Rant #2,418: Tomorrow

As we move ahead through the doldrums of 2019, and before you know it, get to the sure-to-be-interesting year of 2020, we pause to look back, because if you don't recognize your history--or try to change it, like so many people nowadays want to do--you are completely missing the boat on yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Vinyl records are hot again, and while they simply cannot compete with streaming and downloads--the lazy man's way to get the music you like--it remains a very viable way to listen to music--and it certainly is, hands down, the best way to listen to rock and roll.

Rhino Records is one of those retro record companies that has kept the pulse for older recordings going for more than 40 years, and as owner of the Monkees' music catalog, the continue to milk that goldmine, and have done it again, re-releasing the epic "Head" soundtrack yet again as part of is "Summer of '69" group of recordings.

Of course, not only has this great soundtrack to one of the era's best movies about rock and roll been released and re-released in several different permutations before, but the original movie and soundtrack were on the Colgems label and in the stores in 1968, not 1969, but why quibble ... what does the difference of a year make?

Well, the celebration of 1969 has to do with the coming of Woodstock, and while this soundtrack was somewhat revolutionary within the context in which it was released, it has as much to do about Woodstock as, well, Alvin and the Chipmunks do.

Just so you know, this latest release does not replicate the mylar cover--which made anything that reflected in it the actual "cover" of the LP--but it is on silver vinyl.

While vinyl is hot, CDs remain I guess what you could call the most accepted way of collecting music for grass roots customers.

You can still go to Target and Walmart to pick up popular CDs, and amazon and other venues continue to sell them online.

So when the latest homage to the 1960s came out in the movie theaters this past week, its soundtrack bypassed vinyl, for some unknown reason, and went directly to CD release, although that release is also mired in some controversy.

Quentin Tarantino's new movie, "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" is a big hit, looking at the late 1960s in Hollywood through his skewered vision of what happens in his fictional movies versus what actually happened there in real life 50 years ago.

The movie has generally received rave reviews, and is doing well at the box office.

But what would a Tarantino movie be without a really boss soundtrack, and this movie has it--it is probably the "soundtrack of the year" at this point, and is filled to the gills with music that we loved back then, but which many of us have virtually forgotten about now.

Thus, not only are Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio the stars of the film, but also starring in the film is the music of Paul Revere and the Raiders, one of the top bands of the era that had been relegated to the trash heap of music of this era prior to this release.

Using four of the band's top hits as a background for the action on screen, Tarantino has put the Raiders--and namely, its chief songwriter, producer and lead singer Mark Lindsay--in the conversation once again, which is a "Good Thing."

But the CD was at least originally released on amazon--and amazon only, by the way--as a "made based on popularity" order; in other words, it would be pressed only based on the number of orders amazon received for it, and thus, it was not a standard release, but a CD-R, like you can make in your computers.

Why they went this way is beyond me, but depending on where you see it on amazon, it remains a CD-R release or there is no mention of it being such a release. I cannot figure it out myself.

There is an official vinyl release coming later this year--why it wasn't timed to come out with the release of the movie is another mystery--but for right now, you can only get the soundtrack via amazon and only on CD or CD-R.

Going back to the popularity of vinyl, these types of releases are my personal, preferred way to listen to my music collection, always has and always will be that way.

So the other day, I went to my local record store, as I do about once a month, to see what they had for sale. Very enticing indeed, I must say.

One of the records I purchased was something that I cannot say I had been looking for forever, but it is a nice addition to my collection.

"Incense and Peppermints" was one of the biggest records of the 1960s, hitting No. 1 on the Billboard charts in late summer and early fall of 1967. When you think of a record that certainly personified that era, this one must be part of the conversation.

Legend has it that the band hated the song, and that the lead singer refused to sing it--and they let the janitor of the recording studio that they were in warble the song to spite those who pushed it on them!

Whatever the case, it established the Strawberry Alarm Clock as a hitmaker, and they enjoyed two or three years as a name band. Ed King, their lead guitarist, would go on to form Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the rest is history.

But back to the Strawberry Alarm Clock. When the song took off, their record label looked for a followup, and "Tomorrow" was chosen, sort of a soft rock/psychedelic tune that was, in fact, sung by their lead singer.

Anyway, even with a No. 1 record under their belts, they could not carry this admittedly inferior followup past No. 23 on the charts in very late 1967 and into early 1969, and it doomed the band to lesser chart status for the nest few years, with none of their single releases charting above No. 65.

Yes, fame was fleeting, and they barely made it into 1970 before appearing in Russ Meyer's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" film and then breaking up for good.

Anyway, although not something I was really looking for, I found "Tomorrow" in the 45s bin at my local record store, and gobbled it up as if I had found some buried treasure in the bin.

Now that I have it in my collection, it remains and inferior recording to "Incense and Peppermints," but I still kind of like the record anyway.

Speak to you again "Tomorrow" ... err, tomorrow ... but even in 2019, the past still lives!