our long-suffering Moderator.

Seriously, guys and gals — ol’ Jim really does put up with a lot from us, and he deserves at least a little bit of respeck every once in a while. So, I have decided to dedicate this third installment of my Thrifty Music series to our own Mr. Mod.

As always, I encourage newcomers to read Volume 1 in the series to fully acquaint themselves with the overarching philosophy behind this ongoing project.

Now — to the Modular tunes at hand!

Donnie Hathaway, “Love, Love, Love”

First up, a nicely scratchy 45 of Donny Hathaway singing “Love, Love, Love.” I submit this to Mr. Mod with the following question in mind: You’ve made it quite clear that you find the What’s Going On album to be bloated, self-indulgent and — seemingly most important — unfocused. Well, here’s an extremely talented singer clearly ripping a very focused page (if not an entire chapter) from that Album You Love To Be Iconoclastic About — and acquitting himself rather nicely, too, if you ask me. My question is: If this were a small part of an album that showed as much focus from start to finish, would you prefer it to the “classic” album it emulates?

Dee Dee Warwick, “I’m Glad I’m a Woman”

Second: You and I have gone toe-to-toe before on the topic of Dionne Warwick. I say she’s only as good as the songs she’s given, and that Burt Bacharach is the only reason she’s worth listening to; you continue to believe in some mush-mouthed notion that she and Burt Bacharach were joined together by God, and that each makes the other reach his/her highest conceivable artistic peak. Well, you and I can continue to disagree about all that. For now, check out this cool A-side I scored of Dionne’s baby sister, kicking major ass on a beautiful song entitled “I’m Glad I’m a Woman” (and I do mean song: this is one of those rare numbers where I find the lyric to be every bit as compelling as the music). Not as idiosyncratic as her older sister, but… wow!

James Darren, “Goodbye, Cruel World”

Finally, Mr. Mod, I offer you a surprisingly fun and catchy single entitled “Goodbye, Cruel World,” sung by teen heartthrob James Darren. Who’s James Darren, you ask? None other than the actor who went on to play Jim Corrigan on T.J. Hooker! By golly, I actually like this song – that pennywhistle figure is killer!

Anyhow, that’s all I got this time out. I’ve saved one or two more tunes from the last couple of weeks’ hunting that I hope to share with you all soon, ’cause they’re really strong. I just wanted to go on record first with this loving tribute to our very own Mr. Mod. Thanks, as always, for keepin’ it real.

Your pal,

Hrundi V. Bakshi

Townsman Hrrundivbakshi introduces a coming series on Thrifty Music!

Sorry to have to resort to that idiotic, thrill-seeking headline to get your attention, but something Very Important has happened, and I wanted to make sure you were properly focused. What has happened, you ask? Well, I finally retired my Technics SL-D2 turntable — faithful friend since junior high, and conduit for virtually every slab of rock and roll vinyl that ever meant anything to me — and I plunked down a modest sum of new cash to buy a turntable that features not just standard RCA audio “outs” but a lovely USB cable as well. This means I can go straight out of the turntable and into my laptop — and that means I can finally start sharing some of the weirder, more wonderful and noteworthy discs I’ve unearthed in my cheapskate peregrinations to the finer thrift stores in the Washington, DC area.

See, I love thrift store music. Flipping through old vinyl — 50 to 99 cents an album, maybe a quarter per single — allows me a freedom to explore the dusty corners of recorded music that I simply don’t enjoy on the digital side of the fence. Here’s the reason why: I’m not looking for anything in particular. Sure, I could find a Russian mp3 site where I can hear the finer tracks off of the Atlanta Rhythm Section‘s surprisingly good first album — but I’d never make the point of looking for that album in the first place… so I’d never find it. I tell you, this notion that the Internet helps us all broaden our musical minds is hogwash!

No, in order to really allow our musical brains to expand in new and unexpected directions, it’s incumbent upon us to stop looking for stuff. That means no tangential connections, no previous incarnations, no niche-y satellite/Internet radio stations, no AllMusic name-drops, and most especially, no “customers who purchased (insert album here) also enjoyed…” recommendations.

If you’re looking for quality brain manure, you gotta fearlessly stand in the middle of a dusty, kaleidoscopic torrent of weird album covers, making your selections for reasons that have only the most tenuous connections to anything you already know. Here’s some advice, based on my experience:
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