Rant #2,427: Any Way You Want It

Well, I am here--actually late--and I didn't think I would be here, so it is a bit of a surprise that I am writing this blog today.

This has been quite a week for myself and my family, and without going into specifics, I still have to do a chore with my son that I thought would preclude me from writing this column today, but I woke up a bit earlier than I thought I would, and there is still plenty of time to do that chore, which will get done a little later in the morning.

Anyway, what to talk about today?

Well according to my Yahoo home page, I should be caring about body shaming, break ups of non-entity "stars" who don't know what they really want, and a woman looking for some type of empowerment as a role model for displaying herself bra-less for all to see.

Nipple power!

Nope, I am going to stay away from all of that, no matter how truly important these stories are to some people who live in their own National Enquirer world.

Nor am I going to talk about Reps. Omar and Tlaib from Israel, I will say that Israel has strict rules about allowing access to their country to those who have terrorist ties and who back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and these two Congress members fit that bill entirely.

What isn't being reported is that Israel has left the door open for Tlaib to visit her Palestinian family. as long as she does not rabble rouse there against Israel. Let's see what happens with that humanitarian gesture by the Jewish State. I am sure the ignorant and left-leaning Jews who hate our president and Bibi will have something to say about that, too, but they are fools, real fools, so whatever they say simply shows how silly they sound.

What am I going to talk about today? I am going to talk about my record collection, because after a bit of a heavy week, one can always go back to their hobbies to refresh themselves, to relax, and to have a bit of fun.

I have lots of fun with my record collection, 10,000 pieces or more strong. Earlier this week, I spoke about the soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino film "Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood," and its merits.

Today, I am going to briefly speak about another facet of my collection that I have started to mine over the past few weeks, revisiting music that I haven't listened to from the original releases in some time.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Dave Clark Five are an enigma which has been made so by the band's leader, Dave Clark, who recently allowed Itunes to re-release a number of edited releases in the band's catalog. This originally happened several years ago, but Clark--who owns pretty much the entire band music catalog, and keeps it closer to his vest than any music catalog in existence--updated some of the music, and felt the time was ripe now to release it on the music sharing service.

That is all fine and good, but if you want the real original music, you need to go back to the actual vinyl singles and LPs that were released more than 50 years ago on Epic Records, where they had a monumental career spanning many, many hits in the U.S. from 1964 to 1968 or so and internationally from 1964 into the early 1970s.

And that is what I am doing. I am digitizing each of their albums--the ones that were released in the U.S. and the handful that never were released on these shores--and eventually, I will get to each of the singles, which are the real masterpieces of the entire DC5 enterprise.

These little two minutes or so songs--some even less time than that--spark the mind, soul and ears with a unique wall of sound, and they were perfect for Top 40 AM radio in their day.

And with the DC5, you really have to go the mono route with their music, which is much more powerful in that format, and the top singles band of the era--behind the Beatles, of course, and on the British side, probably Herman's Hermits--begs to be heard this way to get the full thrust of just how incredible their releases were, and quite frankly, still are.

There is little out on the CD market on this act's catalog, which as I said is held so close to Dave Clark's soul that only he releases anything, and he hasn't released anything on a full-fledged legal CD in decades--and he has stopped others who have taken it upon themselves to do so.

So you are almost forced to go back to the records, which are demanding high prices on places like eBay if you don't have them.

Luckily for me, I have about 95 percent of what was released by them on vinyl, so I am pretty well set.

As I am doing their LPs now, they are all pretty short--less than 30 minutes in length--so you can do a lot in a relatively short period of time.

The great thing is that most of their LPs that I have are in great shape, so it often is like listening to a new record each time I listen to one of my digitized versions of their music.

So during a bit of a rough stretch for me, this is what I have been doing when I have the time.

You might not think this is anything that great, but for me, this type of music really settles me down, and what's more, it is so much fun.

Certainly more fun than displaying myself online with my nipples out to here through my shirt (the photo I posted has them digitally wiped out) and telling the world how empowering that is to us all.

Please. Put the nipples back in your bra and put your inflated ego in there, too, if there's room.

Have a good weekend. I will speak to you again on Monday.