I Just Read About That…

 

SOUNDTRACK: FLEETWOOD MAC-“The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)” (1969).

I know this song from Judas Priest, who made a killer cover that they played for years.  Rob Halford’s voice on the song (in their live version from 1976) is incredible.

I didn’t even know there was an “original” until a decade or so ago.  It seemed out of character that Judas Priest would cover a trippy Fleetwood Mac song (of course they also covered Joan Baez, so…).  But wow, this song is a trip.

I mean, the lyrics alone are the stuff of legend at this point.  There’s dozens of places where you can read about the song.  Here’s a few paragraphs from Uncle Stylus.

Peter Green said it’s a song about the corrupting influence of money, which he equated with the devil. In 1969, the huge success of Fleetwood Mac had brought them a considerable income and Green had agreed with the band that they would would give it all to charity. One can imagine that “morning after” moment when he demanded they made good on their idealistic rush of blood. A massive quarrel ensued, and Green never forgave the other bandmembers for reneging on the idea and claimed that this was what inspired the song.

The Judas Priest cover doesn’t really follow the original all that much (the ending wailing is so much cooler the way Halford does it).  But the riff here is pretty spectacular (understandable why they’d want to cover it).  Also, it was a big hit in England when it came out, so it’s not like the band was crate-digging for rarities.  I had just never heard of it.

There is something some sinister about the slow menace of the Fleetwood Mac version.  It’s incredible to think that this is the same band who put out Rumours (although really it isn’t, but whatever).

Check out the live from Boston version for some real heaviness.  And marvel that this weird song was a hit.

[READ: November 2022] Collectibles

Evidently Lawrence Block has created several of these anthologies all loosely based around a theme.  This is the first one I’ve read, although I see another one called Playing Games is on the horizon.

This collection is about collectibles.  Most but not all of the stories are crime or mystery based.  A couple have a touch of the supernatural as well.  The term “collectible” is pretty broadly defined from one story to the next, but it’s a decent prompt to let you know what you’re getting.

Lawrence Block – The Elephant in the Living Room (An Introduction)
This is an essay about the book which includes an amusing story about Lawrence’s Uncle Jerry who ha a collection of giraffes.  There were presently none in the collection because he hadn’t found one up to his standards.

Junior Burke – The Evan Price Signature Model
This is a supernatural story about a guitar.  The narrator opened The Fret Gallery as a place to keep his own instruments, but also as a way to sell the ones he could bear to part with.  An old acquaintance came into the shop with a guitar to sell.  He didn’t know where it came from but it seemed really nice. It had belonged to Evan Price of The Scavengers.  The story gives some details about the Scavengers disastrous U.S. tour.  The guitar went missing from the store and the next night, he saw someone play it at a local bar.  Someone who seemed perfect for the guitar.

S. A. Cosby – Blue Book Value
Trey had been hunting when he came across a an old car (from 1971) abandoned in the woods. He knows the owners of the property and he speaks to the older woman who lives there.  The car was likely her husband’s.  But he ran off with a young thing when he and his wife had young kids. She doesn’t want to get rid of the car.  And when Trey goes to get it anyway, she proves that she is very serious about not getting rid of the car.

… From Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Obsession: Introduction
Penzler writes several short pieces (all from a larger work) about his obsessive collecting of bools.

Janice Eidus – A Collection of Friends
Five girls were friends as kids.  Each short paragraph tells a moment about when of the girls.  When Genevieve lost her virginity, that Blossom had to live with her grandma, how Doreen was super shy and that the narrator was the “nice one.”  Then the collection of friends moves to college.  The narrator now has three different girls in her collection.  A new group of friends for every stage of her life.  And what of her soon to be born child?  Will she be part of a collection of friends too?

Lee Goldberg – Lost Shows
The narrator collects lost shows–shows that aired for one episode or that had pilots that were never aired.  He tracks down an actor who was on a show called Pete McShane.  he wants those episodes.  He asked the actor, Buddy, if he could get them.  This story turned surprisingly violent (actually many of the stories in the collection are surprisingly violent, which I find kind of a boring turn of events, but whatever).  He is, after all, a serious collector.  Of course he has killed before.  At least the method of death is unexpected.

Rob Hart – Bar Wall Panda
In this story some thieves are after a drawing that was done on a bar wall in the East Village.  The drawing is roughly 11 by 24 inches. the piece is by an artist and the collector tried to buy it from the bar.  But the bar wouldn’t sell.  And he must have it, of course. The story is complicated when someone else wants it too.  There’s a surprise twist at the end that alleviates some of the nastiness.

Elaine Kagan – God Bless America
The garage is too full to keep the cars in.  Just hope the cops don’t look to see why the garage is so full.

… From Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Obsession: Memoires de Vidocq Francoise-Eugene Vidocq
These little anecdotes about rare books are quite enjoyable.

Kasey Lansdale – Resonator
Fascinatingly, here’s another story about a guitar, okay technically it’s a banjo, but still.  How many writers want to be musicians?  This story has a curse and a body count.

Joe R. Lansdale – The Skull Collector
A story about a man named The Skull Collector (and he does collect skulls).  A woman takes the job of digging up a body to get the skull for the man.  She enlists the help of a friend who she knew she could count on.  The details of the story lingered with me longer than any of the others.  There’s a scene in a clock tower that is pretty unforgettable.

Dennis Lehane – A Bostonian (in Cambridge)
A bookstore owner in Boston has begun collecting letters.  Letters of abandonment.  Some of which are quiet valuable. Playing a long con, some blackmailers.  There’s mistaken identity, double crossing and a lot of Edgar Allan Poe.

Joyce Carol Oates – Miss Golden Dreams 1949
This story is written from the point of view of a cloned Marilyn Monroe doll.  I’ve never been interested in the cult of Marilyn, so this story was a little lost on me.  It’s also creepy as hell (Oates is a master of this) with the collector’s salivating over this doll.

… From Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Obsession: Lingo Dan Percival Pollard
I may have to read this book.  The details of each book probably aren’t worth remembering, but the overall vibe and tone is certainly enjoyable, as is Penzler’s writing style.

Thomas Pluck – The Green Manalishi with the Two-Pronged Crown
The title of this story is a Fleetwood Mac song (later covered by Judas Priest).  A coin collector is brought to a Nazi booth where a samurai helmet rests next to Nazi flags.  I enjoyed that this story is about a gay man combatting homophobia and that Rob Halford’s coming out is an important moment in the story.  Plus it’s set in Jersey and talks about the mafia.  What fun!

David Rachels – Devil Sent the Rain Blues (PM 13040)
This is a story about a collector looking for a specific 78RPM record.  he goes to random places and puts out ads that he is buying old records.  And people come in droves with all kinds of junk.  The story contains the perfect sentence for this book: “too many people believe that everything old is valuable.”  But some people do know when they have something of real value–and how to fool someone who is desperate to get it.

S. J. Rozan – Chin Yong-Yun Meets a Mongol
Rozan has a series of books about Lydia Chin and Bill Smith.  Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese private eye in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother; Bill Smith is a white private eye in his forties who lives in Manhattan.  But Rozan has also written short stories, like this one, about Lydia’s mother Chin Yong-Yun.  The story begins with Chin Yong-Yun explaining how she met a Mongolian and why, historically, the Mongols and Chinese have not gotten along.  But this story is about a valuable book called The Secret History of the Mongols.  She has discovered that Uncle Seven has the book and she is in a good place to get it back.  But she’s not willing to give everything up.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch – The Demise of Snot Rocket
This story is funny enough because the titular character is a runner who would blow his nose onto the ground (which was gross even before the pandemic).  But everyone is surprised when, after a race, he is found dead.  The main character is an investigative reporter, which doesn’t have anything to do with the case except that she’s a better witness than most.  And she does get dragged into the story.  The case seems to be unsolved until the narrator does some digging.

… From Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Obsession: Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
But it seems that maybe this books isn’t easily findable?

Alex Segura – First Appearance
Comic books finally make an appearance. Carlos was a shy kid who was picked on.  He just wanted to read comic books, but he had a nemesis–a popular quarterback.  What if he can get revenge by putting a valuable comic into his tormentor’s backpack.  Of course, he would have to steal it first.

Lawrence Block – Collecting Ackermans
This is a story about a serial killer and the difficult the police have of tracking him because his reason for killing is pretty unfathomable.  A very memorable conclusion to this book.

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So this was an enjoyable, if dark collection.  I realize that the authors included here will lead this story into a darker place, but it would be interesting if there were a wider range of genres in the book.  But hey, Block is a mystery writer so it makes sense that it’s got a vibe, right?