Mike Johnson and Friends – Dilemma
I’m about 99% sure that this record, from Mike Johnson and a few of his friends on the seemingly private label “Freedom Light,” came my way via Cool Chris of Groove Merchant. Memory is getting a little fuzzy these days, especially after all of the record therapy I did during the pandemic and the hundreds of records I bought. Part of the dilemma of being a collector is knowing when to stop. I mean, if you’re truly a collector, you never stop, but at some point you have to know when you’ve reached your limit. For me, after rebuilding my collection, my limit is set by the two record shelves that house all of my vinyl. I never want my collection to get bigger than these 24 squares and once they did fill up last year, I went through all of them and decided who was going to stay and who was going to find a new home. While there were a number of records that I knew I no longer needed or wanted, there were almost an equally sizeable stack of records I had bought but not spent much time with and couldn’t remember if there was anything good enough to hold on. Ultimately, I think I only ended up saving maybe 20 records in that stack, but one of those was this one from the aforementioned Mike Johnson.
I buy a lot of records just on potential, sometimes I’ll have the benefit of there being a turntable to preview things, but some times it’s just vibes from the cover or song titles. In many instances that potential doesn’t pan out and those records are easy to let go. But then there are records like this where there’s just enough of a good thing going on that I think, “yes, you can stay a little while longer.” In this particular case, the thing that solved my stay/go dilemma was the lead song “Dilemma,” which I dig on many levels. First there’s its overall sound, which sounds like it was both recorded a couple years before as well as a couple years after the date of release on the jacket of 1973. Its just got this great lo-fi, private press psych feel to it…and to add to it, there’s the message of the song, I mean, just dig these lyrics…
And dig the way Johnson sings the lyrics, with just a shade of 1970s flamboyance that would make you think the band would have had solid stage show, even if they appear to be just a little hometown band from New Hampshire. You never know what you’ll find on a private press record. But every now and again, you find a pure gem, and those are always worth holding on to, as long as you feel they still sparkle…