Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree A FEW GOODIES I WOULD LOVE TO FIND UNDER MY TREE
by Michael Buffalo Smith
It’s that time of year again. That special time of year when middle aged women get into fist fights over the last Furby and people of all ages scramble to find a suitable gift for cousin Larry and Aunt Christine. Well, I may be able to help - a little.
First of all, if you haven’t already joined the cyber-shopping crowd, do it now. I myself was in resistance for years. Now that I started ordering from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and eBay, it has truly cured more than one headache. Alright. Now that I have made that somewhat obvious point, please allow me to suggest a few gifts that would rock the world of many of your friends and, dare I say, relatives.
This has really been the “Year of Heart.” Ann and
Nancy Wilson and the boys delivered the goods this year, and any one of them would make a dandy present. First, there is the Euphoria boxed set. ($34.99 Amazon) This is the first definitive career-spanning, multi- label boxed set retrospective chronicling the seminal rock band Heart, personally curated by Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson. Much more than a lame “greatest hits” package, it is a carefully-considered anthology of hits and best-loved songs set alongside deep catalog treasures, rarities, demos and live perform- ances. Strange Euphoria consists of three CDs, one DVD, and a bonus CD of five Led Zeppelin cover tracks in a deluxe box. with a beautiful book filled with liner notes and photos. For the record, the live DVD, from
1975, is worth the price alone. Oh Ann, you have always had my heart. And then there is Fanatic, ($8.99 Amazon) the band’s brand new release. Heart's 14th studio album, Fanatic is perhaps the Wilson Sisters most rock & roll album to date. With Grammy-winning producer Ben Mink at the board, these ten performances are a celebra- tion of their life spirit today. Outstanding tracks include "Fanatic," "Dear Old America," and "Million Miles." May I also suggest that merely listening to the band is nowhere near as cool as lis- tening while reading the Wilson Sisters’ new autobiog- raphy, Kicking and Dreaming. ($27.99) The story is told in first person by the Wilson sisters themselves, along with writer Charles Cross. From their struggles to get the band started, their rise and subsequent fall to their
ability to reinvent themselves throughout the decades even with all of the changing music styles. The sisters write about the many per- sonal heartaches along the way as well as biases faced by women in the industry. The sisters played at any venue that would have them in the early 1970s, and we follow them to Vancouver, British Columbia, and tag along as they begin to gain real populari- ty. After that, their lives become a whirlwind of music, touring, fame, and fortune, and sex, drugs and rock and roll that spans the course of four decades.
I am all about music and books as Holiday gifts, and one book that will blow any rock fan’s mind is the new Jimi Hendrix - The Ultimate Lyric Book ($40.00) Compiled by
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