It’s been a long time

Since we last gathered here …

• Jimmy Buffett left the party. Didn’t have much to write about him that I hadn’t already written.
• Hip-hop turned 50. Gave some thought to writing about that, but at the end of the day I am spectacularly unqualified to write about that.

It’s been a quiet summer, thanks largely to having had hip replacement surgery at the end of June and the subsequent rehab for it.

That’s limited my record digging, as you might expect. (New hips don’t like a lot of standing around, even if you are leaning on the record bins.) Doesn’t take long to list the records I’ve found since the beginning of the summer.

• “Shaft” by Bernard Purdie, from 1972. Been looking for that one for a long time. Thanks to Quinn Cunningham at Funk Trunk Records helping me knock if off my wish list. (I know Quinn first from selling at the Milwaukee record show, then from his tiny, steps-down-from-the-sidewalk storefront in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, and now from his Richmond, Va.-based online store. Highly recommended if you seek hard-to-find soul, R&B, disco, jazz and gospel.)
• “Let’s Take It To The Stage” by Funkadelic from 1975 and “Traveling Wilburys Volume One” by the Traveling Wilburys from 1988. Both from my friend Mike, who graciously set them aside for me before he sold the rest of his record collection to my friend Todd.
• “Soulful” by Dionne Warwick from 1969, a 25-cent record bought from my friend Todd to replace a rough copy I found roughly a decade ago.
• “It’s Been A Long Time” by The New Birth from 1973 and “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In) by the T-Bones from 1966. Both found in my friend Jim’s garage earlier this month.

Though my new hip is doing great — I don’t think much about it anymore — a quirk of the calendar will keep my record digging limited for the time being.

The next Green Bay Record Convention is coming up in two weeks, on Saturday, Oct. 14. However, I will neither be working at it nor digging at it for the first time in a long time, maybe 15 years. It’s taking place earlier than usual, and I have a prior commitment to working high school football that weekend.

That means more records for you. Go get ’em.