When the envelopes are ripped open at tonight's Grammy Awards and winners announced in the many categories, honoring the so-called best of the music business in 2009, chances are slim that the names of any of the recording artists I consider the past year's elite will be called up to the stage. A few of my selections for having recorded the best CD's in 2009 have been nominated (Keith Urban, John Fogerty, Seal) for Grammys but none are expected to win. Instead the names of young entertainers like Lady Gaga, Kings Of Leon, the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and Taylor Swift are expected to be called when the 2010 Grammys are distributed tonight. As a child of the sixties who attended high school and college in the seventies, the results of my Top 10 reflect my upbringing. Those recording artists I listened to as a child, teen and young man continue to be at the top of my list when selecting new CD's to purchase. That is where my loyalties lie. I really don't listen to radio much anymore. And I honestly can't tell you one song sung by the likes of Lady Gaga, Maxwell, Kanye West or most of the other Grammy nominees, and I'm only aware of Taylor Swift and Beyonce (who are nominated for the most Grammy awards this year) because of their oversaturation of the TV airwaves in recent years. So, to really put a spotlight on just how "stuck in the past" I am, I present to you, those of you in single digits who actually read my blog, T. Gup's 10 favorite CD's of the past year. And holding down those hallowed Top 2 spots are those cutting edge new British acts (part of the actual British Invasion of the 1960s) The Beatles and The Bee Gees. In the three and four slots are the singers whose 2009 releases, which were actually recorded and offered to the CD buying public in 2009, Lionel Richie and Keith Urban. It was a difficult decision to make but the primary ingredient being considered is simply how much enjoyment and listening pleasure I have received over the past 13 months from each CD I purchased or was presented as a gift in 2009. AND THE WINNER IS: an album recorded over 40 years ago. Yea, that's right. "Rubber Soul" was my favorite Beatles album from a time when The Fab Four (pictured below) ruled the record charts. All of the original albums recorded by George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were rereleased in 2009 after being digitally remastered. I can't adequately describe in mere words the thrill this huge Beatles fan received after purchasing the NEW "Rubber Soul" CD at a Best Buy in Pearland last fall (it was released on November 9, 2009) and listening to it in my pickup truck on the drive back to West Columbia. Several songs are included on this NEW album (Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, What Goes On) that were not on the 1965 album that was released in the U.S. So their inclusion in the '09 version of "Rubber Soul" is the icing on the cake for me, the "cake" being the purer sound quality of the many great songs I used to sing along to while playing my album in my bedroom as a child. Norwegian Wood, Think For Yourself, Michelle, I'm Looking Through You and Run For Your Life were not huge hits for The Beatles and none of these are usually included when most people start ranking there alltime favorite Beatles songs, but those songs populating the offerings from "Rubber Soul" were then, and remain today, among my personal favorites. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" won the Grammy for Album Of The Year. It is considered the No. 1 rock album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, and The Beatles won four Grammys after "Sgt. Pepper's" was released in 1967. But "Rubber Soul," which is also on that Rolling Stone Top 10 list of all time best rock albums, preceded "Sgt. Pepper's" by two years and supercedes its more popular followup album in my opinion as the better album. So when poring over all of the CD's I purchased over the past year, it came down to deciding between "Rubber Soul," the 2009 remastered release, and "The Ultimate Bee Gees," a 2-CD set of the Brothers Gibb's greatest hits. "Ultimate" also includes a DVD of a variety of music videos, concert footage and old TV appearances made in England and America by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. I was a huge fan of the Gibbs in the late 1960s, long before the Disco craze brought the Bee Gees their largest success and greatest riches as recording artists. All of those great hits are included in this package. The Bee Gees won the Grammy for Album Of The Year for their contributions to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, which was released in November of 1977. "The Ultimate Bee Gees," released November 3, 2009, comes in second on my Top 10 list because of its overwhelming affect on me personally. Like with the new "Rubber Soul" CD, "The Ultimate Bee Gees" brings many of the Gibb brothers' hits from the sixties, which were recorded in mono, to me and the millions of other huge Bee Gees fans in much improved, remastered stereo. And it was their early hits, like To Love Somebody, I Started A Joke, Massachusetts, Run To Me, Lonely Days and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, that served as the basis for my original infatuation with that addictive Gibb sound. The untouchable harmonies that no other group could match or surpass. And this new CD brings their popular disco sound from the seventies, which spawned Top 10 hits such as Night Fever, Stayin' Alive, You Should Be Dancing, Jive Talking and How Deep Is Your Love, onto the same double CD set with the best of the songs the Gibb brothers recorded in the eighties, nineties and since 2000. This Bee Gees fan never stopped buying their CD's. I have every Bee Gees album, including the solo releases Barry and Robin Gibb have recorded over the years, in my collection, so it is easily understood why a release like "Ultimate" would rank so high of any list I compiled.
From my earliest record buying days in the early 1960s, several of those recording artists whose releases from my childhood days were purchased with my meager allowance and yard mowing money still demand selection to my personal Top 10 of new releases today. Sir Tom Jones, pictured below in a photo from the inner liner of his 2008 release "24 Hours," remains the man I still consider having the most powerful singing voice, even as he approaches his 70th birthday. Tom may be a grandfather to some, but he continues to be included among my favorite singers. He is living proof that the old adage still rings true: "He's not getting older, he's getting better with age." Ringo Starr and Delbert McClinton are, about the same age as Tom Jones while fellow surviving ex-Beatle Paul McCartney is now 67, the same age as my longtime favorite singer B.J. Thomas. They all hold down spots in my Top 10 for 2009, along with a couple of forty year olds and a mere baby, West Columbia's own Zack Walther who is just now approaching 30.
Among those musical acts featured in my personal Top 10 list whose CD's I purchased in the past year are below, Zack Walther (second from left in the group photo) And The Cronkites whose CD "Ambition" was No. 8; B.J. Thomas (below at left) whose '09 offering "Once I Loved" came in at No. 9; John Fogerty (below at right) who was No. 7 with "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again;" and below those three photos, smooth soul crooner Lionel Richie, whose "Just Go" was my favorite new CD of 2009 but came in third overall on my Top 10 list, trailing what I consider the best two bands of my lifetime, The Beatles and The Bee Gees.
Lionel Richie, who turned 60 recently, won the Grammy for Album Of The Year in 1983 with his second solo offering, "Can't Slow Down." While this superb record was also earning Richie two more Grammys, it and other Commodores and solo albums by Lionel were providing background melodies and setting the mood for the creation of all of my children. Lionel Richie was to my generation with his many romantic slow jams what Frank Sinatra supposedly was to my parents' generation. I still possess all of those Commodores records, as well as everything Lionel Richie has recorded since walking away from the band he joined in college at The Tuskegee Institute. And the man has never let me down. The work he has released in recent years has been just as good as it was back in the seventies when he was writing and singing such great songs as "Sail Away," "Still," "Dancing On The Ceiling" and "Deep River Woman." His 2009 CD "Just Go" (released May 19th) is chock full of outstanding soul songs that keep me hitting the "play" button repeatedly when I stick this disc in my CD player. The Alabama native, born June 20, 1949, has sold more than 100 million records in his remarkable career. He keeps his records up-to-date with the infusion of creative participation from younger hip-hop generation stalwarts as Akon (who sings with Lionel on Just Go and Nothing Left To Give) and the duo of Terius "The Dream" Nash and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. Nash and Stewart work on four songs while Akon contributes his writing, production and singing skills on the two songs mentioned above. Introducing a 60-year-old artist to a younger audience with new material is asking for a lot, but Richie's devoted fan base (which definitely includes yours truly) will find plenty to like on "Just Go."
Aussie Keith Urban's 2009 offering, "Defying Gravity," is up for Best Country Album at tonight's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS. I have to give the Grammy powers that be for giving cudos to a very worthy CD this year, but in my opinion "Defying Gravity" deserves inclusion in the overall Album Of The Year category. It is that good. Urban, pictured above, has had 10 No. 1 songs on the country charts since winning Top New Male Vocalist honors at the 2001 Academy of Country Music Awards. He also won the same Horizon Award in 2001 that Darius Rucker won in 2009 at the CMA Awards. Urban, 42, was born October 26, 1967, in New Zealand but grew up in Australia where the Bee Gees began their illustrious musical career 50 years ago. He moved to Nashville in 1992 and earned a living as a studio guitarist. Urban played guitar on tours for Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson before pursuing a solo career. Good move, Keith. Going out on his own led to Keith Urban being named the 2005 CMA Male Vocalist Of The Year. His second album, "Golden Road," which includes one of my alltime favorite songs You'll Think Of Me, remains among my most played CD's to this day and several tunes from "Golden Road" are included on my personal MP3 player. But now "Defying Gravity" is getting the most play time, along with Lionel Richie's "Just Go," on my CD players. That is why they are my choices for the best two new CD's of 2009. Because simply put, in The World According To Gup (which is the only world I have any interest in), what this ol' country boy from Southeast Texas likes to listen to is now and has always been GOOD MUSIC, plain and simple. I don't listen to music I can't stand, and I have zero interest in what songs are populating the upper echelons of Billboard's hit list or what albums and singles will be recognized tonight with Grammy awards. Just because millions of other people like a particular form of music has no bearing whatsoever on what I like to listen to. I first heard Keith Urban's new hit song Til Summer Comes Around on the radio and couldn't wait to give it a second listen (and third and fourth and so on and so on). It should be included along with Lionel Richie's Just Go, Tom Jones' If He Should Ever Leave You and Tina Turner's It Would Be A Crime in the Song Of The Year category tonight on the Grammy Awards when the best music of 2009 is what should be on display, in place of the crap that has actually been chosen. "Defying Gravity" is Keith Urban's fifth album. And it carries on Urban's now trademark meld of country, pop and rock and roll in the 11 songs included on the CD. Urban cowrote eight of the 11 songs and arranged all of them, including those that are my favorites: Only You Can Love Me This Way, If Ever I Could Love, Standing Right In Front Of You and his nakedly emotional paean to his wife Nicole Kidman, Thank You, that closes this first rate CD.
A pair of CD's released in the fall of 2008 really surprised me with just how good they each are. Both "Learn To Live" by Hootie & The Blowfish lead singer Darius Rucker and "24 Hours" by Sir Tom Jones were not discovered by yours truly until the early months of last year. So my CD players in my truck and in my home got used to finding these two discs playing on them from January to December in 2009. Rucker, at 43 among the youngest of my current favorite singers, and Jones, now 69 years young (can you believe that the hip shaking heartthrob will be turning 70 years old on June 7th of this year), have something else in common other than battling it out for the middle two slots in my Top 10 of best CD's of 2009. Tom Jones was the 1966 Grammy winner for Best New Artist, while Hootie & The Blowfish won the Grammy in the same category 30 years later in 1996. Among my other favorites who have won Best New Artist Grammys include The Beatles in 1965, Tracy Chapman in 1989 and Marc Cohn in 1992. Cohn, whose 2007 CD "Join The Parade" still gets lots of listens from me in early 2010, won out for Best New Artist 18 years ago over Seal, another of the current recording artists whose career I follow closely (see below for more on Seal). So many of the singers I rank among my faves have had their moments in the Grammys spotlight, and a few are nominated this year, but overall I view things a lot differently than those people who possess the power to decide whose names are announced at Sunday night's Grammy Awards telecast from Los Angeles. Jones, who was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on March 29, 2006, was born in Pontypridd, Wales, as Thomas Jones Woodward on June 7, 1940, and along with Tina Turner (now 70 years old) is the eldest of the singers I spent my hardearned money on their albums in the past year. "24 Hours" blew me away when I first listened to the CD early last year. The song "If He Should Ever Leave You" should be among the Grammy nominees for Song of the Year in my estimation. It is one of those rare tunes (especially rare for modern times and all the weak offerings that are getting radio play) that strikes me as a song I want to play on my CD player over and over and over. You can find it on YouTube where Sir Tom performs it on a British TV show that is similar to America's "Dancing With The Stars." Another song from "24 Hours" entitled More Than Memories provides Jones the perfect opportunity to really put his golden pipes on display. Truly an excellent love song pulled off with perfection by a singer whose records I have been buying since the 1960s. Tom Jones has sold over 100 million records and his career of nearly 50 years has been highlighted by It's Not Unusual in 1965, singing the theme song to the James Bond flick "Thunderball" (also in 1965), having a No. 1 hit with The Green, Green Grass Of Home in the late sixties, a No. 2 with 1971's She's A Lady, hosting his own TV show, being a Las Vegas icon, and now having his recent single that I love so much, If He Should Ever Leave You, being named No. 9 by Spinner magazine as one of the best songs of 2008. And while Darius Rucker, born May 13, 1966, in Charleston, South Carolina, the year after Tom Jones won his first Grammy, had to share his first Grammy with his Hootie & The Blowfish bandmates, earlier this year he was the solo winner of The Horizon Award as Best New Artist at the Country Music Association Awards. That's one of those things that makes you go HUH??? Best new artist? Hell, Darius has been around seemingly forever. But it was a definite stretch for him to record "Learn To Live." Venturing into the palate of country music by an artist who has made his name in mainstream pop and rock genres obviously had its chances for failure. But with a golden voice like Darius Rucker's, this music fan thinks he could be successful recording in practically any musical field he wants to. "Learn To Live" was released on September 16, 2008, but the hits just keep coming from this outstanding CD. Rucker's first solo experiement, 2002's "Back To Then" on the Hidden Beach label, was an attempt at old fashioned soul music that was met with lukewarm record sales. He continued touring and recording with Hootie & The Blowfish (I saw them in concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands a couple years ago) until taking the blind leap of faith into the deep pool of risk involved with his most recent career change. But the country music audience has accepted Darius with open arms, making the first three singles from "Learn To Live" all No. 1 hits on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart. Rucker's latest CD was certified gold on February 6, 2009, and went platinum on August 7th of last year. The most recent single, History In The Making, climbed as high as No. 6 on the country charts in 2009. So Rucker (pictured above) remained relevant throughout the past year among CD buyers. This was one of those rare occurrences where my taste in music and what I think is really top notch recorded material matched what the majority of the record buying public believes. The singles Don't Think I Don't Think About It, It Won't Be Like This For Long and Alright all went to No. 1 on the country charts for Darius Rucker.
When Rock And Roll Hall of Famers Creedence Clearwater Revival disbanded in the early 1970s, their songwriter, producer and lead singer John Fogerty (pictured above) released a country album entitled "The Blue Ridge Rangers" in which the Berkely, California, native played every instrument on. Fogerty's 2009 release, which is No. 7 on my Top 10 list, follows the same menu in song selections but this time John employs many of the same superb musicians who tour regularly with him instead of trying to be a one man band like he did with his first solo post-Creedence effort. "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again," released August 31, 2009, has a dozen songs that are all outstanding productions from the singer-songwriter who is as much a part of this writer's musical upbringing as Lennon and McCartney, the Gibb brothers, Elvis or any other group or individual that I have devoted countless hours listening to since my childhood. Fogerty's latest is nominated for a Grammy Sunday night in a category he is not likely to win, competing with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. The former CCR leader won the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 1997 with "Blue Moon Swamp." His 2008 release entitled "Revival" was nominated for Best Rock Album but lost the Grammy to The Foo Fighters (whoever the hell they are). My son Bret gave me a wonderful birthday gift earlier this month, a new DVD of John Fogerty in concert that is truly outstanding. Fogerty and many of the same musicians who play with him on "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again" were captured on film at the June 24, 2008, concert they put on at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Fogerty and CCR had played at the Royal Albert Hall in 1971 and the new DVD gives Fogerty fans such as myself (I doubt John Cameron Fogerty has a bigger fan in the world than yours truly) the opportunity to experience from the comfort of your own living room this magical concert where Fogerty covers just about every hit song he has been responsible for over the past 40-plus years. Now 64, the pride of El Cerrito, California, is in fine voice on his resurrection of The Blue Ridge Rangers project. Eagles Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit join Fogerty on Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party," Bruce Springsteen shows up on The Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved," and the accompaniment of fiddler Jason Mowery, drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Dennis Crouch and dobro, steel guitar and mandolin virtuouso Greg Leisz highlight Fogerty's versions of country classics like "Heaven's Just A Sin Away," "Moody River," "Fallin' Fallin' Fallin'," and "Never Ending Song Of Love." And I especially like Fogerty's take on the John Denver classic, "Back Home Again." As much as I liked "The Blue Ridge Rangers" when it first came out around 35 years ago, I have to admit I find 2009's "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again" even more enjoyable.
Closing out my Top 10 for the best CD's released in 2009 are three Texas boys, two of whom hail from my neck of the woods. At No. 8 on the list is former West Columbian Zack Walther whose latest CD, "Ambition," was released in late 2008 on the Sustain label. Zack (pictured above), a 1998 graduate of Columbia High School in my hometown of West Columbia, is now recording and touring with a group called Zack Walther & The Cronkites. I purchased a copy of "Ambition" at a record store in Greune on an early 2009 visit my wife Peggy and I made to New Braunfels to "get away" from the grind of our daily lives and for an escape from extreme boredom. I had heard that Zack was doing well in the music business but, not until listening to "Ambition" on the drive back home from New Braunfels, did Peggy and I realize just how talented this young man from West Columbia truly is. From "Georgia Cane," the opening selection on the CD, to the closer, "Pull The Pin," we were both enthralled by the vocal theatrics of Zack Walther. Now based primarily in the New Braunfels area, Zack Walther & The Cronkites occasionally perform locally at The Armadillo Ballroom near Brazoria. Take in their show when you have the chance. At No. 9 on my Top 10 list for 2009 releases is B.J. Thomas's "Once I Loved" (or "Amor Em Paz"). The latest release from the multiple Grammy award winning former Lamar Consolidated High School graduate from nearby Rosenberg, Texas, was recorded in Brazil and features vocal accompaniment from Brazilian singers Ivan Lins, Ivete Sangalo, Joad Bosco and Leila Pinheiro. This new CD from the 67-year-old Thomas, who hit it big in the 1960s with smash hits like "Hooked On A Feeling," "Eyes Of A New York Woman," "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and "Rock 'n Roll Lullabye," is definitely worth the purchase price. But it is definitely a stretch for B.J. (pictured below at right), taking him from the musical genres of rock, country and gospel that have earned him a handful of Grammys and top of the charts hit songs from a successful era that spans the years from the early 1960s when he and his band, The Triumphs, were performing all over Southeast Texas (including playing at Columbia High School's junior-senior prom) through several decades of solo success. Born August 7, 1942, in Hugo, Oklahoma, Billy Joe Thomas grew up in Rosenberg, Texas, and became nationally known in 1966 when his version of the Hank Williams classic, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, became a hit song. Thomas topped the Billboard charts in January 1970 with the Oscar-nominated song "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" from the motion picture "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid." In 1975 B.J. had his second No. 1 hit song with "Hey, Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song." I have seen B.J. Thomas live a half dozen times or more since the early 1980s, most recently a few years ago at The Stafford Centre in a memorable performance that saw his old band The Triumphs open that concert for him. Another Texas music icon that I have seen in concert four or five times is Lubbock native Delbert McClinton, whose "Acquired Taste" CD was released on August 18, 2009. This latest McClinton release sits at the bottom of my 2009 Top 10 primarily because I have practically everything Delbert has released in my large record collection, and I simply haven't acquired a taste yet for his new CD. But I find myself liking the songs on "Acquired Taste" a little bit more with each repeated listening. Delbert's 2009 release reached the top of the U.S. Blues charts, so obviously there are lots of other music lovers in America who appreciate "Acquired Taste" more than I do. But, in my opinion, the songs of this CD simply do not measure up to what Delbert has recorded in previous years. His "The Cost Of Living" CD won the Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category in 2006. McClinton, born November 4, 1940, won his first Grammy in 1991 for the duet he did with Bonnie Raitt, "Good Man, Good Woman." Now 69, Delbert's voice is showing the ravages of advancing years. But that is not always a bad thing. The 14 songs on "Acquired Taste" (produced by Don Was who worked wonders with the late Johnny Cash's aging pipes in the recording studio on The Man In Black's final releases) bring out the best in what Delbert McClinton has left. "McClinton never deviates from the roots," one review of his latest CD states, "but the producer (Was) adds some Afro-Cuban percussion on some tracks like the opener, Mama's Little Baby, to give this Southern funk tune some urban bump, without compromising the rawness in either the grain of the singer's voice or the immediacy of the band's sound." McClinton, who I once saw in The Summit in Houston in the 1980s on the same bill with Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson, wrote or cowrote all 14 songs. Can't Nobody Say I Didn't Try is a killer honky tonk number that I particularly am fond of on "Acquired Taste." It would be a very rare year when a new Delbert McClinton release would fail to make Tracy Gupton's Top 10 list, and 2009 is no different than any other year. My admiration for this fellow Texan has lasted about 40 years, from the time Delbert played harmonica on Bruce Channel's 1962 hit, Hey, Baby, to 1980 when his Givin' It Up For Your Love (from the great album "The Jealous Kind") reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 list, right up to recent years that have seen four of his albums reach No. 1 on the U.S. Blues Chart.
The British singer Seal, who seems to be more famous these days for being the husband of fashion model Heidi Klum rather than for all of the wonderful ear candy he has recorded over the years, remains at the top of my personal list of truly remarkable voices. His album "Soul" was released in 2008, which prevents him from being included in my Top 10 for 2009, but his '09 release "Hits" could have notched a spot in my top five . . . if I had bought it. But I have in my CD collection every one of Seal's earlier material, including a double CD of "Greatest Hits" released several years ago. So "Hits" was not on my short list of "must have" additions to my record and CD collection. Seal, pictured below on the cover of "Soul," added two previously unreleased songs, "I Am Your Man" and "Thank You," to his '09 "Hits" CD (which was released on November 30, 2009, on Warner Records). So perhaps I will one day dish out the 15 bucks or so and buy it, simply to add these two new songs to my collection. With "Soul," Seal has followed the path of several of my other favorite singers (Michael McDonald, Aaron Neville, Marc Broussard) who also recorded albums where many of the best old soul standards were covered. And what better modern day voice to take a stab at these soul classics than Seal's? "Soul" peaked at No. 13 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 in 2008, was No. 12 on Seal's home country record charts, and climbed as high as No. 4 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts in '08 in the United States. The dozen tracks on "Soul" included Seal's velvet touch with many of the best tunes from my youth: Al Green's "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)" and "I'm Still In Love With You;" "If You Don't Know Me By Now" by Harold Melvin And the Blue Notes (originally sung by Teddy Pendergrass, who passed away recently); Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come;" James Brown's "It's A Man's World;" Jerry Butler's "I've Been Loving You Too Long;" "Knock On Wood" by Eddie Floyd; and Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready." "Soul" is among many CD's I purchased in 2008 but wore out listening to throughout the past year. One Seal Henry Samuel comes highly recommended to anyone reading this blog who has yet to discover this dynamic singer of Nigerian descent. My wife and I had the extreme pleasure of witnessing Seal (and outstanding opening act Van Hunt) in concert at The Arena Theater in Houston several years ago. It was truly uplifting to be present for such an amazing musical experience.
Among the other CD's I purchased in 2009 or in the latter months of 2008, all of which I have truly enjoyed listening to but have left off of my Top 10 list because of their earlier release dates, include the soundtrack from the Martin Scorsese "rockumentary" that captures The Rolling Stones in concert, "Shine A Light." I had asked my spouse for a Rolling Stones greatest hits collection for Christmas 2008 and found "Shine A Light" inside the box when I opened my gift from the missus. Both the movie and soundtrack CD were released in 2008 but I did not get to enjoy this concert CD until the early months of 2009. And while it fails to deliver the compilation of The Stones' "greatest hits," spanning this remarkable British band's long career from the 1960s through their more recent offerings, much of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards's best work is included in "Shine A Light." From the concert opener, "Jumpin' Jack Flash," to the two-disc set's conclusion, many of The Stones' best work is included in this live set. "Satisfaction," "Paint It Black," "Brown Sugar" and "Tumbling Dice" are among my favorites. The Stones' fellow Brit Joe Cocker released "Hymn For My Soul" in either late 2007 or early 2008, but I did not purchase this CD until 2009. And while Cocker, much like The Bee Gees, is admittedly "an acquired taste" when it comes to his "gargles with kerosene" raspy voice, I have been a big fan of Cocker's since the sixties. Like Fogerty and his CCR bandmates, Joe Cocker also performed at Woodstock and is now in his mid-60's. My favorite selections from Cocker's "Hymn For My Soul" (which is not a gospel album, as the title might lead one to believe), are cover versions of The Beatles' "Come Together," John Fogerty's "Long As I Can See The Light" and Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin'." I do not beg anyone's forgiveness for continuing to like the music being recorded by the many outstanding musicians and singers whose work from the 1960s and 1970s made them the recording industry icons they continue to be today. It's a comfort zone I admit that I am reluctant to stray from. Keith Urban and Darius Rucker are both in their early forties, Seal now in his mid-forties, with the majority of my other favorite recording artists now collecting Social Security and flashing AARP cards for discounts. But, in The World According To Gup, Tracy Gupton will continue to dish out the greenbacks only for the CD's I know I will reap repetitive pleasure from listening to, over and over and over again. The year 2010 will pass from month to month to month, just like every other year since I started buying records, 8-tracks, cassettes and now CD's, with me impatiently awaiting the releases of new material from the large assortment of singers whose talents have sated my desire for musical enjoyment over the past five decades. I'm well aware that my Top 10 of the best music recorded in 2009 will vary greatly from those lists released by so-called "music experts" and few, if any of my favorites, will be honored at Sunday night's Grammy Awards. But, in The World According To Gup, (this is what makes it so wonderful) only one opinion really matters . . . mine!
Things were rolling along without a hitch, if my memory is correct, back in the old days of my youth. Back when Mama was the only female around our house in Markham, Texas. Me and Cody and Daddy ruled the roost, or at least that was the way it seemed, until my Mama's belly started getting real big in late 1959. Daddy took her off to the hospital in the third month of 1960, and they came back home on March 22nd with a brand new baby girl. And let me tell you, folks, things haven't been the same since. When Kelly Renee Gupton made her entrance into the world, the lives of Cody and Tracy Gupton changed drastically. All of a sudden there was this new little baby girl getting the majority of our Mama's attention around the old homestead. She meant the world to all of us, though, and in reflecting on the past half century today, on my little sister's 50th birthday, all I can say is that I love her very much and wish "Bee" the happiest of birthdays on her special day! When Kelly was a little girl she had a little trouble forming the words she wanted to say and often struggled to pronounce her r's and l's. They all came out w's, until she eventually conquered that speech impediment. But memories persist, especially in the minds of her two older brothers who were there sharing the same house with her during all of our early years. Kelly would refer to herself as "Bee," failing to say the word "me" like she intended. We all got a kick out of her saying, "That's Bee's doll," or "Weave Bee awone." So if anyone hears me referring to my little sister as "Bee," now you know why! Stories about our upbringing in both Markham and West Columbia are many and all very entertaining, especially when told by our big brother Cody. Ol' Cody just has a way with a story that I am unable to equal. I could fill reams of papers writing about my siblings and the wonderful times we all had growing up together. But, for brevity's sake, I will simply display a few old photographs in this little tribute to my sister Kelli (who dropped the "y" from the end of her first name when she was in high school and started spelling it with an "i" instead) and send along my best birthday wishes to "Bee" as she reaches yet another wonderful milestone in her remarkable life. I love you, kid!
