VinylTap Radio

Art Garfunkel - Breakaway (1975)

2012-01-12T08:39:00.001-06:00

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

The second time around, Art Garfunkel turned to pop producer Richard Perry, who liked to record in studios rather than cathedrals and who replaced the angelic style of the first album with a lush pop approach. The result was Garfunkel's best-selling album. The title track and a cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You" reached the Top 40 (the latter topped the U.K. charts), though the most prominent song was the Simon & Garfunkel reunion single "My Little Town." But the album was full of wise pop choices, among them Bruce Johnston's "Disney Girls," Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)," and Hal David and Albert Hammond's "1199 Miles from L.A." Perry proved that, given the right material and production, the problem of the relative sameness of Garfunkel's vocal approach could be overcome.

Tracks

1. I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)
2. Rag Doll
3. Break Away
4. Disney Girls
5. Waters of March (Aguas de Março)
6. My Little Town
7. I Only Have Eyes for You
8. Lookin' for the Right One
9. 99 Miles from L.A.
10. The Same Old Tears on a New Background

LINK

The Meters - Fire On The Bayou (1975)

2011-11-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Meters' third album for Reprise, Fire on the Bayou, is their best record for the label for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the high quality of material throughout the record and a focus from the band that keeps the music simmering, even if it never quite reaches a boil. That's not a bad thing, because the music IS simmering, always hot and enticing, never lukewarm or too cool. There's not anything that comes out and grabs your throat, the way that "Hey Pocky Way" does, but there never seems to be a concession to mainstream funk, the way Cabbage Alley or Rejuvenation seemed to be. This just keeps things rolling, nice and smooth. There's not anything that separates itself from its partners -- something that's unfortunately true of all of the Reprise albums -- but the overall feel is better than the Meters' other Reprise albums, since it has more grit and presence than its compatriots. [Sundazed's 2000 reissue contains one bonus track, a "long version" of "Running Fast."]

Tracks

1. Out in the Country
2. Fire on the Bayou
3. Love Slip Upon Ya
4. Talkin' 'Bout New Orleans
5. They All Ask'd for You Modeliste,
6. Can You Do Without?
7. Liar
8. You're a Friend of Mine
9. Middle of the Road
10. Running Fast
11. Mardi Gras Mambo
12. Running Fast [Long Version]

LINK

The Walker Brothers - Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers (1965)

2011-10-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

Biography - by Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

They weren't British, they weren't brothers, and their real names weren't Walker, but Californians Scott Engel, John Maus, and Gary Leeds were briefly huge stars in England (and small ones in their native land) at the peak of the British Invasion. Engel and Maus were playing together in Hollywood when drummer Leeds suggested they form a trio and try to make it in England. And they did -- with surprising swiftness, they hit the top of the British charts with "Make It Easy on Yourself" in 1965. "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" repeated the feat the following year, and the group also had U.K. hits with "My Ship Is Coming In," "(Baby) You Don't Have to Tell Me," "Another Tear Falls," and others. For a few months they experienced frenzied adulation almost on the level of the Beatles and the Stones, though in the U.S. (where they rarely performed) only "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" entered the Top 20.

While the Walkers looked the part of British Invaders with their shaggy mop-top hairstyles, they were far more pop than rock. Nor did they play on most of their records. With producer Johnny Franz and veteran British arrangers like Ivor Raymonde (who also worked with Dusty Springfield) and Reg Guest, they favored orchestrated ballads that were a studied attempt to emulate the success of another brother act who weren't really brothers: the Righteous Brothers. Not as soulful as the Righteous Brothers, lead singer Scott Walker's deep croon betrayed strong debts to non-rock vocalists like Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. While their biggest hits were covers of songs by American pop songwriting teams like Bacharach-David and Mann-Weil, Scott (and occasionally John Walker) could write brooding originals in a more personal, less overblown style when given the chance.

In the intensely competitive days of 1967, the Walkers' brand of pop suddenly become passé, and the group disbanded in the face of diminishing success and Scott's increasingly fruitful solo career. Scott ran off a series of Top Ten British solo albums in the late '60s, which have attracted a sizable cult with their idiosyncratic marriage of Scott's brooding, insular songs and ornate orchestral arrangements. Gary Walker released a few singles and an album with his group the Rain in a much harder-rocking guitar-oriented format. The Walkers reunited for a while in the mid-'70s, which produced a final British hit ("No Regrets"). Much of the Walkers' story is retold in the biography Scott Walker: A Deep Shade of Blue, published only in Britain.

Tracks

1. Make It Easy on Yourself
2. There Goes My Baby
3. First Love Never Dies
4. Dancing in the Street
5. Lonely Winds
6. The Girl I Lost in the Rain
7. Land of 1000 Dances
8. You're All Around Me
9. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
10. I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore
11. Here Comes the Night
12. Tell the Truth
13. Love Her
14. The Seventh Dawn
15. But I Do
16. My Ship Is Coming In
17. Looking for Me
18. Young Man Cried
19. Everything's Gonna Be Alright
20. I Need You

LINK

The Artwoods - Art Gallery (1965)

2011-07-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The Artwoods' only album was an enjoyable mixture of club-oriented soul, R&B, and jazz with a strong organ spice, although it found them falling seriously behind their contemporaries in the British R&B scene in a crucial respect. Not one of the dozen tracks was a group original, and their vocal and interpretive ability was not so strong as to make that shortfall an irrelevance. Still, it did give them a chance to stretch into some jazzy workouts and rave-ups that probably couldn't have been contained on 45s, particularly the swinging cover of "Walk on the Wild Side" (with excellent jazz organ by Jon Lord); Allen Toussaint's "Can You Hear Me," with an arrangement reminiscent of the Spencer Davis Group; and Bobby Bland's "Don't Cry No More," one of their best R&B covers. Once a plum British Invasion rarity, the LP has been reissued on CD by Repertoire and doubled in length with the addition of 14 bonus tracks, including most of their non-LP singles and all four songs from their rare 1966 EP Jazz in Jeans. That EP and their two post-Decca 1967 singles (also present on the disc) haven't been reissued elsewhere, and while this material isn't up to their best recorded output and is occasionally lame, there are some good moments among those rarities, such as the 1967 single "What Shall I Do" and the moody jazz-blues organ instrumental "Our Man Flint" (from Jazz in Jeans). It doesn't quite stand as the complete work of this minor British R&B/rock band, as it's missing four songs that only appeared on singles, including their very best track, 1965's "Oh My Love." For that reason, the Edsel best-of LP 100 Oxford Street still remains the best introduction to the band. And if you already have that LP and this CD, you don't quite have every last thing the Artwoods recorded, as the 1966 B-side "Molly Anderson's Cookery Book" doesn't appear on either of those releases.

Tracks

1. Can You Hear Me?
2. Down in the Valley
3. Things Get Better
4. Walk on the Wild Side
5. I Keep Forgettin'
6. I Keep Lookin'
7. One More Heartache
8. Work, Work, Work
9. Be My Lady
10. If You Gotta Make a Fool of
11. Stop and Think It Over
12. Don't Cry No More
13. Sweet Mary
14. If I Ever Get My Hands on You
15. Goodbye Sisters
16. She Knows What to Do
17. I Take What I Want
18. I Feel Good
19. What Shall I Do
20. In the Deep End
21. These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
22. A Taste of Honey
23. Our Man Flint
24. Routine
25. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
26. Al's Party
27. Molly Anderson's Cookery Book (bonus track)

LINK

Brinsley Schwarz - S/T (1970)

2011-04-07T10:54:00.003-05:00

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine - allmusic.com

Brinsley Schwarz's eponymous debut is the stuff of rock legend because it is the punch line to a great story. It arrived after a disastrous publicity blitz, where the band's management arranged for prominent British journalists to cross the ocean to hear the Brinsleys' showcase performance at the Fillmore East. In a series of mishaps that would shame Spinal Tap, the band arrived in New York hours before their show and the journalists, who dipped heavily into the courtesy bar when their plane nearly crashed, arrived minutes before the concert. The press was underwhelmed to say the least and savaged the band and the record. Listening to Brinsley Schwarz, it's easy to see why they weren't turned on by the Brinsleys: this is a bizarre, naïve blend of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dylan & the Band, and Buffalo Springfield, with a heavy dose of early Yes. It's filled with awkward steps and bad judgments, fueled by the group's romanticized view of Californian hippies. Consequently, it's hard not to cringe or chuckle by their hippie affectations, whether it's the lyrics ("she was my lady/had no plans to make her my wife") or the a cappella folk-rock harmonies that come out of nowhere on "Lady Constant" (it doesn't help that they sing "colored serpent coiled around your waist") or the bongo solo that ends "Shining Brightly." But, amidst all this hippie posturing, there some weird touches, like the multi-octave chromatic guitar break on "Hymn to Me" or the heavy prog jam of "What Do You Suggest?" and "Ballad of a Has-Been Beauty Queen" that illustrate how English the Brinsleys still were at this stage. All of this adds up to a debut that's decidedly uneven and unsure, but in retrospect, it's easy for sympathetic listeners to be charmed by their eccentricities.

Tracks

1. Hymn to Me
2. Shining Brightly
3. Rock & Roll Women
4. Lady Constant
5. What Do You Suggest?
6. Mayfly
7. Ballad of a Has Been Beauty Queen

LINK

The Greatest Show On Earth - The Going's Easy (1970)

2011-03-11T09:11:00.000-06:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

As had been the case with the Greatest Show on Earth's (GSOE) debut long-player, Horizons (1970), the follow-up, Going's Easy (1970), made very little impact despite their originality and certainly better-than-average material. The band's rather auspicious origins were the invention of EMI Records subsidiary Harvest, who set out to manufacture a British version of Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago -- both of whom successfully fused a brass and woodwind section into the framework of a rock & roll combo. After a less-than-stellar initial outing, GSOE returned to the drawing board and reconvened with a disc of longer and more jammed-out sides. They had also been listening to their stateside counterparts. The extended track "Borderline" is a group-credited composition that seems to lift several distinct features from the David Clayton Thomas version of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Colin Horton Jennings' (vocals/flute/guitar) bluesy lead vocals seem to practically mimic Thomas'. In fact, GSOE even goes one better than Blood, Sweat & Tears with an exceedingly heavier rock vibe. The acoustic and lilting "Magic Touch Woman" as well as the dark, pastoral "Storytimes & Nursery Rhymes" include some well-crafted harmonies that could easily be mistaken for latter-era Hollies. This is particularly interesting as the Hollies actually scored a minor hit with "Magic Touch Woman." "Love Magnet" is another lengthy track that features some of the band's best ensemble work. Mick Deacon's (vocal/keyboard) electric organ solo is especially noteworthy, giving GSOE a really jazzy workout. Lacking consumer or industry support, GSOE disbanded by mid-1971. Even while the group was able to sell out shows throughout the rest of Europe, the total lack of interest back home inevitably sealed their fate.

Tracks

1. Borderline
2. Magic Woman Touch
3. Story Times and Nursery Rhymes
4. The Leader
5. Love Magnet
6. Tell the Story
7. Mountain Song

LINK

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Here They Come! (1964)

2011-03-06T11:07:00.002-06:00

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

It took Columbia Records two years after signing Paul Revere & the Raiders to release this label-debut LP. In the interim, the group had released a string of singles that were only regional successes in the Northwest. Producer Bob Johnston had taken them into the studio to try to recreate their dynamic live show before an invited audience, but Columbia sat on the results until the group's coming residency on ABC-TV's Where the Action Is prompted this release. The first side of the album displays the Raiders as the raucous club band they were, grinding through R&B dance tunes like "You Can't Sit Down" and "Oo Poo Pah Doo." The second side previews their evolution into more of a pop group in the mid-'60s, although with songs like "Fever," it still retains something of their early R&;B flavor.

Tracks

1. You Can't Sit Down
2. Money (That's What I Want)
3. Louie, Louie
4. Do You Love Me
5. Big Boy Pete
6. Ooh Poo Pah Doo
7. Sometimes
8. Gone
9. These Are Bad Times (For Me and My Baby)
10. Fever
11. Time Is on My Side
12. A Kiss to Remember You By

LINK

The Pozo-Seco Singers - I Can Make It With You (1967)

2011-02-11T11:13:00.000-06:00

Review - by Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

The group used slightly fuller and more pop-savvy arrangements on their second LP, without tinkering much with their basic approach. This is especially apparent on the album's two hit singles (the title track and "Look What You've Done"), which sound like attempts to invest coffeehouse folk with the grandiose pop-rock structure of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." The similarity of both tracks to that Righteous Brothers classic is really too evident to escape comment, especially given that the trio had covered the song on their previous album. Elsewhere they opted for more up-to-date cover material than they had for their debut LP, offering versions of songs by Phil Ochs, Tim Hardin, and Gordon Lightfoot. In 1996, I Can Make It with You was reissued on CD in tandem with their previous album, Time.

Track Listing:

1. I Can Make It With You (2:19)
2. If I Were A Carpenter (2:32)
3. Johnny (2:53)
4. Changes (2:35)
5. Forget His Name (1:54)
6. Mary Jenkins (2:08)
7. Look What You've Done (2:51)
8. Almost Persuaded (3:10)
9. Diet (1:35)
10. Ribbon Of Darkness (2:22)
11. Blue Eyes (2:40)
12. I Believed It All (2:45)
13. Louisiana Man (2:21)

LINK

Charline Arthur - Welcome To The Club (1996)

2011-02-08T10:30:00.000-06:00

Biography - by Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

Charline Arthur didn't play by the rules. During the '50s, country music wasn't particularly receptive to rowdy, racy material sung by females, much less one who refused to submit to the orders of her record company or promoters. No matter how much pressure Arthur received, she didn't change her ways. With a raging temper, she was difficult to work with, particularly angering her producer, Chet Atkins. Nevertheless, her music was frequently impressive. In some ways, Arthur was a forerunner of rockabilly, with her bluesy, raw hillbilly music and her wild stage shows. She was the first female singer in country music to perform in pants and she used the extra freedom to prowl the stage. While her career was extremely brief -- she recorded for RCA for three years -- her music gained a cult following over the years, as proved by the appearance of Bear Family's Welcome to the Club compilation in 1986.

The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, Charline Arthur (born Charline Highsmith, September 2, 1929, in Henrietta, TX) began singing in church while she was in school. At the age of seven, she earned enough money collecting empty bottles to buy a guitar for six dollars. Influenced by the hardcore honky tonk of Ernest Tubb, she wrote her first song, "I've Got the Boogie Blues," when she was 12. By the time she was a teenager, she was performing on a local Texas radio show. Arthur won a spot on a traveling medicine show in the mid-'40s, yet her parents refused to let her leave home. She countered by marrying Jack Arthur, who would later play bass on her records.

In the late '40s, she began singing in honky tonks and nightclubs across Texas, which eventually led to a single with Bullet Records, "I've Got the Boogie Blues"/"Is Love a Game." After she recorded the single, she and Jack moved to Kermit, TX, where she was hired by a radio station as a DJ. Soon, Charline assembled a band. Performing in local clubs and the radio, Arthur gained a fan base. In 1950, she recorded a single for the small label Imperial. During this time, Eddy Arnold and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, heard Arthur perform. Impressed with what they heard, they directed Julian and Gene Aberbach, owners of the Hill and Range music publishing company, toward the singer. The pair signed her to a publishing deal and landed her a contract with RCA Records in 1953.

Arthur made her first record for RCA early in 1953, recording with session musicians who included Floyd Cramer and Chet Atkins. Her contract with RCA led her to appearances with the Louisiana Hayride, the Big D Jamboree, and the Ozark Jubilee. During this time, she frequently performed on the same stage as Elvis Presley, whose mother was a big fan of Arthur. All of her performances were gaining her acclaim -- in 1955, she was the runner-up to Kitty Wells in Country & Western Jamboree magazine's DJ poll.

However, things weren't going smoothly for Arthur. Although she appeared on the "Prince Albert" portion of the Grand Ole Opry, her material was frequently rejected on the grounds it was too racy. At RCA, Chet Atkins followed Steve Sholes as her record producer, and the two musicians could not get along. Furthermore, she was having no success with any of her records. After her contract expired at the end of 1956, she left RCA for Colin, but she had a similar lack of success there. Shortly after her record label switch, she parted ways with her husband, Jack.

Charline formed a trio with her sisters, Betty Sue and Dottie, but the teaming was unsuccessful. By 1960, she was broke. Arthur moved to Salt Lake City, where she met Ray Pellum, a nightclub and record label owner who landed her a regular singing job in Chubbuck, ID. During this time, she also recorded for his Eldorado label. In 1965, Arthur headed out to California. Between 1965 and 1978, she recorded for three small labels -- Rustic, Wytra, and Republic -- with Alice M. Michaels as her manager. Suffering from debilitating arthritis, she went back to Idaho in 1979, and stayed there until her death in 1987. Charline Arthur lived long enough to see her RCA material reissued by Germany's Bear Family Records in 1986.

Track Listing:

1. Burn That Candle
2. Just Look, Don't Touch, He's Mine
3. I Love Him Better Than You Do
4. How Many Would There Be?
5. What About Tomorrow?
6. Welcome to the Club
7. I'm Having a Party All by Myself
8. Honey Bun
9. Looking at the Moon and Wishing on a Star
10. He Fiddled While I Burned
11. I Heard About You
12. Leave My Man Alone
13. Flash Your Diamonds
14. I Was Wrong
15. Too Long, Too Many Times
16. (I'm in Love With) Someone's Used to Be
17. Waltzing
18. The Good and the Bad
19. Heartbreak Ahead
20. Soft Hearted Gal
21. For Old Times' Sake
22. Later On
23. Double-Crossed My Love
24. Kiss the Baby Goodnight
25. Anything Can Happen
26. I Kept It a Secret
27. Please Darlin' Please
28. Hello Baby
29. Cryin' Alone
30. I've Got the Boogie Blues
31. Is Love a Game
32. Dreaming of You

LINK

Robert Michum - That Man, Robert Mitchum Sings (1967)

2011-02-06T10:10:00.000-06:00

Review by Greg Adams-allmusic.com

Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent. Music was never anything more than an occasional sideline to his acting career, but he recorded sporadically throughout the years. That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings collects all of his commercial recordings from the '50s and '60s, including the complete albums Calypso Is Like So (1957) and That Man (1967), plus the hit single "Ballad of Thunder Road." The latter, a song Mitchum wrote for his film Thunder Road, charted twice for him and once for the bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse, who covered it for the country market in the late '60s. Calypso Is Like So is one of many albums of its era designed to cash in on the calypso craze, but is a cut above the typical offering because of Mitchum's obvious fondness for the style and the humorous songs, most of which comment on the war between the sexes. "What Is This Generation Coming To" addresses rock & roll and the generation gap, and "From a Logical Point of View" is based on the same calypso tune as Jimmy Soul's later hit "If You Wanna Be Happy." In a completely different vein, That Man is a country album Mitchum cut for Monument Records after hearing Charlie Walker's "Little Ole Winedrinker Me," which Mitchum included on the album. That song became a big country hit for Mitchum, and the rest of the album is just as good. He sings an assortment of pop and country hits, a new version of "The Ballad of Thunder Road," and a lovely pop ballad he composed, "Whippoorwill," all in a style similar to Dean Martin's country recordings.

Tracks

1. You Deserve Each Other

2. Walker's Woods

3. Wheels [It's Rollin' Time Again]

4. In My Place

5. Ballad of Thunder Road

6. That Man Right There

7. Little Ole Wine Drinker Me

8. Ricardo's Mountain

9. Sunny

10. Little White Lies

11. Whippoorwill

12. Gotta Travel On

LINK

Lenny Dee - Most Requested! (1964)

2011-01-14T09:21:00.000-06:00

Biography - by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Lenny Dee was a versatile organist who enjoyed a Top 20 hit with "Plantation Boogie" in 1955 and recorded a series of albums. He is best-known for being able to make his organ sound like a wide variety of other musical instruments.

Dee was born in Illinois, but raised in Florida, where he learned to play piano when he was seven years old. After he began playing the piano, he also learned how to play accordion and banjo. In his late teens, he studied music in Chicago. While he was studying, he began performing concerts on organ; during this time, he perfected his distinctive style.

Dee began touring the U.S. after completing his studies. At a Nashville concert, Red Foley was impressed with his style and brought the organist to Decca Records. Dee signed a contract in the mid-'50s, releasing his first single, "Plantation Boogie," in 1955. The single became a hit, peaking at number 19. He followed it with his first album, Dee-lightful!, which peaked at number 11. The hits dried up for Dee quickly, though he continued to release records and tour. He returned to the charts in 1968, with his Gentle On My Mind album. Two other hit albums followed -- Turn Around, Look At Me (1969), Spinning Wheel (1970) -- which peaked in the lower reaches of the charts. Dee stopped recording in the mid-'70s.

Track Listing:

1. Hello Dolly!
2. Canadian Sunset
3. The Girl From Ipanema
4. Baby Elephant Walk
5. Bluesette
6. Moonlight Cocktail
7. Java
8. Summertime In Venice
9. Cafe Oriental
10. On Green Dolphin Street
11. The Pink Panther
12. Honky Tonk Train Blues

LINK

The Three Suns - On A Magic Carpet (1960)

2011-01-09T18:22:00.000-06:00

Biography - by Jason Ankeny
The postwar-era pop trio the Three Suns comprised vocalist/organist Artie Dunn, guitarist Al Nevins and accordionist Morty Nevins. Although formed in 1939, the group did not achieve widespread success until their 1944 Top 20 rendition of "Twilight Time," co-written by the trio with Buck Ram, sold over a million copies. In 1947 the Three Suns topped the charts with "Peg o' My Heart," but by the 1950s line-up shuffles plagued the group -- first Al Nevins was replaced by Johnny Buck, who later gave way to Joe Negri, while brother Morty Nevins was replaced by accordionist and pianist Joe Vento in 1955. After disbanding, Dunn reformed the trio in 1957 with guitarist Johnny Romano and accordionist Tony Lovello; a largely-forgotten curio for several decades, by the 1990s the Three Suns had accrued hipster cache thanks to the lounge-music revival, and their original recordings resurfaced on any number of exotica and "space-age bachelor pad" reissues. Al Nevins also etched his name in pop history as the co-founder, with Don Kirshner, of Aldon Music, the songwriting house which served as the epicenter of the Brill Building music factory.

Track Listing:

1. Canadian Sunset
2. Lisbon Antigua
3. Terry Theme
4. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)
5. Moritat
6. The Poor People Of Paris
7. Blue Tango
8. Meet Mr. Callaghan
9. The Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)
10. Ruby
11. The Third Man Theme
12. Fleur de Paree

LINK

Difficulties connecting to VinylTap Radio?

2011-01-04T15:53:00.003-06:00

I've heard that some are not successfully able to connect to the radio broadcast through their favorite media player. If this is the case, you must leave a comment to this post or I won't know about the problem

It's pretty sweet that I never get any complaints! Perfection is a bitch!

Here's the stream URL; copy/paste into your media player and you should be good to go:

http://vinyltap.webhop.net:8000

Quill - Quill (1970)

2010-12-05T10:35:00.000-06:00

Review
by Joe Viglione - allmusic.com

Quill opened up the Saturday festivities at Woodstock in 1969, though some may say the real claim to fame for Jo Unk Khol (aka John Cole) is the sound effects he makes (uncredited) at the beginning of Andy Pratt's 1973 classic "Avenging Annie." The group's self-produced album is one of the better offerings from "The Bosstown Sound," as was Pratt's 1971 Polydor release Records Are Like Life. Perhaps it is no coincidence that both were recorded by the mysterious Boston-area engineer who went by one name, Aengus. Steven McDonald originally wrote in AMG that "Quill came and went in 1970, leaving a single album behind as evidence of their existence. The band hurtled into the depths of psychedelia with results that are both painful and entertaining." McDonald went on to call the music "a self-indulgent mess with some promise and much racket." Actually, the six compositions by John and Dan Cole, along with N. "Red Rocket" Rogers' "Too Late," deserve to be remembered a little bit better than that. Perhaps the entire album was too far out to include "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night" or "Journey to the Center of the Mind," titles like "Thumbnail Screwdriver" and "Tube Exuding" giving the impression that these were bad Ultimate Spinach or Eden's Children outtakes. That's far from reality. The music is more toward the entertaining than the painful end of McDonald's spectrum. And though they, like Sweetwater, failed to catch on as other acts from the Woodstock festival did (unlike Ten Wheel Drive, who were said to have turned the gig down to settle in near obscurity), there is something special in these grooves and the pastel/half-psychedelic cover with esoteric lyrics spread across the inside of the Unipak gatefold. Despite the zany pseudonyms the bandmembers embraced, this record has more smarts than anything Zager & Evans ever put to plastic. There are jazzy overtones mixed in with the mayhem and experimentation far beyond anything Ultimate Spinach, the dreadful Eden's Children, and even the beloved the Beacon Street Union from that "Bosstown Sound" era attempted to create. Maybe it was the marketing, maybe it was the damage caused by Eden's Children, there's no doubt Quill deserved a better fate. If only Cotillion, the label that released the Woodstock triple and double LPs, had put this and other groups out as part of a "Woodstock" series.

Tracks

1. Thumbnail Screwdriver
2. Tube Exuding
3. They Live the Life
4. Bby
5. Yellow Butterfly
6. Too Late
7. Shrieking Finally

LINK

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant(1967)

2010-11-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Review
by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

At the outset of his second recorded performance of the anti-war shaggy-dog story-song "Alice's Restaurant," Arlo Guthrie notes that 30 years have passed since the events described in the song. That anniversary may serve as a useful touchstone for this only slightly revised retelling, but a more likely explanation for why Guthrie would re-record not only his most famous song, but also his entire first album in soundalike fashion is simply that, unlike most of his records, Alice's Restaurant is still owned by Warner Bros. Records and not by Guthrie's own Rising Son label. The new version of the title song has a few new jokes in it (it's even longer than the original), and Guthrie faithfully re-creates such songs as "Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag" and "The Motorcycle Song," but the original album is still the one to own.

Tracks

1. Alice's Restaurant Massacree
2. Chilling of the Evening
3. Ring-Around-a-Rosy Rag
4. Now and Then
5. I'm Going Home
6. The Motorcycle Song
7. Highway in the Wind

LINK

Marvin Gaye - Moods Of Marvin Gaye (1966)

2010-11-03T08:44:00.001-05:00

Review
by John Bush - allmusic.com

After Marvin Gaye recorded tributes to Broadway and Nat King Cole in the previous two years, Motown fans may have had their suspicions raised by an LP titled Moods of Marvin Gaye. Yes, there are a few supper-club standards to be found here, but Gaye moves smoothly between good-time soul and adult pop. Most important are his first two R&B number ones, "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Particular," both from 1965 and both produced by Smokey Robinson. Berry Gordy's right-hand man also helmed "Take This Heart of Mine" and "One More Heartache," another pair of big R&B scores, and just as good as the better-known hits. As for the copyrights not owned by Jobete, the chestnut "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" certainly didn't need another reading, but Gaye's take on Willie Nelson's after-hours classic "Night Life" was inspired. Marvin Gaye was improving with every record, gaining in character and strength of performance, and Moods of Marvin Gaye is a radically better record than its predecessors.

My personal note: I bought this album in 1969 while in the Navy aboard the USS Shangrila (CVA-38) in the Mediterranean. The ship's store had a number of LPs available, usually the stuff you find in bargain bins. This is the only Marvin Gaye album I've ever owned and have always been of the opinion that it's probably his best effort.

Tracks

1. I'll Be Doggone
2. Little Darling (I Need You)
3. Take This Heart of Mine
4. Hey Diddle Diddle
5. One More Heartache
6. Ain't That Peculiar
7. Night Life
8. You've Been a Long Time Coming
9. Your Unchanging Love
10. You're the One for Me
11. I Worry 'Bout You
12. One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)

LINK

Mark Fry - Dreaming With Alice (1972)

2010-09-09T09:44:00.000-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Fry's sole, obscure album was pleasing but derivative British acid folk, very much influenced by Donovan in its mood and vocals, though more unceasingly oriented toward acid-folk-rock than any of Donovan's efforts. In fact, it was a little behind the curve in 1972, sounding rather more like something that would have been recorded and issued a couple of years earlier. The gentle, haunting songs are breathily vocalized acoustic guitar tunes at their core, but lightly spiced with psychedelic echo, backwards tapes, flutes (one song is even called "Lute and Flute"), sitar, and extended raga-influenced passages. In fact, the final track is nothing but a backwards tape -- all two and a half minutes of it. Fry's singing is far more reticent than Donovan's, though not unattractive; at times it's a bit like hearing a further-out Al Stewart. As suitable as this music might be for dozing off to in a forest and the like, the songs -- broken up by several half-minute or so interludes, all consisting of verses from "Dreaming With Alice" itself -- aren't too substantial, functioning more as mood pieces than works that make a solid impact.

Tracks:

1. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 1
2. The Witch
3. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 2
4. Song for Wild
5. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 3
6. Roses for Columbus
7. A Norman Soldier
8. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 4-5
9. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 6
10. Lute and Flute
11.Dreaming with Alice, Verse 7
12. Down Narrow Streets
13. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 8
14. Mandolin Man (Mark Fry)
15. Dreaming with Alice, Verse 9-10
16. Rethorb VN No Hcram

LINK

Twist-A-Rama - Various Artists (1965)

2010-09-03T12:25:00.003-05:00

Review by Cub Koda - allmusic.com

Twist-A-Rama was a local Utica, NY, version of American Bandstand. When host Hank Brown started recording the local groups, he put them on this compilation album, which was sold at his record shops. Recorded in a basement studio under the most primitive of conditions and pressed on the cheapest low-grade plastic, this reissue really pushes the boundaries of lo-fi recording and barely capable garage band playing. Even with the inclusion of two better-played and -recorded bonus tracks by the Galaxies, this is one of the crudest '60s compilations you'll ever come across, and all the more charming for it.

Trivia: One of the local bands that didn't make this album but did attempt to perform on the show was Greg & The Vibrations from Richfield Springs, NY. They were scheduled to appear as part of a Battle Of The Bands segment and showed up ready to go on. Unfortunately, the lead singer (Greg Hext), developed a sudden case of stage fright and instead of performing on stage, he "bowed to the porcelain throne" through the whole set. Thus, the group was never seen on this or any subesequent show. Greg had a great singing voice and natural talent for performing, but he couldn't seem to make the switch from parlor to stage. They did fine playing to small groups at dances and bars, but that was it. Band members included, besides Hext: Rick Bond-Guitar, Leo Barrett - Bass, Jim Famulare - Drums, & Ricky Potts - Occasional Vocals. I filled in as a roadie to help haul equipment to some of the gigs, but that was only a couple times. Did manage to provide backup vocals at one gig at the Little Lakes Hotel, but only because both people in the bar and all the band was pretty drunk and disorderly. Apparently the band was paid with free drinks. Great fun!

1. Yabadabado Andy & The Classics
2. The Brick Brix
3. The Second Time Around Patty & The Hangmen
4. See That Girl Mercy-Side 5
5. Crazy Woman Galaxies
6. Sometimes Willie & The New Yorkers
7. I Want You Reveres
8. One Way Highway Galaxies
9. Too Much Eric & The Chessmen
10. All I Want to Do El Dorados
11. Jaguar Jazz Jaguars
12. Where Have You Gone To Toffs
13. I Won't Shed Tears over You Originals
14. One Last Time Turfmen
15. Nothing About Life at All King Beats
16. Journey to the Stars Galaxies

I don't currently have a DL link for this album; maybe at a later date.

Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan (1964)

2010-08-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

Review by Eugene Chadbourne - allmusic.com
The career of this great country singer in some ways went in the opposite manner of other performers who came out of the honky tonk tradition. Usually the earlier recordings of this genre of country singers are the really good ones, with later productions tending to be saturated with the background choruses, string sections, and downplayed picking which passed for fancy productions once Nashville started going Pop like the weasel. However, in the case of Frizzell, this earlier album is one of the ones with somewhat excessive production, and the later recordings sport a more toned-down bar band sound, heavy on the barrelhouse piano. Not that the production here is really that obtrusive. Certainly other country singers have fallen much more the victim to their background singers than this man, who would sound good with a steam hammer and the entire roller-skating staff of a drive-in diner trying to back him up. The title song was of course a huge hit, and if there was ever a town that is too dull to deserve such a great song, "Saginaw, Michigan" would be it. "There's No Food in This House" is a chillingly understated Merle Kilgore number, the singer admitting that he "used to ask what there was for supper, now I don't ask anymore." The conclusion of the song involving a delivery of food from the good-hearted folks at a nearby church may rub some cynical listeners the wrong way. "Hello to Him" is an out and out classic, one of the best songs the artist ever recorded, while the jumping "James River" even sports a banjo in the arrangement, despite this instrument having been practically banned from Nashville recording studios. The best of this material is typical Lefty Frizzell -- in other words, some of the best country music around.

Track List:

1. Saginaw, Michigan
2. Stranger
3. What Good Did You Get (Out of Breaking My Heart)
4. There's No Food in This House
5. When It Rains the Blues
6. Hello to Him (Goodbye to Me)
7. James River
8. I'm Not the Man I'm Supposed to Be
9. Through the Eyes of a Fool
10. I Was Coming Home to You
11. Don't Let Her See Me Cry
12. Lonely Heart

LINK

Shindig! - (1965?)

2010-08-25T08:15:00.004-05:00

The Byrds, Donovan, The Turtles, The Beau Brummels

The Mamas & Papas, The Yardbirds, Donovan

Woodstock 1969 - Up The Country

2010-08-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

41 years ago today, Woodstock was winding down.

Dave Loggins - Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop) (1974)

2010-08-11T08:44:00.002-05:00

Review by James Christopher Monger - allmusic.com

Kenny Loggins' second cousin hit the big time for a couple of months in 1975 with "Please Come to Boston," a serviceable and sentimental soft rock gem from his second album,Apprentice (In a Musical Workshop). Part of the lexicon of harmless '70s singer/songwriters like Dan Fogelberg and James Taylor, Dave Loggins never again regained the momentum spawned by that track, but its appearance on nearly every AM pop compilation illuminates the tune's timelessness. While the rest of Apprentice doesn't deviate from the warm, dull tones of the single -- even the full-on "My Father's Fiddle" and "Girl from Knoxville" sound like the Band-lite -- it's an expertly crafted slice of commercially made diner pie that resonates squarely in the moment and vanishes two steps out of the door.

Track List:

1. Someday

2. My Lover's Keeper

3. Second Hand Lady

4. Let Me Go Now

5. So You Couldn't Get to Me

6. Please Come to Boston

7. Girl from Knoxville

8. Sunset Woman

9. My Father's Fiddle

10. Wonder'n as the Days Go By

LINK

Key To The Highway - Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee

2010-04-30T09:14:00.006-05:00

I don't have a date for this performance, but I'll guess it's sometime in the 60s. Just thought it was a pretty good sound.

Teegarden & Van Winkle - S/T (1968)

2010-04-26T08:13:00.013-05:00

This is one I couldn't resist posting. Hard to find any info about this release. I bought this album back in '68 after hearing it on a local FM station in Jacksonville, FL.I got my son to rip it for me recently. He did good. It never seems to have gotten to CD, so here is a ripped LP version. Quality is not perfect, but not bad. Some excellent tunes here.

Tracks:

1. God, Love and Rock and Roll
2. Mona Sweet Mona
3. Ruth Colleen
4. Everything Is Going To Be Alright
5. Going Back Home
6. Eleanor Rigby
7. You Do
8. Homegrown
9. Okie From Muskogee

LINK

Update

2010-03-09T10:15:00.000-06:00

I've decided to leave all download links intact indefinitely. Not really worth the effort to disable them, so they will remain until they expire or unless someone requests a re-upload. Enjoy (for now; BWAAHAAHAA!)

Later...

Last Chance!

2010-03-05T07:30:00.000-06:00

After this weekend, I will be removing all download links. This will be your last chance for free albums from VinylTap. Of course, there are plenty of other blogs offering downloads (refer to my favorite links list); just not gonna be available here.

Not sure what the future brings for this blog; working on some ideas but nothing solid yet. I will continue the "free" internet radio broadcast indefinitely, but starting on Monday the 8th, the DL links will be disabled. The only active links will be for purchasing music and products.

Later....

bd

Philosophy of VinylTap

2010-02-28T10:17:00.007-06:00

VinylTap Radio has a small, loyal and discriminating group of listeners. Our tunes are not going to appeal to the Top 40 crowd. Think of us as a throwback to the early days of FM radio, when complete albums were highlighted and cuts chosen by FM jocks were scattered amongst the mainstream music. With that in mind, get ready to hear music from artists virtually unknown today, but who offered some of the best roots for contemporary music.

We are now broadcasting only a few hours a day: so don't "Bogart that joint"; pass it around, put on the headphones, turn on the strobes and tune in!

Mon-Fri ... 8am to 5ish pm CST (USA)
Weekends .... Whenever I have nothing else to do, I will be broadcasting occassionally

Any questions? Any comments? Any requests?
Just hit the "comment" button below.

Stay Tuned!!

And use the links to the advertisers on this blog; it keeps the 'Tap running a little longer.

or, you can donate any amount at any time:

No More Freebies....

2010-02-23T08:49:00.003-06:00

Well, we've come to the end of the line; no more albums will be posted for download. Just not enough interest out there. So I will only be posting info related to the VinylTap Radio broadcast. Possibly an occasional album review or recommendation will appear, but nothing on a regular schedule. I will keep broadcasting the tunes, but even that is mostly for my own listening pleasure. Very few listeners lately; must be the economy is affecting even free stuff. Or maybe it's just that I'm the only one who enjoys my taste in music.

My thanks to those who participated in this experiment; those of you who commented especially, as well as my followers and listeners. I've enjoyed sharing with you all.

Later;

bd

Thunderclap Newman - Hollywood Dream (1969)

2010-02-11T09:32:00.000-06:00

Review   by Dave Thompson - allmusic.com

All these years, and all these accolades later, it still seems incredible that Hollywood Dream meant nothing at the time of its release; that America let it drift no higher than Number 161; that the U.K. did not even give it a hearing. Less than a year before, after all, "Something in the Air" was topping charts and readers' polls alike, and Thunderclap Newman were as close as Christmas to becoming the new Beatles. Instead, they weren't even the new Badfinger, and this exquisite LP withered on the vine. Reissued in 1991, Hollywood Dream had been utterly transformed by the admiration of so many subsequent listeners, to stand alongside any lost classic you could mention, among the finest albums of its psychedelic generation. "Something in the Air," of course, has never lost its hold on our hearts, but there was so much more to Thunderclap Newman and, across the 12-track original album, and half-a-dozen bonus tracks, the trio's genius is inescapable. For those "in the know," who had treasured their scratchy old Atlantic label vinyl, the real meat lay in the latter, as all three of Thunderclap Newman's original 45's joined their album brethren, together with their non-LP B-sides. "Something in the Air," fussed up for the LP, reverts to its original emphatic punch; "Accidents" is pruned from a shade under ten minutes to a little over three; and the piping "The Reason" (an odd choice for a single in the first place) sounds like a role model for every record Supertramp ever made. The real gem, however, is "Wilhemina," which sounds like a daft piece of rhyming doggerel set to a nursery tune, but also packs one of the most dramatic psych guitar solos this side of your favorite Who record. Producer Pete Townshend must have been astonished. As will you be, too, if all you've ever heard is the hit. So many bands have been hauled out of obscurity to be tagged the greatest secret you've never been told. Thunderclap Newman are one of the few who actually deserve that epithet.

Track Listing:

1. Something in the Air
2. Hollywood #1
3. Reason
4. Open the Door, Homer
5. Look Around
6. Accidents
7. Wild Country
8. When I Think
9. Old Cornmill
10. I Don't Know
11. Hollywood Dream [Instrumental]
12. Hollywood, No. 2

LINK

The Smoke - It's Smoke Time (1967)

2010-02-06T10:33:00.000-06:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Besides "My Friend Jack," other highlights of the Smoke's only album (all but one of whose tracks were group originals) include the beautiful mid-tempo ballad "Waterfall" and the bee-humming guitars and lilting backup vocals on "You Can't Catch Me." This Repertoire reissue of the original LP adds 14 additional cuts, including non-LP singles, a single issued in 1965 by the Shots (an earlier version of the group), a single puzzlingly issued under the alias the Chords Five, and an interesting alternate take of "My Friend Jack." A lot of these tracks pale in comparison to the 12 from the original album, but "Have Some More Tea" is a great Who-ish number, and "Sydney Gill" is a good stab at a more progressive mood. [Originally released in 1967, It's Smoke Time was reissued on CD in 2006 and contains the first 12 tracks of the original LP.]

Track Listing:

1. My Friend Jack
2. Waterfall
3. You Can't Catch Me
4. High in a Room
5. Wake Up Cherylina
6. Don't Lead Me On
7. We Can Take It
8. If the Weather's Sunny
9. I Wanna Make It with You
10. It's Getting Closer
11. It's Just Your Way of Lovin'
12. I Would If I Could But I Can't

LINK

The Fool - S/T (1969)

2010-02-02T09:04:00.000-06:00

Review   by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

The Fool (1969) is an obscure piece of music history centering around a quartet of Dutch multimedia artists, Simon Kooer, Marijke Kooer, Josje Leeger, and Barry Finch. Their earliest clientele included model Patti Boyd Harrison Clapton (aka "Layla"), whose psychedelic gear caught the eye of Daily Mirror fashion editor Felicity Green. One of their more high-profile gigs involved decorating for the Beatles, including the entire side of the Fab Four's short-lived Apple boutique on Baker Street in London, as well as a Rolls-Royce and grand piano for John Lennon. They also designed some of the era's most notable LP jackets, including the Incredible String Band's 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (1967), the Move's self-titled debut album (1968), and the Hollies' Evolution (1967). Undoubtedly, it was the connection with the latter that resulted in Graham Nash's involvement as producer on this collection. Musically, the Fool often resemble the far-out folk of the aforementioned Incredible String Band. This is especially the case with the choral lead vocals on "Fly" and "Reincarnation," blending Eastern philosophy with a distinct delivery style similar to that of an English ballad. "Rainbow Man" is an edgier rocker driven by a solid Bo Diddley rhythm, while the acoustic guitars give the number a rural and freewheelin' feeling. "No One Will Ever Know" stands out with its interminably catchy uptempo melody, while the trippy vocals from Marijke and Josje have an oddly hypnotic effect. The slinky soulful "Keep On Pushin'" is an extended instrumental that may include an uncredited Nash, whose harmonica blows are challenged by an equally impassioned bagpipe solo. While hopelessly dated, The Fool is fun for inclined parties and worth searching for. The Fool...Plus (1998) is a U.K. reissue of this ten-track long-player as well as a pair of previously unearthed sides, "We Are One" and "Shining Light," presumably derived from the same sessions as this effort.

Track Listing:

1. Fly
2. Voice on the Wind
3. Rainbow Man
4. Cry for Me
5. No One Will Ever Know
6. Reincarnation
7. Hello Little Sister
8. Keep on Pushin'
9. Inside Your Mind
10. Lay It Down

LINK

The Creation - We Are Paintermen (1967)

2010-01-30T11:32:00.001-06:00

Review   by Erik Hage - allmusic.com

This was the only full-length album released during the brief life-span of the Creation, one of the few beat groups to rival the raw intensity of the Who. (Guitarist Eddie Phillips, who committed violin bow to guitar strings before Jimmy Page, was allegedly even courted by Pete Townshend to become the Who's second guitarist.) This album, released in 1967 on Hit-Ton, a label out of Germany, where the group enjoyed immense popularity (a situation not mirrored back home in the UK), consists of the singles and some uninspired choices of covers ("Cool Jerk," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Hey Joe"). The group's criminally under-appreciated sound is fueled by Phillips' clanging, melodic power chords and feedback-drenched squalls, which show up most prominently in the Creation's signature single, "Making Time." Other highlights on this essential album for fans of Mod and British Invasion include "Try and Stop Me," "If I Stay Too Long," "Biff Bang Pow," and "Painter Man." A 1999 Repertoire Records reissue cleaned up the poor sound quality of the original.

or

Track Listing:

1. Cool Jerk
2. Making Time
3. Through My Eyes
4. Like a Rolling Stone
5. Can I Join Your Band
6. Tom Tom
7. Try and Stop Me
8. If I Stay Too Long
9. Biff Bang Pow
10. Nightmares
11. Hey Joe
12. Painter Man
13. How Does It Feel to Feel [US Version]
14. Sylvette
15. I Am the Walker
16. Ostrich Man
17. Sweet Helen
18. Life Is Just Beginning [Alternate Take]
19. For All That I Am [Stereo Version]
20. Midway Down [Stereo Version]
21. Hurt Me If You Will
22. I'm Leaving
23. Work All Day (Sleep All Night)
24. Going Down Fast

LINK

Golden Earring - Moontan (1973-Import)

2010-01-26T08:48:00.000-06:00

Review by Donald A. Guarisco - allmusic.com

This 1973 outing is the album that raised Golden Earring to an international level of popularity, primarily on the strength of the hit single and enduring radio favorite "Radar Love." However, there is much more to this album than just that hit. In many ways, Moontan is like a summation of everything the group had learned on their first three albums. It presents a similar combination of prog epics, heavy rockers, and songs that combine both elements, but everything is raised to a new level of inspiration and polish. It starts with a bang thanks to "Candy's Going Bad," a piece that starts off as a thunderous, pounding rocker but transforms midway into a bluesy instrumental mood piece. Other highlights include the hit single "Radar Love," a relentless rock tune with a left-field instrumental break in which tribal drums duel with a big band-style horn section, and "Just Like Vince Taylor," a guitar-slinging slice of boogie rock that pays tribute to the fallen rock idol of the title. The album also includes what may be the group's finest prog effort in "Vanilla Queen": this classic builds from pulsating, ominous verses dominated by synthesizer into a hard-rocking chorus and also throws in a stark acoustic guitar midsection before climaxing in a frantic band jam augmented by blaring horns and an ever-spiraling string section. Despite the album's overall strength, not every song reaches these heights: "Are You Receiving Me?" recycles some hooks from the group's past classic "She Flies on Strange Wings," and the twangy country-pop of "Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)" is a little too poppy to gel with the rest of the album. However, even these tunes benefit from tight arrangements and a spirited, totally committed performance from the group. The result is an album that retains its power today. In the end, Moontan is a necessity for Golden Earring fans, and a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in 1970s rock at its most adventurous.

Tracks:

1. Candy's Going Bad
2. Are You Recieving Me
3. Suzy Lunacy (Mental Rock)
4. Radar Love
5. Just Like Vince Taylor
6. Vanilla Queen

LINK

Graffiti - S/T (1968)

2010-01-17T11:09:00.000-06:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Graffiti released an obscure, self-titled LP on ABC in 1968 that was co-produced by Bob Thiele (more known for his work with many major jazz musicians), Eddie Kramer (most known for his engineering on Jimi Hendrix records), and Jay Senter. Though accomplished in its musicianship and versatile in its stylistic focus, Graffiti lacked much in the way of enduring musical interest, blending some jazz, classical, pop, and blues influences into a generic, West Coast rock-influenced psychedelic sound that often employed high multi-part vocal harmonies.

Graffiti's sole album was in some ways typical of numerous obscure psychedelic one-shots on fairly big labels in the late '60s: over-ambitious lyrics, a kaleidoscope of styles that butted heads as often as it blended, emulation of several passing psychedelic trends pioneered by bigger groups, and an absence of really good songs. All that said, as such albums go, it's better than average, though hardly noteworthy. That's kind of faint praise, but at least Graffiti were less ponderous than many such bands, with a sort of gossamer lightness to much of their material. As for what styles they mined, they're hard to pin down, though they're fairly influenced by West Coast psychedelia of the era, with some of the vocal harmonies so high that one can mistakenly think there was a woman in the group (there wasn't). Bits of jazz, classical guitar, blues-rock, psychedelic effects, and vocal harmonies both sunshine pop and Gregorian seep through from time to time as the band floats through ever-shifting melodies and styles. The songs and instrumental solos do tend to go on too long, however, and the songwriting isn't memorable.

Track Listing:

1. Father Protector
2. The Capture Of Me / Life Blood
3. Jingle Jangle Woman
4. New Life / Girl On Fire / Cold Water / Love In Spite
5. Ugly Mascara
6. He's Got The Knack

LINK

The 101'ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (1981)

2010-01-16T11:29:00.000-06:00

Review    by Stephen Thomas Erlewine - allmusic.com

The 101'ers never released a proper album while they were together, only turning out one single, a terrific pub rocker called "Keys to Your Heart." They probably would have remained a pub rock footnote for much longer if it hadn't been for lead singer Joe Strummer, whose massive success with the Clash led to an independent release (spearheaded by Strummer and the 101'ers drummer Snake Hips Dudanski) of Elgin Avenue Breakdown in 1981. It's not really correct to call this an album proper, since it contains the remnants of three demo sessions, including one recorded at the BBC, and a live audience tape, all shuffled and spit out seemingly at random. So, it's an utterly chaotic mess, with wildly varying sound quality, but that's part of its charm, since this is, after all, a collection of artifacts from a band that never got a chance to make an album, so you take whatever you can find. And, yes, this is good enough to hear even if you're not a Clash maniac, but you probably have to be a rock & roll fiend to really dig this (and, let's face it, most rockers worship the Clash). This is firmly within the tradition of such high-energy, ballsy pub groups as Ducks Deluxe, Eddie & the Hot Rods, and Dr. Feelgood, which means there's a lot of Stones-n-R&B-fueled rockers, spiked with a liberal amount of covers -- Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business," Bo Diddley's "Don't Let Go," Them's "Gloria," the New Orleans standard "Junco Partner" (later revived by the Clash), and Slim Harpo's "Shake Your Hips," as told via the Stones' "Exile." These covers are tremendously spirited, even wild, and the originals follow suit, particularly the standouts "Letsagetabitarockin" and "Keys to Your Heart" (included in an alternate version from the single). Make no mistake, this is a record only for die-hard collectors and rockers, but for that group, it's worth the search. [Elgin Avenue Breakdown has never received wide release, and has been intermittently been available on vinyl and CD of questionable legality.]

Track Listing:

1. Letsagetabitarockin
2. Silent Telephone
3. Keys To Your Heart (version 1)
4. Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love)
5. Sweet Revenge
6. Motor Boys Motor
7. Steamgauge '99*
8. 5 Star R'n'R
9. Surf City
10. Keys To Your Heart (version 2)
11. Sweety Of The St Moritz
12. Hideaway (previously unreleased)
13. Shake Your Hips (Live)(previously unreleased)
14. Lonely Mother's Son (Live)(previously unreleased)
15. Hideaway (Live)
16. Don't Let It Go (Live)
17. Keep Taking The Tablets.(Live)(previously unreleased)
18. Junco Partner (Live)(previously unreleased)
19. Out Of Time (Live)(previously unreleased)
20. Maybelline (Live)(previously unreleased)
21. Gloria (Live)(previously unreleased)

LINK

Teegarden & VanWinkle - On Our Way (1972)

2010-01-13T08:39:00.000-06:00

Biography by Jason Ankeny - allmusic.com

Best known for their 1970 smash "God, Love and Rock & Roll," the duo of drummer David Teegarden and organist Skip "Van Winkle" Knape first began collaborating in their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma during the early 1960s. After meeting while backing local rockabilly singer Gene Crose, the two later reunited in the group Skip and the Blue Tones before going their separate ways, with Knape touring behind singer/guitarist Rodney Lay and Teegarden remaining a fixture of the Tulsa club circuit. They eventually came back together later in the decade after a chance meeting at the Los Angeles home of another former Tulsa performer, Leon Russell; dubbing themselves the Sunday Servants, Teegarden and Knape soon recorded a cover of "Bo Diddley" for the World Pacific label. The record went nowhere, however, and the duo instead turned to backing singer Denny White.

While appearing in Elko, Nevada, White abruptly left town after landing a better-paying gig; out of necessity the Teegarden and Van Winkle act was born to fulfill their club obligations, briefly returning to Tulsa before settling in Detroit, where in 1969 they recorded their debut album, An Evening at Home with Teegarden and Van Winkle. But Anyhow followed in 1970, like its predecessor failing to dent the pop mainstream; the duo then self-released "God, Love and Rock & Roll," which slowly became a hit throughout the midwest before reaching the Top Ten on the national charts. A self-titled LP followed in 1971, but Teegarden and Van Winkle failed to capitalize on the single's success, despite frequently playing live with Bob Seger. On Our Way followed in 1972, and a year later the duo issued Experimental Groundwork, an album recorded under the influence of hypnotherapy. It was Teegarden and Van Winkle's final LP for close to a quarter century, with the duo reuniting in 1997 for Radioactive.

Track Listing:

1. Carry On (With You)
2. Midnight Rider
3. Movin' On Down The Highway
4. Going Down
5. Ride Away (With Me)
6. Ain't Love Grand
7. Arted Is My Last Name (Passing Gas)
8. If You Live
9. I Need You
10. Stoned On The Love Of Jesus
11. Rueben Red

LINK

Keef Hartley Band - Seventy Second Brave (1972)

2010-01-05T18:51:00.000-06:00

From Wikipedia:
Hartley's career began as the replacement for Ringo Starr as drummer for Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, a popular Liverpool-based band. Subsequently he played and recorded with The Artwoods then achieved some notability as John Mayall's drummer before forming The Keef Hartley (Big) Band, mixing elements of jazz, blues, and rock and roll into a jazz-rock sound comparable to Blood, Sweat, and Tears and Chicago. The group played at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and released four popular albums, including Halfbreed and The Battle of North West Six.

In November 1974, the UK music magazine, NME, reported that Hartley, who had been largely inactive since his band broke up in early 1972, had formed a new outfit called Dog Soldier. They recorded one album, the eponymously entitled Dog Soldier in 1975.

In 2007, Hartley released a ghost written autobiography, Halfbreed (A Rock and Roll Journey That Happened Against All The Odds). Hartley writes about his life growing up in Preston, and his career as a drummer and bandleader, including the Keef Hartley Band's appearance at Woodstock in 1969.

Track Listing:

1. "Heartbreakin' Woman" (Kerr) - 4:18
   2. "Marin County" (Mercer) - 3:55
   3. "Hard Pill To Swallow" (Wingfield) - 5:40
   4. "Don't You Be Long" (Kerr) - 5:16
   5. "Nicturns" (Crowe) - 3:02
   6. "Don't Sign It" (Mercer) - 4:24
   7. "Always Thinking of You" (Crowe) - 4:37
   8. "You Say You're Together Now" (Thain) - 3:42
   9. "What It Is" (Crowe) - 1:19

LINK

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band - It Should Have Been Me (1965)

2009-12-29T08:46:00.003-06:00

Review by Bruce Eder - allmusic.com

Zoot Money's debut LP, released on EMI's Columbia label in 1965, represents a side of the British Invasion that never quite took hold on U.S. shores -- steeped in American R&B but offering a sextet's attack on saxes and organ, theirs wasn't enough of a guitar-oriented sound to get a fair hearing in the U.S., though the guitarist here is Andy Somers (aka Andy Summers, who takes a hot solo on "Along Came John"). That doesn't mean it's not worth hearing, even 40 years later -- the renditions of numbers written by or associated with James Brown ("I'll Go Crazy"), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson ("Back Door Blues"), et al., knocked off in a single day's recording, is superb R&B regardless of its point of origin, and might even (and might still) turn a head or two. The big surprise, however, may be the gently swinging reinterpretation of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock and Roller," which manages to successfully straddle a couple of major music stylistic eras. And the Paul Williams-sung "Rags and Old Iron" is a dark, brilliant blues showcase for saxman Clive Burrows and Money's organ, as well as Williams' pipes.

Track Listing:

1 I'll Go Crazy
2. Jump Back
3. Along Came John
4.Back Door Blues
5. It Should Have Been Me
6. Sweet Little Rock And Roller
7. My Wife Can't Cook
8. Rags And Old Iron
9. The Cat
10. Feelin' Sad
11. Bright Lights, Big City
12. Fina

LINK

Charles Mingus Sextet w/Eric Dolphy - Cornell 1964 (1964)

2009-12-26T12:52:00.000-06:00

Review by Thom Jurek - allmusic.com

In 2005, Blue Note raised the eyebrows (and expectations) of the jazz world by issuing the previously unreleased Thelonious Monk/John Coltrane Carnegie Hall concert from November of 1957 that literally replaces the few other recordings of the group both sonically and musically. In 2007, courtesy of Charles Mingus' widow Sue, with the help of Michael Cuscuna and Blue Note, gives us another heretofore unknown bit of jazz history with the Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy's Cornell University Concert from March 18, 1964. The reason this gig is significant is because apparently, not only didn't anybody know it was recorded, according to Gary Giddins, who wrote the (typically) excellent liners here, no one but the people who put on the show and the students who attended even knew it had taken place! The other reason for its historic importance is that it took place 17 days before the famed Town Hall concert and predated other European shows by the band by at least a month. This is significant because trumpeter Johnny Coles took ill shortly after, and Dolphy passed away a few months later. Until now, the Town Hall gig was the standard for this band, but it is safe to say with this current revelation that it will be replaced in the annals of the canon. This band -- Mingus, Dolphy, Coles, Jaki Byard, Dannie Richmond, and Clifford Jordan -- played perhaps definitive renditions of some Mingus tunes worked out previously at the Five Spot where he assembled the group, and were presumed to have first been performed, and recorded, at Town Hall. Much of the material was also performed on the European tour that followed and climaxed with an appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

These two discs contain a number of debuts and some absolutely startling solos beginning with Byard's solo set opener "ATFW You," which is four-and-a-half minutes of genius and jazz history. Mingus' solos with skeletal Byard backing on "Sophisticated Lady" for another few minutes before the band takes off in earnest with a raucous yet amazingly playful half-hour version of "Fables of Faubus," that dazzles, to say the least, in large part because of the utterly inspired bass playing by the bandleader, and the embedded quotes from corny American folk songs to popular tunes to Chopin. Another debut here is the sextet version of Billy Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train," which Mingus had only recorded before with a big band. The differences, as one can imagine, are striking, particularly in Jordan's solo. The introduction of "Meditations" on the second disc of this set is simply shattering. Over half-an-hour in length, it offers once more the genius in Byard's playing and underscores Richmond as far more than a rhythmnatist, and Coles as a soloist who could hang with anybody. Of particular note is the interplay between Jordan and Dolphy's bass clarinet: the tune once more embodies the best of Mingus' thought and inspiration as it takes solid note of the lineage of the music and extends it into the future.

"So Long Eric" also appears here, since at the time of this recording, he was leaving the band, and this piece was a thanks for his contribution to Mingus' music and not the elegy it has been consistently thought of (Giddins points this out). Another welcome surprise here is the sextet performing a six-minute rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" (St. Patrick's Day was the day before), kicked off by a jaunty, swinging intro by Byard and Mingus. As the melody becomes pronounced the horns all kick in in unison, and Coles takes a wonderful solo, swinging hard and lyrical with wonderful counterpoint by Mingus and timely fills and comping by Byard, as a jazz version of a reel played by Dolphy on clarinet can be heard in the background. The final surprise is the only known recording of Mingus playing Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz," with killer duo played between Dolphy on flute and Byard. Throughout, Mingus' bass urges them on, digging deep into the groove of the tune, and the dialogue between Mingus and Richmond is nearly telepathic. Despite all of these debuts, there is another very profound reason that this recording is so utterly special, which Giddins reveals near the beginning of his liner notes. There is a kind of exuberance and joy on this set that offers another side of the mercurial and stormy bandleader. Seldom has he sounded so at ease and relaxed as he does here. The confidence in the ensemble is complete, and he feels no need to push but only to encourage and tale delight in the proceedings. This short-lived group proves, as evidenced here, that they were a magical unit that may not have been around as long as Miles Davis' second quintet, or John Coltrane's quartet, but as under-celebrated as its various musicians were -- Coles, Richmond, and especially Byard -- the band itself was as innovative and creative even in the brevity of its existence. This double-disc is every bit as important as the Monk-Coltrane disc, and sounds very fine for a tape that has been sitting in a closet for over 40 years: it truly needs to be heard to even be believed, let alone convinced.

Tracks

1. Opening
2. AT FW You
3. Sophisticated Lady
4. Fables of Faubus
5. Orange Wat the Colour of Her Dress, The Blue Silk
6. Take the "A" Train
7. Meditations
8. So Long Eric
9. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
10. Jitterbug Waltz

LINK1
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Family Dogg - The View From Rowlands Head (1971)

2009-12-23T13:17:00.002-06:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Family Dogg's final LP was one of those odd records that's weird not so much because of the actual music it contains, but because it varies in style so much from track to track, and because it seems so indecisive about whether to be pop-oriented or hipper, album-oriented rock. Much of it's early-'70s pop/rock with a slight cheery British slant, but possessed of a somewhat greater ambition than most lightweight pop/rock singles of the time. The problem is that the songs aren't as good or cool as they're obviously trying to be, and that so many approaches are tried on for size that it sometimes sounds like a various-artists compilation. There's easygoing, singalong, singer/songwriter stuff ("I Wonder"); a shanty-like folk tune of hardship with overlays of orchestration, jazzy brass, and searing distorted guitar ("Riker's Island," actually one of the better tracks); passable folky pop with lyrics reminiscent of Bob Dylan's spiteful mid-'60s songs, overlaid with incongruously sweet strings ("Like Janis"); a curious attempt to blend Leonard Cohen with early Jerry Jeff Walker, again with rather middle-of-the-road orchestration ("Crucify Your Mind"); good-time gospel-boogie rock ("Trying to Put Me On," "Inner City Blues"); and uplifting pop/rock with gospel overtones ("We Have All Been Saved"). The obvious highlight of the LP is also its least typical cut (inasmuch as anything here could be said to be atypical of such a hard-to-figure-out album), "Sympathy," a big 1970 Dutch hit. Actually a cover of a song by the British progressive rock band Rare Bird, it's a mournful tune with a funereal beat, glowing organ, creepy ensemble choral vocals, and positively monstrous blasts of fuzz bass. It's better experienced on a various-artists compilation (though it's hard to say exactly what thematic compilation would be a logical place for it), however, than on this curious, patchy, and mostly mediocre album.

Track Listing:

1. I Wonder
2. Riker's Island
3. Like Janis
4. Crucify Your Mind
5. Trying To Put Me On
6. We Have All Been Saved
7. Sweet America
8. Sympathy
9. Bethel Town Mission
10. Advice To Smokey Robinson
11. Inner City Blues

LINK

Hummingbird - Diamond Nights (1977)

2009-12-20T19:43:00.001-06:00

From Wikipedia,

Hummingbird (1975)
Background information
Genres     Rock
Years active     1974-1977
Labels     A&M
Associated acts     Beck, Bogert & Appice, Jeff Beck, Streetwalkers, The Jeff Beck Group
Members
Bobby Tench, Clive Chaman, Max Middleton, Bernard Purdie, Robert Ahwai
Former members
Conrad Isidore, Bernie Holland

Hummingbird were a British rock band, formed in 1974 by Bobby Tench of The Jeff Beck Group and Streetwalkers fame. Hummingbird recorded three successful albums, released by A&M using Ian "Sammy" Samwell as their record producer. The original line up included members of the second Jeff Beck Group, vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench, keyboardist Max Middleton, bassist Clive Chaman, drummer Conrad Isidore and second guitarist Bernie Holland. At the start of sessions for their first album they were joined by Jeff Beck for a brief period but he did not contribute to the album and left to work on his own project. After the first album Bernie Holland was replaced by guitarist Robert Awhai and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie replaced Isidore on the next two albums,vocalists Madeline Bell and Liza Strike were brought in to compliment the band. They found success mainly in the USA, also in Europe and Japan.

Diamond Nights was the third and final album recorded by the British rock band Hummingbird. The album was produced by Ian "Sammy" Samwell.

Track listing

   1. Got My Led Boots On
   2. Spirit
   3. Cryin' for My Love
   4. She Is My Lady
   5. You Can't Hide Love
   6. Anaconda
   7. Madatcha
   8. Losing You
   9. Spread Your Wings
10. Anna's Song

LINK

Gass - Gass (Juju) (1970)

2009-12-17T15:57:00.006-06:00

Wikipedia:
Juju was the first album recorded by the rock band Gass. The album was released by Polydor in 1970 and withdrawn soon after it was released to retail outlets, and renamed Gass.

Juju featured the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.The album name was soon changed to Gass then re-issued and returned to retail outlets.

The band

    * Robert Tench-bass, guitar, organ, vocals
    * Godfrey McLean - drums, congas, vocals, percussion
    * Delisle Harper - bass (electric, acoustic), percussion
    * Derek Austin - organ, piano, flute, percussion
    * Michael Piggott - violin, guitar

Other musicians

    * Junior Kerr-guitar
    * Errol McLean-congas
    * Humphrey Okah-sax
    * Alan Roskans-lead guitar
    * Frank Clark-organ
    * Peter Green-guitar (track 4 Juju and track 5 Black Velvet)

{many thanks to http://dropoutrecords.blogspot.com/ for the following}

[Gass were formed in 1965 in London with two guys from Trinidad and British Guiana involved. Thus resulted a unique blend of soul, Latin jazz, progressive rock, blues and Beatlesque melodies provided with complex time signature changes. Peter Green, having just left Fleetwood Mac, plays guitar on two songs. Gass' regular guitarist Bob Tench later appeared on albums by Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Roger Chapman and many more.

Stylistically, it was perhaps closest to what the likes of Ginger Baker's Airforce, Pete Brown & Piblokto! and Graham Bond were doing at the time, and definitely paved the way for further groups in the same vein in the coming years, such as Hanson (founded by Junior Kerr aka Junior Hanson, ex-Keef Hartley Band, to join Bob Marley & The Wailers) and Hummingbird. Priceless. ]

Track Listing:

01. Kulu Se Mama
02. Holy Woman
03. Yes I Can
04. Juju
05. Black Velvet
06. House For Sale
07. Cold Light Of Day
08. Cool Me Down

LINK

Mark-Almond - Rising (1972)

2009-12-16T10:56:00.003-06:00

Biography by Steve Huey - allmusic.com

British session musicians Jon Mark (vocals, guitar, drums) and Johnny Almond (vocals, woodwinds, vibes, percussion) met while playing together in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and left in 1970 to form Mark-Almond, sometimes referred to as the Mark-Almond Band. Prior to his career with Mayall, Mark and Mick Jagger co-produced Marianne Faithfull's early albums, with Mark later writing material for her and touring with her. He also toured with folksinger Alun Davies, and the two formed an ill-fated band called Sweet Thursday. Almond, meanwhile, had played in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, the Alan Price Set, and Johnny Almond's Music Machine. Both joined the Bluesbreakers in 1969 and appeared on the albums Turning Point and Empty Rooms; they left in 1970 and recruited bassist Rodger Sutton and keyboardist Tommy Eyre. The group built something of a following through touring, with their live shows often featuring lengthy instrumental jams. The group's roster grew to seven members by 1973 before disbanding that year. Mark, despite losing a finger in an accident, recorded the solo album Songs for a Friend in 1975. He and Almond reunited that year and released To the Heart in 1976; they got a deal with A&M in 1978 and released Other People's Rooms, but neither LP was successful and the duo broke up for good.

Tracks

1. Monday Bluesong
2. Song for a Sad Musician
3. Organ Grinder
4. I'll Be Leaving Soon
5. What Am I Living for
6. Riding Free
7. The Little Prince
8. The Phoenix

LINK

Booker T. & the MG's - Green Onions (1962)

2009-12-13T09:31:00.004-06:00

Review by Bruce Eder - allmusic.com

There's not a note or a nuance out of place anywhere on this record, which was 35 of the most exciting minutes of instrumental music in any category that one could purchase in 1962 (and it's no slouch four decades out, either). "I Got a Woman" is the single best indicator of how superb this record is and this band was -- listening to this track, it's easy to forget that the song ever had lyrics or ever needed them, Booker T. Jones' organ and Steve Cropper's guitar serving as more-than-adequate substitutes for any singer. Their version of "Twist and Shout" is every bit as satisfying. Even "Mo' Onions," an effort to repeat the success of "Green Onions," doesn't repeat anything from the earlier track except the tempo, and Jones and Cropper both come up with fresh sounds within the same framework.

"Behave Yourself" is a beautifully wrought piece of organ-based blues that gives Jones a chance to show off some surprisingly nimble-fingered playing, while "Stranger on the Shore" is transformed into a piece of prime soul music in the group's hands. "Lonely Avenue" is another showcase for Jones' keyboard dexterity, and then there's the group's cover of Smokey Robinson's "One Who Really Loves You," with a ravishing lead performance by Jones on organ and Cropper's guitar handling the choruses. Just when it seems like the album has turned in all of the surprises in repertory that it could reasonably deliver, it ends with "Comin' Home Baby," a killer jazz piece on which Steve Cropper gets to shine, his guitar suddenly animated around Jones' playing, his quietly trilled notes at the crescendo some of the most elegant guitar heard on an R&B record up to that time.

Tracks

1. Green Onions
2. Rinky Dink
3. I Got a Woman
4. Mo' Onions
5. Twist and Shout
6. Behave Yourself
7. Stranger on the Shore
8. Lonely Avenue
9. One Who Really Loves You
10. You Can't Sit Down
11. A Woman, a Lover, a Friend
12. Comin' Home Baby

LINK

Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart (1977)

2009-12-12T08:20:00.002-06:00

Review by Joe Viglione - allmusic.com

"Thunder in My Heart" and "Easy to Love" barely nicked the Top 40, and of his eight chart hits from 1975 to 1981, these two were the weakest, but this disco album by the quirky singer, once again produced by Richard Perry, is listenable and has more than its share of good players. Olivia Newton-John songwriter Tom Snow co-wrote the title track with Sayer, while Albert Hammond helped out on the second song and follow-up hit. Half of the ten songs are Snow co-writes, with Hammond, Michael Omartian, Bruce Roberts, and others all contributing. The second Hammond/Sayer title, "I Want You Back," is a pleasant album track, but with Omartian on piano, Jeff Porcaro on drums, and Larry Carlton on guitar, Perry could just put the session on automatic pilot. The album needs a jolt somewhere and it doesn't kick in; Sayer tries finding some middle ground while trying to make the transition to Engelbert Humperdinck, but actually comes off like a low-key guy version of Donna Summer. (That might sound more abysmal on paper than the album is.) It is quite polite, perhaps just a little too trendy to have the staying power necessary for this British TV host to make a real musical impact with it. Bowie he's not, nor is he as sincere here as the aforementioned Hammond. Ray Parker adds guitar to "It's Over" and James Newton Howard puts the synthesizers where they belong. The music on side two, from "Fool for Your Love" to "We Can Start It All Over Again," is more of the same highly listenable but disposable pop music. Thunder in My Heart is an album you want to like more than it lets you.

Tracks

1. Thunder in My Heart
2. Easy to Love
3. Leave Well Enough Alone
4. I Want You Back
5. It's Over
6. Fool for Your Love
7. World Keeps on Turning
8. There Isn't Anything
9. Everything I've Got
10. We Can Start All over Again

LINK

Sopwith Camel - The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon (1972)

2009-12-01T16:59:00.006-06:00

Biography by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The Sopwith Camel gained some passing mentions in rock histories as one of the first San Francisco psychedelic-era bands to record for a national label; in fact, they were the first to have a Top 40 hit, with the vaudevillian "Hello, Hello" in early 1967. They were not, however, one of the best San Francisco bands, nor were they even very good or psychedelic. Usually they sounded like a second-rate Lovin' Spoonful (with whom they shared producer Erik Jacobsen), emulating the more unfortunate camp aspects of that group with sleepy, good-timey pop-folk. Personnel changes delayed completion of their first album until nearly a year after "Hello, Hello" was a hit. The record, which would have been dated had it come out a year earlier, sounded hopelessly out of touch when it finally emerged; after moving to Warner Brothers, The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon was released in 1972. Those two would be the Sopwith Camel's only albums, except for a comeback LP in the early '80s.

Album Review by Mark Allan - allmusic.com

Imagine a jazzy John Sebastian who's into Eastern culture and vaudeville. This is pleasant, unambitious hippie groove music for a lazy, sunny afternoon. If you're in that mood, it will take you to a warm, fuzzy place.

Track Listing:

1. Fazon
2. Coke, Suede And Waterbeds
3. Dancin' Wizard
4. Sleazy Street
5. Orange Peel
6. Oriental Fantasy
7. Sneaky Smith
8. Monkeys On The Moon
9. Astronaut Food
1. Brief Synthoponia

LINK

Rodriguez - Coming From Reality (1972)

2009-11-27T12:44:00.003-06:00

Review by Quint Kik & John Bush - allmusic.com

For his second album, Rodriguez decamped to London at the request of producer Steve Rowland, who had heard Cold Fact and wanted to produce him. Since Cold Fact had made little in the way of commercial movement, Rodriguez jumped at the opportunity. Session musicians like renowned guitarist Chris Spedding lent a hand on production, which was overseen by Steve Rowland. (Curiously, the latter would go on to use about half of Cold Fact for Family Dogg's oddity The View from Roland's Head.) By far not as striking as his debut, Coming from Reality offers up some haunting stream-of-consciousness gems in "Sandrevan Lullaby" and "Cause." Rodriguez's lyrics still come off as mildly anti-establishment; "Heikki's Suburbia Bus Tour" apparently recalls a trip Rodriguez and friends undertook to Grosse Pointe to retaliate against the rich folks who often came to the inner city of Detroit to make fun of the hippies. He also spends lots of time with the low life, as he reminisces in the prologue to "A Most Disgusting Song": "I've played every kind of gig there is to play now/I've played faggot bars, hooker bars, motorcycle funerals, opera houses, concert houses, halfway houses." Slightly more slick than the debut, but still retaining the haunted personality (if not the gritty funk), the album sadly went nowhere in the United States and Europe. Faced, however, with the unexpected success of Cold Fact in South Africa, Sussex re-released Coming from Reality in 1976 as After the Fact. It lay out of print worldwide for several decades until 2009, when Light in the Attic resurrected it, along with the debut, and added three bonus tracks recorded during 1972-1973, back in Detroit, with Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey again producing.

Track Listing:

1. Climb Up on My Music
2. A Most Disgusting Song
3. I Think of You
4. Heikki's Suburbia Bus Tour
5. Silver Words Rodriguez
6. Sandrevan Lullaby -- Lifestyles
7. To Whom It May Concern
8. It Started out So Nice
9. Halfway Up the Stairs
10. Cause

LINK

Rodriguez - Cold Fact (1970)

2009-11-27T09:31:00.004-06:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

There was a mini-genre of singer/songwriters in the late '60s and early '70s that has never gotten a name. They were folky but not exactly folk-rock and certainly not laid-back; sometimes pissed off but not full of rage; alienated but not incoherent; psychedelic-tinged but not that weird; not averse to using orchestration in some cases but not that elaborately produced. And they sold very few records, eluding to a large degree even rediscovery by collectors. Jeff Monn, Paul Martin, John Braheny, and Billy Joe Becoat were some of them, and Sixto Rodriguez was another on his 1970 LP, Cold Fact. Imagine an above-average Dylanesque street busker managing to record an album with fairly full and imaginative arrangements, and you're somewhat close to the atmosphere. Rodriguez projected the image of the aloof, alienated folk-rock songwriter, his songs jammed with gentle, stream-of-consciousness, indirect putdowns of straight society and its tensions. Likewise, he had his problems with romance, simultaneously putting down (again gently) women for their hang-ups and intimating that he could get along without them anyway ("I wonder how many times you had sex, and I wonder do you know who'll be next" he chides in the lilting "I Wonder"). At the same time, the songs were catchy and concise, with dabs of inventive backup: a dancing string section here, odd electronic yelps there, tinkling steel drums elsewhere. It's an album whose lyrics are evocative yet hard to get a handle on even after repeated listenings, with song titles like "Hate Street Dialogue," "Inner City Blues" (not the Marvin Gaye tune), and "Crucify Your Mind" representative of his eccentric, slightly troubled mindset. As it goes with folk-rock-psych singer/songwriters possessing captivating non sequitur turns of the phrase, he's just behind Arthur Lee and Skip Spence, but still worth your consideration.

Track Listing:

1. Sugar Man
2. Only Good for Conversation
3. Crucify Your Mind
4. Establishment Blues
5. Hate Street Dialogue
6. Forget It
7. Inner City Blues
8. I Wonder
9. Jane S. Piddy
10. Gommorah (A Nursery Rhyme)
11. Rich Folks Hoax
12. Like Janis

LINK

Mainhorse - Mainhorse (1970)

2009-11-21T11:29:00.003-06:00

Biography by James Christopher Monger - allmusic.com

Created in 1968 by Swiss keyboard player Patrick Moraz, the progressive rock quartet Mainhorse, which also featured the talents of guitarist/violinist/vocalist Peter Lockett, drummer Bryson Graham, and bassist/cellist/vocalist Jean Ristori, released their eponymous lone record on Polydor in 1970. The album failed to garner much success outside of the art rock scene and the group split up, with Graham joining Spooky Tooth and Gary Wright, and Moraz landing a job with Yes and eventually starting a successful solo career.

Track Listing:

1. Introduction
2. Passing Years
3. Such a Beautiful Day
4. Pale Sky
5. Basia
6. More Tea Vicar
7. God

LINK

Spider John Koerner - Running, Jumping, Standing Still (1969)

2009-11-18T08:34:00.005-06:00

Review by Steve Cooper - allmusic.com

An oddly effective, one-off marriage of folk-blues and ragtime piano that kicks, to paraphrase Bob Wills, "like four mules pullin' out of a bog hole." Koerner, Ray & Glover's "Spider" John Koerner provides the playful, what-me-worry, Piedmont-by-way-of-Minnesota blues, and Willie Murphy adds inspired, loose-keyed, ragtime piano. At times, songs like "Red Palace" and "Sometimes I Can't Help Myself" sound like the perfect backdrop for Lilly Langtree in a Dodge City saloon circa 1883. Electric bass crops up here and there for emphasis, but the main vibe is Jesse Fuller meets Big Tiny Little. "Magazine Lady," a wildly in-the-groove tale of photo lust, is not to be missed. Kudos to eclectic producer Frazier Mohawk (Holy Modal Rounders, Kaleidoscope, Nico) for holding this stew together.

Track Listing:

1. Red Palace
2. I Ain't Blue
3. Bill & Annie
4. Old Brown Dog
5. Running, Jumping, Standing Still
6. Sidestep
7. Magazine Lady
8. Friends and Lovers
9. Sometimes I Can't Help Myself
10. Good Night
11. Some Sweet Nancy

LINK

Rush - 2112 (1976)

2009-11-14T10:00:00.004-06:00

Review by Greg Prato - allmusic.com

Whereas Rush's first two releases, their self-titled debut and Fly by Night, helped create a buzz among hard rock fans worldwide, the more progressive third release, Caress of Steel, confused many of their supporters. The band knew it was now or never with their fourth release, and they delivered just in time -- 1976's 2112 proved to be their much sought-after commercial breakthrough and remains one of their most popular albums. Instead of choosing between prog rock or heavy rock, both styles are merged together to create an interesting and original approach. The whole entire first side is comprised of the classic title track, which paints a chilling picture of a future world where technology is in control (Peart's lyrics for the piece being influenced by Ayn Rand). Comprised of seven "sections," the track proved that the trio was fast becoming rock's most accomplished instrumentalists. The second side contains shorter selections, such as the Middle Eastern-flavored "A Passage to Bangkok" and the album-closing rocker "Something for Nothing." 2112 is widely considered by Rush fans as their first true "classic" album, the first in a string of similarly high-quality albums.

Track Listing:

1. 2112: Overture/The Temples of Syrinx/Discovery/Presentation/Oracle: The
2. A Passage to Bangkok
3. The Twilight Zone
4. Lessons
5. Tears
6. Something for Nothing

LINK

Chuck Berry - Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll (1987)

2009-11-13T12:10:00.004-06:00

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

This is the soundtrack to a documentary film chronicling a concert held to celebrate Chuck Berry's 60th birthday. The band was led by Keith Richards and featured Berry's regular pianist, Johnnie Johnson, Richards' regular pianist, Chuck Leavell, Rolling Stones sax player Bobby Keys, bassist Joey Spampinato from NRBQ, and drummer Steve Jordan from Richards' solo band. The guests included Robert Cray, Linda Ronstadt, Eric Clapton, Julian Lennon, and Etta James. Berry was ragged-voiced but enthusiastic, the band had spirit, and the guests, even if they were sometimes unlikely, were sincere. The best way to hear Berry's music is to obtain the original recordings, of course, but as a souvenir of the Taylor Hackford film, this is an enjoyable romp through the catalog.

Track Listing:

1. Maybellene 2:37
2. Around and Around [live] 2:24
3. Sweet Little Sixteen 2:42
4. Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Berry, Robert Cray) 2:28
5. Memphis 3:08
6. Too Much Monkey Business 2:57
7. Back in the U.S.A. (Berry, Linda Ronstadt) 3:29
8. Wee Wee Hours (Berry, Eric Clapton) 5:24
9. Johnny B. Goode (Berry, Julian Lennon) 3:13
10. Little Queenie 3:41
11. Rock & Roll Music (Berry, Etta James) 3:45
12. Rll over Beethoven 3:15
13. I'm Through With Love [Rehearsal Recording] 2:50

LINK

The Revels - Intoxica!!! The Best Of The Revels (60s)

2009-11-07T09:06:00.005-06:00

Review by Cub Koda - allmusic.com

The Revels were a hard-partying group from California who are best known for their classic hit instrumental "Church Key." This compilation captures all their best singles, their lone album in its entirety, plus early demos and unreleased material in a package that catches their frat-band lightning in a bottle. Sam Eddy's piano work on "It's Party Time" is rock & roll at its irreducible best, while the guitar work here tips its hat to Duane Eddy regularly.

Tracks:

1. Intoxica
2. Sano
3. The Monkeybird
4. Church Key
5. Vesuvius
6. It's Party Time
7. Revillion
8. Comanche
9. Tough Soul
10. Soft Top
11. (Like) Tequila
12. Rampage
13. Longboard (previously unissued)
14. Good Grief
15. Six Pack

LINK

Underdogs Blues Band - And Beyond (1967)

2009-11-03T08:30:00.006-06:00

The Underdogs' 'blues Band and Beyond' Compiles all the Material the Band Ever Recorded for Zodiac: Their Blues Band LP, Sitting in the Rain EP and 45's featuring the Genius Guitar Playing of Harvey Mann!

Track Listing:

1. Oh Pretty Woman
2. Snowey Wood
3. Main Line Driver
4. Mary Anne
5. Pauline
6. Pretty Girls
7. Yonder Wall
8. All My Love
9. Hey Gyp
10. It Hurts Me Too
11. Rubber Duck
12. Cheating/Everybody Needs Somebody/Ride Your Pony (Live)
13. See Saw
14. Looking Back
15. Sitting In The Rain
16. Shortnin Bread
17. Cheating/Everybody Needs Somebody (Live)
18. There Will Come A Time
19. Fine Jung Thing

LINK

Julie London - In Person At The Americana (1964)

2009-10-31T09:14:00.004-05:00

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

Well into her mid-thirties, Julie London was also well past her commercial prime when she cut this live album for release in 1964. Actually, she had mounted something of a comeback the previous year with the LPs The End of the World and The Wonderful World of Julie London, both of which made the charts for her after a gap of six years from her 1955-1957 commercial heyday, but Julie London, released earlier in 1964, had not charted. London's film work was also at a low ebb; she had not appeared onscreen since 1961's The George Raft Story. But this was all the more reason to emphasize the personal appearance aspect of her career by recording a live album. Cut at the Royal Box of the Americana Hotel in New York City, this LP might as well have come from Las Vegas, since it was a glitzy affair that surrounded the star with a big band and a bevy of backup singers. She borrowed from Judy Garland for "The Trolley Song" (a number largely taken over by the choral accompaniment) and "The Man That Got Away," while her husband Bobby Troup provided his 1941 hit "Daddy" and 1948's "Baby, Baby All the Time," the latter in a medley with "Basin Street Blues" and "St. Louis Woman." London was at her best in the sexy, playful "Daddy," which brought out her personality. One could only imagine that there was a stage show to accompany these numbers that would have made the performance even more compelling, but London was still able to convey her breathy, bluesy charm. By 1964, that charm was coming to seem adult more in the sense of "aging" rather than "provocative," not only because of the singer's advancing years but because she, like everyone in her area of musical entertainment, was being marginalized by the Beatles and their ilk. So, Julie London in Person at the Americana seemed somewhat old-fashioned even on the day it was released.

Track Listing:

1. Opening/Lonesome Road 2:32
2. Send For Me 2:20
3. My Baby Just Cares For Me 3:39
4. The Trolly Song 2:10
5. Daddy 3:01
6. Medley: Basin St. Blues/St. Louis Blues/Baby, Baby All The Time 4:42
7. Kansas City 2:27
8. Bye Bye, Blackbird 2:29
9. By Myself 4:19
10. I Love Paris 2:21
11. Gotta Move 1:43
12. Cry Me A River 2:41
13. The Man That Got Away/Closing 3:12

LINK

The Flower Pot Men - A Walk In The Sky (1967)

2009-10-30T08:30:00.006-05:00

Biography by Michael Ribas - allmusic.com

This British group was an outgrowth of mid-'60s pop group the Ivy League. Songwriting partners John Carter and Ken Lewis wrote, produced and performed "Let's Go to San Francisco" and licensed it out to Deram, who had an international hit with it as the Summer of Love was just winding down. The pair released four more singles, including one under the moniker Friends. None were hits and the group dissolved in 1970. Though they were extremely derivative of the then-au courant West Coast sound (especially the post-surf Beach Boys), the group managed to come up with some worthwhile tracks that showed a talent for smooth pop in a variety of modes (folkish, progressive, psychedelic, etc.) albeit with little rock backbone.

Track Listing:

1. Let's Go to San Francisco, Pts. 1-2 [Original Mono Version]
2. Mythological Sunday
3. Blow Away
4. Say Goodbye to Yesterday [Alternate Version]
5. Let's Go Back to San Francisco, Pt. 1-2
6. Now and Then
7. Walk in the Sky
8. Cooks of Cake and Kindness [Alt. Mixes][#][Version]
9. White Dove
10. Children of Tomorrow
11. Let's Go to San Francisco, Pts. 1-2 [Stereo Version]
12. E=MC2/Musha Hada
13. Let's Go to San Francisco, Pts. 1-2 [Enhanced CD Track]

LINK

Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Great Conspiracy (1968)

2009-10-29T08:25:00.005-05:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

The Great Conspiracy, the second long-player from the Los Angeles-based Peanut Butter Conspiracy, was much more a reflection of their live sound than their debut effort, the pop-driven Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading (1967). Around 1964, the quintet was literally born from the Ashes (another burgeoning L.A. rock combo whose personnel featured soon-to-be Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden). After solidifying their lineup, they inked a deal with Columbia Records, which assigned staff producer Gary Usher to work with them. His well-meaning but over-the-top production style diffused the band, which came off sounding more like the Mamas & the Papas than the Jefferson Airplane or It's a Beautiful Day -- both of whom also sported female lead singers. However, by the time of this release the Conspiracy were sonically asserting themselves with a decidedly hipper approach. This is especially evident on the stretched-out and psychedelic "Too Many Do" and the deliciously trippy "Ecstasy" -- which sports frenzied and wiry fretwork similar to that of Quicksilver Messenger Service string man John Cipollina. Equally inspired are "Lonely Leaf" and the somewhat paranoid and darkly guilded "Time Is After You." These contrast with the somewhat ersatz hippie fodder "Turn on a Friend (To the Good Life)," the 38-second throwaway "Invasion of the Poppy People," or the simply wretched "Captain Sandwich." [In 2000 the Collectables reissue label coupled both The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading and The Great Conspiracy on a single CD. Also included were the 45-rpm sides "I'm a Fool" and "It's So Hard" as well as the previously unissued track "Peter Pan."]

Track Listing:

1. Turn on a Friend (To the Good Life)
2. Lonely Leaf
3. Pleasure
4. Too Many Do
5. Living, Loving Life
6. Invasion of the Poppy People
7. Captain Sandwich
8. Living Dream
9. Ecstasy
10. Time Is After You
11. Wonderment
12. I'm a Fool
13. It's So Hard
14. Peter Pan

LINK

The Ashes - Ashes (1968)

2009-10-25T09:40:00.003-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The rare and sole album by the Ashes is worth seeking by folk-rock aficionados, though it's not truly essential, and not worth the high prices it commands on the collector market. It's low-key circa-1967-1968 folk-rock, highlighted by Pat Taylor's assured, stirring vocals. Like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, there are bits of Los Angeles folk-rock giants like the Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas floating around that don't coalesce into anything as recognizable or significant as the Byrds or the Mamas & the Papas. The Ashes, though, have a more pronounced country-rock touch at times than the Peanut Butter Conspiracy do. They also don't sound like they're trying quite so hard to be far-out and beatific, and for that reason they might be more appealing to some listeners than the Peanut Butter Conspiracy are. Nothing on the album is as good as the best cuts from their more pop-oriented non-LP singles, and some of the songs are mediocre, like the cover of "Homeward Bound" and the infrequent junctures during which a male singer (or singers) take over the leads from Taylor. It has its share of nice songs, though, like "Return Home" and "Look Around Rock," and is at its best when Taylor emphasizes her vibrato timbre.

Tracks:

1. Gone To Sorrow
2. Sleeping Serenade
3. Homeward Bound
4. Sands Of Love
5. My Life Has Changed
6. Return Home
7. Her Invention
8. Look Around Rock
9. The Now
10. Rainbows
11. Simple Complexities

LINK

Mars Bonfire - Faster Than The Speed Of Life (1969)

2009-10-23T09:12:00.005-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Mars Bonfire's late-'60s material occasionally bears some resemblance to Steppenwolf, particularly in the use of heavy organs. But in fact this is certainly on the lighter and more pop-flecked side than Steppenwolf, which might both disappointment Steppenwolf fans who seek this out on the basis of the "Born to Be Wild" connection, and make this LP a rather pleasant surprise to those fearing bombastic late-'60s hard rock on the order of Steppenwolf's less impressive aspects. There is a version of "Born to Be Wild" here that is far tamer and less effective than Steppenwolf's hit cover. Yet on about half the album Bonfire favors a pretty airy pop-psychedelic approach (reminiscent of his "Tomorrow's Ship" composition on the single for pre-Steppenwolf outfit the Sparrow, written under his real name of Dennis Edmonton) to both his songwriting and arrangements. Bonfire has a thin, crackly voice that lacks force and precluded any significant success as a solo singer and band frontman, but does have a sincere and likable quality in spite of its limitations. "Lady Moon Walker" in particular is an overlooked psych-pop gem, with Bonfire's best deployment of attractive melodies, spacy lyrics, and pleasing keyboard textures. "In Christina's Arms" and "Sad Eyes" are also neat-o tender love songs with just enough unexpected melodic changes and oh-so-slightly trippy lyrics to make them more intriguing than the usual decent late-'60s pop/rock tune. When Bonfire tries to rock harder and get a little bluesy, the music becomes undistinguished, and sometimes downright boring. The good half of the album make this a worthwhile find, though, and it's worthy of CD reissue (along with "Little Girl Lost" and "Time to Fly," non-LP cuts from the era). Sure it's obscure, but that hasn't stopped Columbia from reissuing lots of other commercially unsuccessful '60s stiffs from its vaults.

Track Listing:

1. Faster Than The Speed Of Life
2. Born To Be Wild
3. Sad Eyes
4. Lady Mood Walker
5. Tenderness
6. She
7. Ride With Me, Baby
8. How Much Older Will We Grow?
9. So Alive With Love
10. In Chrisina's Arms
11. Night Time's For You

LINK

Streetwalkers - Downtown Flyers (1975)

2009-10-20T09:11:00.013-05:00

Charlie Whitney and Roger Chapman formed Streetwalkers late in 1973. This new band included vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench from The Jeff Beck Group and Hummingbird and future Iron Maiden drummer, Nicko McBrain. Streetwalkers was a polished AOR band with more elements of white soul than Family. They signed to the Vertigo label as Chapman Whitney Streetwalkers recording an album simply entitled Streetwalkers, released on the Reprise label in 1974, with a line up including other members of Family and King Crimson. Chapman and Whitney morphed their band into the "Streetwalkers" which comprised five members including Bobby Tench, drummer Nicko McBrain, who later moved onto play with Iron Maiden and bassist Jon Plotel. Tench, McBain and Plotel appeared on Rockpalast in 1975,[3] alongside Roger Chapman and Charley Whitney, billed as "The Whitney Chapman Streetwalkers" just before the band name was shortened. Their next album was entitled Downtown flyers which was released in USA during 1975. The groove heavy album Red Card[4] was released in the UK during 1976 and remains a much respected album.[5] Vicious but fair was also released by Vertigo in the same year and a final album Live Streetwalkers in 1977 followed, purely to fulfill contractual obligations.[6] Streetwalkers became highly respected by music fans and the music press. The band broke up in 1977, ending eleven years of the Whitney-Chapman musical partnership. wikipedia

Track Listing:

1. Downtown Flyers
2. Toenail Draggin'
3. Raingame
4. Miller
5. Crawfish
6. Walking On Waters
7. Gypsy Moon
8. Burn It Down
9. Ace O'Spades

Spirogyra - St. Radigund's (1971)

2009-10-15T08:49:00.003-05:00

Review by Jo-Ann Greene - allmusic.com

This is a welcome return for Spirogyra, one of the more intriguing bands of the early '70s. The quartet of singer/guitarist/songwriter Martin Cockerham, singer Barbara Gaskin, violinist/keyboardist Julian Cusack, and bassist Steve Borrill were obviously short a member, with future Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks coming on board for the recording of St. Radigunds, the group's debut album. The group's sound was unusual, with Cockerham's brittle, almost adenoidal vocals counterpointed by Gaskin's crystalline tones. Musically, too, the bandmembers played their instruments off against each other, with soaring, sometimes searing violin rocketing around strummed guitar and striking keyboard work. Stylistically, Spirogyra were determined to clash genres as well, and although much of their sound was grounded in folk-rock, Spirogyra interlaced it with proggier elements and psychedelic leanings. Thus they never quite fit comfortably into the contemporary Canterbury scene, into which they were often lumped, and effectively drew in a much more diverse audience. This eclectic approach was also reflected in the lyrics, heard in the working man's view of WWII and its aftermath on the strident "The Future Won't Be Long" and the -isms that infect "Time Will Tell," notable in the acid-drenched imagery of "Magical Mary," and found in the poetry-laced lyrics of "Island." With occasional use of unusual rhythms, intriguing blends of styles, innovative arrangements, and lyrics to ponder, St. Radigunds had it all, and quickly established Spirogyra as one of the most creative and innovative groups of the day.

Track Listing:

1. Future Won't Be Long
2. Island
3. Magical Mary
4. Captain's Log
5. At Home In The World
6. Cogwheels, Crutches and Cyanide
7. Time Will Tell
8. We Were A Happy Crew
9. Love Is A Funny Thing
10. Duke Of Beaufoot

LINK

Matching Mole - Matching Mole (1972)

2009-10-14T07:35:00.003-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The opening track, "O Caroline," is indicative of Wyatt at his best: art rock with a human face, a playful vocal, and soul. Much of the record is instrumental improvisation, though, with the humor largely confined to the song titles ("Instant Pussy," "Dedicated to Hugh, But You Weren't Listening"). For every nifty passage (the extended melancholy Mellotron solo on "Immediate Curtain," the goofy scat vocals on "Signed Curtain"), there's equal or greater instrumental patter. Some art rock devotees really get behind this album, but it doesn't count among the more enduring statements by the Canterbury crowd.

Track Listing:

1. O Caroline
2. Instant Pussy
3. Signed Curtain
4. Part Of The Dance
5. Instant Kitten
6. Dedicated To Hugh, But You Weren't Listening
7. Beer As In Braindeer
8. Immediate Curtain

LINK

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)

2009-10-13T07:36:00.004-05:00

Review by Jim Powers - allmusic.com

Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums. Several forces surrounding Wyatt's life helped shape its outcome. First, it was recorded after the former Soft Machine drummer and singer fell out of a five-story window and broke his spine. Legend had it that the album was a chronicle of his stay in the hospital. Wyatt dispels this notion in the liner notes of the 1997 Thirsty Ear reissue of the album, as well as the book Wrong Movements: A Robert Wyatt History. Much of the material was composed prior to his accident in anticipation of rehearsals of a new lineup of Matching Mole. The writing was completed in the hospital, where Wyatt realized that he would now need to sing more, since he could no longer be solely the drummer. Many of Rock Bottom's songs are very personal and introspective love songs, since he would soon marry Alfreda Benge. Benge suggested to Wyatt that his music was too cluttered and needed more open spaces. Therefore, Robert Wyatt not only ploughed new ground in songwriting territory, but he presented the songs differently, taking time to allow songs like "Sea Song" and "Alifib" to develop slowly. Previous attempts at love songs, like "O Caroline," while earnest and wistful, were very literal and lyrically clumsy. Rock Bottom was Robert Wyatt's most focused and relaxed album up to its time of release. In 1974, it won the French Grand Prix Charles Cros Record of the Year Award. It is also considered an essential record in any comprehensive collection of psychedelic or progressive rock. Concurrently released was the first of his two singles to reach the British Top 40, "I'm a Believer."

Track Listing:

1. Sea Song
2. Last Straw
3. Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road
4. Alifib
5. Alife
6. Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road

LINK

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1968)

2009-10-06T07:35:00.008-05:00

Review by Mark Deming - allmusic.com

The world of pop music was hardly ready for The Velvet Underground's first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge to conventional notions of what rock music could sound like (or what it could discuss), 1968's White Light/White Heat was a no-holds-barred frontal assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety. Recorded without the input of either Nico or Andy Warhol, White Light/White Heat was the purest and rawest document of the key Velvets lineup of Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker, capturing the group at their toughest and most abrasive. The album opens with an open and enthusiastic endorsement of amphetamines (startling even from this group of noted drug enthusiasts), and side one continues with an amusing shaggy-dog story set to a slab of lurching mutant R&B ("The Gift"), a perverse variation on an old folktale ("Lady Godiva's Operation"), and the album's sole "pretty" song, the mildly disquieting "Here She Comes Now." While side one was a good bit darker in tone than the Velvets' first album, side two was where they truly threw down the gauntlet with the manic, free-jazz implosion of "I Heard Her Call My Name" (featuring Reed's guitar work at its most gloriously fractured), and the epic noise jam "Sister Ray," 17 minutes of sex, drugs, violence, and other non-wholesome fun with the loudest rock group in the history of Western Civilization as the house band. White Light/White Heat is easily the least accessible of The Velvet Underground's studio albums, but anyone wanting to hear their guitar-mauling tribal frenzy straight with no chaser will love it, and those benighted souls who think of the Velvets as some sort of folk-rock band are advised to crank their stereo up to ten and give side two a spin.

Track Listing:

1. White Light/White Heat
2. The Gift
3. Lady Godiva's Operation
4. Here She Comes Now
5. I Heard Her Call My Name
6. Sister Ray

LINK

Colwell-Winfield Blues Band - Cold Wind Blues (1968)

2009-09-30T09:42:00.005-05:00

Review by Dave Thompson - allmusic.com

One of the forgotten classics of the late-'60s American blues scene, the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band once opened for Led Zeppelin, and that would appear to be their greatest claim to fame -- until you play the group's debut album, a hulking slab of blistered fusion that packs some of the most intriguing arrangements of the age. It features some of the most surreal imagery as well: "Paper bags hold degenerate dreams, fill my world with unnatural scenes," bellows the aptly named Moose Sorrento during the opening "Free Will Fantasy." And so the Colwell-Winfield Blues Band get on with proving what a lot of people had been saying all year long -- that the best jazz-rock-blues band of 1968 was only getting better. The finest moments are those when the band really stretches out -- seven minutes apiece for the 12-bar "Got a Mind" and the showcase "Govinda," and eight for "Dead End Street," a slowly percolating rhythm that is only gently layered by the rest of the band. The briefer cuts burn fiercely, though, while the Akarma reissue in 2001 appends a bonus track that is actually one of the finest things in sight, the frantic semi-psychedelic experimentation of "Wind Is Singing."

Track Listing:

1. Free Will Fantasy
2. Got A Mind
3. Dead End Street
4. Cold Wind Blues
5. Whole Lot Of Lovin'
6. Going Down Slow
7. Govinda
8. Wind Is Singing
9. Cold Wind Blues (version 2)
10. Whole Lot Of Lovin' (version 2)

LINK

Relatively Clean Rivers - Relatively Clean Rivers (1976)

2009-09-27T09:36:00.005-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Many American rock LPs of the mid-'70s given very small pressings on tiny or vanity labels had something of a time warp hangover feel, as if the trends of hippie rock from about half a dozen years earlier were still in vogue. Relatively Clean Rivers' self-titled album is one such rarity, with an easygoing California folk-rock-psychedelic feel in which light-to-strong traces of Neil Young, the countrified Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service can be heard. It's different than the vast majority of such LPs, however, in that it's actually a fairly good collection of tunes with some decent songwriting and strong, professional playing and harmonizing. No one should investigate this under the illusion that it's nearly as good as the aforementioned influences, mind you. But it's quite alright, and also not as imitative as many artists from numerous eras were who claimed Neil Young and the Dead as influences. There's an attractive resigned, almost addled melancholy to the vocals and melodies that set this apart from the usual such fare, though some of the songs could certainly have benefited from more structured composing and arranging. There's some variety to the proceedings (and from the general folk-rock-psychedelic prototype) too, with some extended instrumental acoustic passages and a Middle Eastern influenced number, "The Persian Caravan," that recalls exotic early Country Joe & the Fish psychedelic excursions like "Section 43." Overall, the album almost gives the impression of documenting the dying embers of a band of hippies who've found refuge in one of the last safe places for souls of such a mindset, clinging to their credo as their species awaits oncoming extinction. The album became much easier to acquire following its CD reissue in the first decade of the 21st century.

Track Listing:

1. Easy Ride
2. Journey Through The Valley Of O
3. Babylon
4. Last Flight To Eden
5. Prelude
6. Hello Sunshine
7. They Knew What To Say
8. Persian Caravan
9. Thousand Years

LINK

Ry Cooder - Into The Purple Valley (1971)

2009-09-25T08:48:00.006-05:00

Review by Bob Gottlieb - allmusic.com

Ry Cooder is known as a virtuoso on almost every stringed instrument, and on Into the Purple Valley, he demonstrates this ability on a wide variety of instruments. The main focus of the music here is on the era of the Dust Bowl, and what was happening in America at the time, socially and musically. Songs by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and a variety of others show Cooder's encyclopedic knowledge of the music of this time, combined with an instinctive feel for the songs. 'Phenomenal' is the descriptive word to describe his playing, whether it is on guitar, Hawaiian "slack key" guitar, mandolin, or the more arcane instruments he has found. This is a must for those who love instrumental virtuosity, authentic reworkings of an era, or just plain good music.

Track Listing:

1. How Can You Keep Moving ( Unless You Migrate Too )
2. Billy The Kid
3. Money Honey
4. F.D.R. In Trinidad
5. Teardrops Will Fall
6. Denomination Blues
7. On A Monday
8. Hey Porter
9. Great Dream From Heaven
10. Taxes On The Farmer Feeds Us All
11. Vigilante Man

LINK

David Pomeranz - It's In Everyone Of Us (1976)

2009-09-21T08:05:00.008-05:00

Review by Joe Viglione - allmusic.com

"Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again" went Top Ten for Barry Manilow and, though that glossy rendition was stunning and majestic, there is something about the simplicity in Vini Poncia's production work and the original lyrics that is more heartfelt. Manilow performed the missing verse on one of those '70s TV shows, perhaps The Midnight Special, and it is a shame his live album didn't contain the immaculate extra portions that are here. Manilow's friend Melissa Manchester shows up on backing vocals here with some other name guests: James Newton Howard, Jim Keltner, Gary Wright, and Alan O'Day, among others. "Thea," for his wife Althea Pomeranz (she sings on the title track), is beautiful and was a minor hit on adult contemporary radio stations when this album was released. "The Hit Song of All Time" is good, Randy Edelman having worked this theme as Eric Carmen did with "Overnight Sensation." Pomeranz thanks Werner Erhard and the EST fad in vogue at the time -- which is certainly a concern! He thanks Michael Jackson as well, and where he collaborated with Buddy Kaye on 1980's The Truth of Us, all the material on this venture is composed by the singer. "Greyhound Mary" misses the mark, while "If You Walked Away" treads water. The home-run hits on side one have subsided once you flip the disc over, and perhaps that affected his short, one-album career with Arista. Heck, even sideman Andy Mendelson got one album with Arista, and he didn't have the impressive name players here to help him out: a sad statement on the industry, as songwriters of Pomeranz' caliber deserve long-term deals to perfect their art. "High Together" features Jim Horn on tenor sax, and it's one of side two's highlights. "Home to Alaska" doesn't fare so well, failing to reach the heights of some of side one's material, a jazz piece among the adult contemporary pop tunes. The album concludes with a nice solo effort, the artist singing "Clarence" with Barry Fasman's strings and woodwinds supplementing his piano and vocal. It's in Everyone of Us is a good companion piece to 1980s The Truth of Us -- it's just a shame major labels don't have the business sense to get behind essential artists like Pomeranz with deals that provide for more output. That's the subliminal message between the grooves. Despite its flaws, It's in Everyone of Us has enough classic moments to make it a keeper.

Track Listing:

1. It's In Everyone Of Us
2. Thea
3. Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again
4. Hit Song of All Time
5. Flying
6. Greyhound Mary
7. If You Walked Away
8. High Together
9. Home To Alaska
10. Clarence

LINK

Earth Opera - The Great American Eagle Tragedy (1969)

2009-09-20T09:12:00.005-05:00

Review by William Ruhlmann - allmusic.com

If Earth Opera's self-titled debut album reflected the eclectic, ambitious pop styles of the Flower Power, Sgt. Pepper era of 1967, the group's follow-up, The Great American Eagle Tragedy, took into consideration the changed musical climate of 1968, when arrangements became more stripped down and hard rocking, with country-rock beginning to make inroads. The departure of bandmember Bill Stevenson, along with his harpsichord and vibraphone, may have hastened the group's transition to a simpler sound, too. But from the first note, the second album was very different from the first. Earth Opera sounded like it had been made by a studio band that had never played out, but the country-rock opener of The Great American Eagle Tragedy, "Home to You," paced by the pedal steel guitar of guest Bill Keith, was a road song in subject matter and feel, played by a band that sounded like it had spent some time before paying customers. "Mad Lydia's Waltz," the second track, sounded more like the group that had made Earth Opera, but the sound was still more rooted in stringed instruments and steady beats than it had been before, and following the throwaway written by the drummer came a real rocker, "Sanctuary From the Law." But the album's big number, the ten-and-a-half-minute title song, brought the earlier and later parts of Earth Opera together, combining a driving rock chorus, complete with screaming electric guitar solo, with slow, contemplative verse sections in which singer/songwriter Peter Rowan wove a transparent allegory about a royal court in crisis that was really about the state of the U.S. in the late '60s, particularly the quagmire of the Vietnam War. The track attracted the attention of free-form FM radio, and the album made the charts for several weeks. But Earth Opera folded soon after.

Track Listing:

1. Home To You
2. Mad Lydia's Waltz
3. Alfie Finney
4. Sanctuary From The Law
5. All Winter Long
6. The Great American Eagle Tragedy
7. Roast Beef Love
8. It's Love

LINK

All This And World War II - VA Soundtrack (1976)

2009-09-19T09:29:00.007-05:00

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine - allmusic.com

All but lost to the footnotes of pop culture history largely due to its unavailability on home video, 1976's All This and World War II was, to put it mildly, an odd film. Cobbled together almost entirely from newsreel footage of World War II, all taken from the vaults of Movietone News, the film wasn't a documentary or an exercise in nostalgia, it was constructed as an anti-war film thanks to the presence of Beatles music which functioned as commentary on the events as they unfolded. Beatles music it may have been, but it wasn't performed by the Beatles: the Fab Four's classic tunes were covered by an all-star cast of pop and rock stars, assembled under the direction of record exec Russ Regan and produced by Lou Reizner. These artists were teamed up with a bunch of studio pros, highlighted by pianist Nicky Hopkins, along with the London Symphony Orchestra, who gave this music the bombastic pomp a project like this deserved. If the film itself was quite odd -- most notoriously, it featured Nazi soldiers being run in reverse as "Get Back" played on the soundtrack -- the soundtrack itself isn't particularly strange or compelling. Far from being as fascinatingly grotesque as the disco-fied soundtrack to 1978's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, this is nevertheless similar to that fiasco in how it epitomizes the sound of its era. Only two years separated Sgt. Pepper's and All This and World War II, but where the former was a gaudy tacky embodiment of disco-rock and burned-out arena rock, the latter is a self-important, humorless encapsulation of pre-punk album-oriented rock.

This is a Brit-centric soundtrack -- it was a British production after all -- so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's heavy on British prog rockers and pop songwriters with an arty bent: Peter Gabriel, Bryan Ferry, Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Elton John, David Essex and Leo Sayer are all here, as are Ambrosia who may not be British but fit in well with that contingent. Then, there are mainstream superstars and middle-of-the-road artists like the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Helen Reddy, Frankie Laine, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (separately, mind you), the forgotten Lynsey de Paul, Henry Gross, with the Brothers Johnson and Tina Turner added for some diversity. But the fact of it is, it doesn't really matter who is singing here: it all sounds roughly the same thanks to the London Symphony Orchestra, who gives every song here altogether too much pomp and circumstance. That means that anybody enticed by the prospect of Peter Gabriel reinventing "Strawberry Fields Forever" or Roy Wood running wild on "Lovely Rita" will be disappointed by the perfectly fine versions here because they are, at the core, Reizner and the London Symphony Orchestra's interpretations of these songs; Gabriel and Wood are merely invited guests.

That's the case throughout All This and World War II: with the exception of Elton John's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which existed prior to this soundtrack, and Rod Stewart's "Get Back," the only cut here that features electric guitars playing loudly. The rest all mushes together in a hazy murk of pompous strings and blaring brass. As a reinterpretation of the Beatles, it's a bit muddy: it's as if all involved decided that since this was for an important film -- a film that really is trying to say something -- the music should be treated in a stodgy fashion, as if it were middlebrow classical music. But as a curio, it certainly evokes its time; and almost too well, as a matter of fact, since once it's done it's hard not to see exactly why punk rock happened. [All This and World War II was reissued by the internet-only label Hip-O Select in 2006. It's lavishly packaged as a slipcase, complete with a gatefold replica of the original LP, and while the packaging is indeed lovely it's hard not to wish that there were some new liner notes explaining the history of the project. That said, it's a beautiful package with excellent remastering.]

Track Listing:

1. Magical Mystery Tour - Ambrosia
2. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - Elton John
3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight - Bee Gees
4. I Am the Walrus - Leo Sayer
5. She's Leaving Home - Bryan Ferry
6. Lovely Rita - Roy Wood
7. When I'm Sixty-Four - Keith Moon
8. Get Back - Rod Stewart
9. Let It Be - Leo Sayer
10. Yesterday - David Essex
11. With a Little Help from My Friends/Nowhere Man - Jeff Lynne
12. Because - Lindsey De Paul
13. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window - Bee Gees
14. Michelle - Richard Cocciante
15. We Can Work It Out - The Four Seasons
16. Fool on the Hill - Helen Reddy
17. Maxwell's Silver Hammer - Frankie Laine
18. Hey Jude - The Brothers Johnson
19. Polytheme Pam - Roy Wood
20. Sun King - Bee Gees
21. Getting Better - Status Quo
22. Long and Winding Road - Leo Sayer
23. Help - Henry Gross
24. Strawberry Fields Forever - Peter Gabriel
25. Day in the Life - Frankie Valli
26. Come Together - Tina Turner
27. You Never Give Me Your Money - Will Malone & Lou Reizner
28. The End - The London Symphony Orchestra

LINK

Pacific Gas & Electric - Pacific Gas & Electric (1969)

2009-09-18T08:40:00.004-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

On most of their second album, Pacific Gas & Electric play soul-rock with some dash and verve, though the songwriting isn't up to the level of musicianship or Charlie Allen's genuinely soulful vocals. Pacific Gas & Electric are really a band that would be better served by a selective compilation than any of their individual LPs, and strong candidates for such an anthology would include "Death Row #172" and "Bluesbuster," which are a little like early Blood, Sweat & Tears with more blues-rock and less bluster. Some of the other songs are closer to average period blues-rock workouts, like "Miss Lucy" and the live cover of John Lee Hooker's "She's Long and She's Tall," though the group original "My Women" finds them getting into a slow blues-funk groove with graceful style. The four-part, 17-minute "PG&E Suite" is typical of the highs and lows of many such psychedelic rock experiments of the late '60s, starting off promisingly with the cinematic jazz-rock instrumental "The Young Rabbits." But it runs off the rails with too much drum soloing, and the momentum utterly drains when the suite peters out into poor white-boy blues that's obviously trying to be drolly humorous, yet ends up being painfully lame. The closing blues-soul-rock stomper "Redneck" restores the energy level somewhat, but it's an erratic record on the whole, as would be its follow-up, 1970's Are You Ready.

Track Listing:

1. Bluesbuster
2. Death Row #172
3. Miss Lucy
4. My Women
5. She's Long and She's Tall
6. PG&E Suite: The Young Rabbits/Constitutional Strand/Fat Tom/Boy Wonder
7. Redneck

LINK

7.

Stalk-Forrest Group - St. Cecilia (1970)

2009-09-17T08:17:00.008-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Although there is no label or catalog number on this LP, pressed in a limited edition of just a few hundred copies for the collector's market, be assured that it does exist. Of course this is of considerable interest to fans of Blue Öyster Cult, but general psychedelic collectors with little or no love for that band will find this worth seeking as well. Imagining a poppier Love with higher vocals and instrumental arrangements more akin to Doorsy guitars and organs gets you a little close to picturing the Stalk-Forrest Group sound. Most of the tunes are pretty compact, although occasionally they get into some pretty inspired guitar jamming, particularly on the lengthy "St. Cecilia." It's difficult to fathom why Elektra did not deem this worthy of release; about the only major criticism that can be levied against it is that some of the songs sound too similar to each other.

Track Listing:

1. Gil Blanco County
2. Ragamuffin' Dumplin
3. Bonomo's Turkish Taffy
4. Arthur Comics
5. Curse Of The Hidden Mirrors
6. What Is Quicksand
7. St. Cecilia
8. Donovan's Monkey
9. I'm On The Lamb, But I Ain't No Sheep
10. Fact About Sneakers

LINK

Kak - Kak-Ola (1999)

2009-09-16T09:44:00.004-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Although this is actually the Kak album with a bunch of bonus tracks, it merits a separate entry both because this version boasts a different title (Kak-Ola), and because the bonus tracks make this disc twice as lengthy as the original LP. Those curious about the original Kak because of its high reputation among some collectors might be disappointed by its average, often derivative (particularly of Moby Grape) San Francisco psychedelic rock. Some of the more folk-rock-oriented numbers are pleasant, however, especially "I've Got Time," "Flowing By," and "Lemonade Kid." The ten bonus tracks do much to round out the picture of the little-recorded band. These include the 45 version of "Rain" (which is different than the one that appears as part of the "Trieulogy" medley on the LP); 1968 acoustic versions of four songs from the album that may actually be more attractive to some ears due to their folkier bent, along with one acoustic rendition of a song ("Bye Bye"/"Easy Jack") that was not included on the album; Gary Yoder's solo single "Flight from the East" and "Good Time Music"; and three Yoder demos from late 1967 with Blue Cheer's Paul Whaley on drums and Bruce Stephens on guitar. The Yoder solo material is pretty routine heavy late-'60s San Francisco rock, and not up to the level of the Kak stuff.

Track Listing:

1. HCO 97658
2. EveryThing's Changing
3. Electric Sailor
4. Disbelievin'
5. I've Got Time
6. Flowing By
7. Bryte 'n Clear Day
8. Trieulogy: Golgotha/Mirage (III)/Rain (II)
9. Lemonade Kid
10. Rain
11. Everything's Changing [demo version]
12. I've Got Time [demo version]
13. Medley: Bye Bye/Easy Jack
14. Bryte 'N' Clear Day [live demo version]
15. Medley: Mirage/Rain [live version]
16. When Love Comes In
17. I Miss You
18. Lonely People Blues
19. Flight From The East
20. Good Time Music

LINK

Sacred Mushroom - The Sacred Mushroom (1969)

2009-09-15T09:02:00.005-05:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

Sacred Mushroom -- led by future Pure Prairie League member Larry Goshorn (guitar/vocals) and featuring brother Danny Goshorn (vocals) -- were a short-lived rock/blues quintet based in Cincinnati, OH. Their efforts coalesce on this, the band's self-titled debut (and only) long-player. The album contains a blend of proficient originals as well as a pair of well-chosen cover tunes, such as the blues standard "Mean Old World" and the Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else." While their name conjures images of late-'60s psychedelic or acid rock, Sacred Mushroom's roots were decidedly more bluesy than trippy. Likewise, their harder-edged performance style is well served by the tight and somewhat pop-driven arrangements, resembling artists such as the Allman Joys, Kak, or the pre-Blue Öyster Cult Stalk-Forrest Group. A few of the Larry Goshorn-penned tunes are certifiably lost classics. These include the up-tempo rocker "Catatonic Lover," which features some lyrical chord changes reminiscent of "3/5's of a Mile in 10 Seconds" by Jefferson Airplane, and the Chicago blues-style waltz "All Good Things Must End." The latter is highlighted by some inspired harp playing from Rusty Work. The opening track, "I Don't Like You," is a funky rocker spotlighting the Goshorn Brothers' tight harmonies as well as Larry's distinctive lead electric guitar licks. Another standout is their reworking of "I'm Not Like Everybody Else." The track retains a timeless pop sensibility that incorporates interweaving acoustic and electric guitar lines. "Lifeline," the most extended track on the disc, recalls the electric blues of seminal Fleetwood Mac or Stan Webb's Chicken Shack. Along the same lines is the blues boogie rendering of "Mean Old World," which might easily be mistaken for an obscure version by a mid-'60s lineup of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

Track Listing:

1. I Don't Like You
2. You Won't Be Sorry
3. Catatonic Lover
4. All Good Things Must Have An End
5. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
6. I Take Care
7. Mean Old World
8. Lifeline

LINK

Fleetwood Mac - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (1968)

2009-09-10T10:32:00.007-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

Fleetwood Mac's debut LP was a highlight of the late-'60s British blues boom. Peter Green's always-inspired playing, the capable (if erratic) songwriting, and the general panache of the band as a whole placed them leagues above the overcrowded field. Elmore James is a big influence on Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, particularly on the tunes fronted by Jeremy Spencer ("Shake Your Moneymaker," "Got to Move"). Spencer's bluster, however, was outshone by the budding singing and songwriting skills of Green. The guitarist balanced humor and vulnerability on cuts like "Looking for Somebody" and "Long Grey Mare," and with "If I Loved Another Woman," he offered a glimpse of the Latin-blues fusion that he would perfect with "Black Magic Woman." The album was an unexpected smash in the U.K., reaching number four on the British charts. [This version of the album includes bonus material.]

Track Listing:

1. My Heart Beat Like A Hammer
2. Merry Go Round
3. Long Grey Mare
4. Hellhound On My Trail
5. Shake Your Moneymaker
6. Looking For Somebody
7. No Place To Go
8. My Baby's Good To Me
9. I Loved Another Woman
10. Cold Black Night
11. The World Keeps On Turning
12. Got To Move

Bonus Tracks:

13. My Heart Beat Like A Hammer (Take 1)
14. Merry Go Round (Take 1)
15. I Loved Another Woman (Takes 1,2,3 & 4)
16. I Loved Another Woman (Takes 5 & 6)
17. Cold Black Night (Takes 1,2,3,4,5 & 6)
18. You're So Evil
19. I'm Coming Home To Stay

LINK

The Youngbloods - The Youngbloods (1967)

2009-09-09T09:24:00.006-05:00

Review by Richie Unterberger - allmusic.com

The New York quartet come off as a mini-Lovin' Spoonful on their engaging debut, with a deeper touch of melancholy and more prominent electric keyboards. As with the Spoonful, they would have been better off leaving the blues alone, but the rest of the material is good, highlighted by "Get Together" and the achingly tuneful "All Over the World (La-La)."

Track Listing:

1. Grizzelly Bear
2. All Over The World (La-La)
3. Statesboro Blues
4. Get Together
5. One Note Man
6. The Other Side Of This Life
7. Tears Are Falling
8. Four In The Morning
9. Foolin' Around (The Waltz)
10. Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby
11. CC Rider

LINK

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - The Cream of..... (73-79)

2009-09-06T10:01:00.007-05:00

Review by Dave Thompson - allmusic.com

This 16-song compilation brings together an unchallenging but almost uniformly excellent roundup of Steve Harley's 1970s output, opening (in chronological terms) with "Sebastian" from 1973's still epochal Human Menagerie LP and wrapping up with "Freedom's Prisoner," an unexpectedly joyful excerpt from his 1979 schedule. In between, it brushes all of the expected high points -- six further U.K. hit singles include the breakthrough "Judy Teen" and "Mr. Soft," the edgy "Mr. Raffles," the less palatable "Love's a Prima Donna" and "Here Comes the Sun," and, because no Harley collection would be complete without it, the chart-topping "Make Me Smile." The real meat, however, lies among the excerpted album cuts, as the compilers treat all seven original Harley/Cockney Rebel LPs with more or less equal respect -- many fans would have drawn a line after the first three. But "White White Dove," "Roll the Dice," and the like all deserve a fresh hearing, and The Cream of emerges with almost unruffled consistency, and an overall impact that is all the more satisfying for being so unexpected.

Track Listing:

1. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)
2. Judy Teen
3. Here Comes The Sun
4. Love's A Prima Donna
5. Best Years Of Our Lives
6. Another Journey
7. Freedom's Prisoner
8. Tumbling Down
9. Mr. Raffles (Man It Was Mean)
10. Roll The Dice
11. Psychomodo
12. Mr. Soft
13. White White Dove
14. Sebastian
15. Love Compared With You
16. I Can't Even Touch You

LINK

Delivery - Fools Meeting (1971)

2009-09-03T08:56:00.006-05:00

Review by Jim Powers - allmusic.com

Delivery was formed during the British blues boom of the late '60s. However, its sound is jazzier and more progressive than most of the music that emanated from that era. Rhythm & blues serves as a springboard for forward-looking tracks like "Blind to Your Light" and "Harry Lucky." Singer Carol Grimes is frequently compared to Janis Joplin. While Grimes has a powerful voice, she does not reach the level of histrionics that were a showcase of Joplin's. It should come as no surprise that Delivery members joined Canterbury related bands upon Delivery's demise. The reissue CD of Fools Meeting features several live bonus tracks, as well as a post-breakup demo recording featuring Caravan bassist Richard Sinclair. That demo session, one of the highlights of the collection, spurred the musicians to form Hatfield and the North. Fools Meeting is an essential part of any Canterbury collection, and should also appeal to progressive jazz fans.

Tracks:

1. Blind To Your Light
2. Miserable Man
3. Home Made Ruin
4. Is It Really The Same?
5. We Were Satisfied
6. The Wrong Time
7. Fighting It Out
8. Fools Meeting
9. Harry Lucky
10. Home Made Ruin (alternate take)
11. Is It Really The Same? (live)
12. Blind To Your Light (live)
13. One For You

LINK

Caravan - Waterloo Lily (1972)

2009-09-01T10:01:00.008-05:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

Before the recording of Waterloo Lily, David Sinclair departed Caravan to join forces with Soft Machine skinsman Robert Wyatt and form Matching Mole. With the subsequent arrival of former Delivery member Steve Miller and an overwhelming jazz influence, the edgier progressive rock and folk elements that were so prevalent on their previous albums are somewhat repressed. The band's performance level did not suffer in the transition. In fact, the addition of Miller only punctuates Caravan's previously honed improvisational skills. Beginning with Waterloo Lily's leadoff title track, there is a sound more akin to the jazzier efforts of Traffic. Miller's "Nothing at All" incorporates the jazz fusion even further as the long instrumental introduction more than hints at Steely Dan circa Katy Lied. The up-tempo staccato bop featuring Miller's electric piano accents, when juxtaposed with Pye Hastings' liquid-toned electric guitar could easily be mistaken for that of Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. The remainder of the album centers on a couple of pieces that evoke the sound and spirit of the previous Caravan outings. Most reminiscent of the classic sound is Hastings' epic "The Love in Your Eye" suite. The track recalls the laid-back intensity and phenomenal improvisational synergy of earlier tracks such as "For Richard" and "Where, but for Caravan Would I," while wisely incorporating Miller's formidable jazz chops to give the instrumental sections sustained substance throughout. The remastered CD offers three additional compositions circa the Waterloo Lily sessions. "Pye's June Thing" and "Ferdinand" are two of Hastings' acoustic demos. A considerably more complete "Looking Left, Looking Right" is a treasured recovery from the vaults. Originally vaulted due to the time limitations of vinyl, this track, along with "Pye's Loop" -- which acts as a coda to "Looking Left..." -- mark their debut release here.

Track Listing:

1. Waterloo Lily
2. Nothing at All/It's Coming Soon/Nothing at All (Reprise)
3. Songs and Signs
4. Aristocracy
5. Love in Your Eye/To Catch Me a ...
6. World Is Yours

Bonus Tracks (previously unreleased):

7. Pye's June Thing
8. Ferdinand
9. Looking Left, Looking Right /Pye's Loop

LINK

Big Mama Thornton - Jail (1975)

2009-08-29T10:10:00.006-05:00

Review by Vince Ripol - allmusic.com

It's ironic that blues great Big Mama Thornton is most famous for originating songs that later became associated with other singers. Her sole R&B hit, which never made the pop charts, became Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" in most listeners' minds, just as surely as Otis Redding's "Respect" was universally credited to Aretha Franklin. It must have seemed like déjà vu when Thornton's "Ball and Chain" became known to most music lovers via Janis Joplin's version with Big Brother & the Holding Company. Nevertheless, Thornton has rarely had trouble reclaiming these and other compositions once onstage, and Jail vividly captures her gruff charm during a couple of mid-'70s gigs at two northwestern prisons. As a live album, Jail works largely because Thornton gives her musicians plenty of room to improvise, especially on six-minute versions of "Little Red Rooster" and "Ball and Chain." In her spoken introduction to "Ball and Chain," Thornton initially gives props to Janis Joplin, then reminds the audience, "I wrote this song." Having lost little of her commanding, masculine voice, Thornton becomes the talented leader of a gritty blues ensemble that features sustained jams from George "Harmonica" Smith and guitarists B. Huston and Steve Wachsman. Despite several lengthy numbers, the running time is less than 40 minutes, and there's not much between-song banter à la Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Listeners who are left wanting more Big Mama Thornton can invest in The Complete Vanguard Recordings, a triple-CD set that includes all of Jail and two albums from the same era: Sassy Mama and the previously unreleased Big Mama Swings.

Track Listing:

1. Little Red Rooster
2. Ball and Chain
3. Jail
4. Hound Dog
5. Rock Me Baby
6. Sherrif O.E. & Me
7. Oh Happy Day

LINK

10cc - Deceptive Bends (1977)

2009-08-19T08:10:00.007-05:00

Review by Donald A. Guarisco - allmusic.com

When Kevin Godley and Lol Creme left 10cc in 1976 to pursue a solo career, many thought it was the death knell for the group. However, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman kept the group alive as a duo (with the assistance of percussionist Paul Burgess) and turned in a surprisingly solid album with 1977's Deceptive Bends. It may lack the devil-may-care wackiness that popped up on previous 10cc albums, but it makes up for it by crafting a series of lush, catchy pop songs that are witty in their own right. Deceptive Bends also produced a pair of notable hits for the group: "Good Morning Judge" told the comical tale of a career criminal over a hook-laden, surprisingly funky pop backing while "The Things We Do for Love" was an irresistible Beatles pastiche that showcased 10cc's mastery of pop vocal harmonies. "People in Love," a surprisingly straightforward ballad built on a gorgeous string arrangement, also became a modest chart success. The remainder of the material doesn't stand out as sharply as these hits, but each of the tracks offers up plenty of naggingly catchy pop hooks, oodles of catchy riffs, and surprising twists in their arrangements. Highlights among the non-hit tracks include "Marriage Bureau Rendezvous," a satire of dating services set to a lilting soft rock melody, and "You've Got a Cold," a portrait of illness-influenced misery set to a percolating pop melody. The only place where Deceptive Bends slips is on "Feel the Benefit," the lengthy medley that closes the album. Its excessive length and hazy lyrics make it less satisfying than the album's shorter tunes, but it is kept afloat by a catchy, mock-Spanish midsection and some lovely string arrangements. All in all, Deceptive Bends is the finest achievement of 10cc's post-Godley and Creme lineup and well worth a spin for anyone who enjoyed Sheet Music or The Original Soundtrack.

Track Listing:

1. Good Morning Judge
2. The Things We Do For Love
3. Marriage Bureau Rendezvous
4. People In Love
5. Modern Man Blues
6. Honeymoon With B Troop
7. I Bought A Flat Guitar Tutor
8. You've Got A Cold
9. Feel The Benefit Part 1-3
10. Hot To Trot
11. Don't Squeeze Me Like Toothpaste
12. I'm So Laid Back I'm Laid Out

LINK

Les Paul & Mary Ford - Brazil

2009-08-15T10:02:00.007-05:00

One of the greats. RIP Les.

Biography by Laurie Mercer - allmusic.com

The husband-and-wife musical duo of Les Paul & Mary Ford enjoyed immense popularity in the 1950s, with their popular appeal based as much on their musical talent as the revolutionary recording techniques developed by Paul. Both were music industry veterans when they came together as a couple, both professionally and romantically. Les Paul was one of the giants of music innovation in the 20th century, inventing multi-track recording, studio techniques such as "close miking," and -- most famously -- designing and building one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Iris Summers originally was a country music singer and guitarist, working with Gene Autry and Jimmy Wakely, and one of the Sunshine Girls trio, appearing briefly in the film I'm from Arkansas. They were introduced to each other in 1946 by Gene Autry, and their chemistry was obvious -- they started performing together almost immediately. To make their billing simple, Paul selected "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his. Their romantic and professional careers seemed perfect -- married in 1949, they began broadcasting The Les Paul Show to a national audience on NBC that same year.

The combination of Paul's technical genius and their national radio audience propelled them quickly to the top of the charts. Paul was an innovator in using multi-track recording, which had generated instrumental pop hits for him earlier in his career; now he was able to use Mary's voice for his most important studio experiments to date. First, he successfully achieved a close-miking effect by placing the microphone within six inches of her mouth, producing a warm and intimate sound. Then, by duplicating her performance on multiple tape tracks, it seemed she was harmonizing perfectly with herself, an effect that instantly connected the listener with the emotion of her recording. Together, they changed forever the sound of pop music. From that point until 1954, the duo of Les Paul & Mary Ford had a 16 Top Ten hits, including an astounding five Top Ten hits in a nine-month span -- "Tennessee Waltz," "Mockin' Bird Hill," "How High the Moon" (which stayed at number one for nine weeks), "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise," and "Whispering." Then, from August 1952 to March 1953, they had five more Top Ten hits: "My Baby's Coming Home," "Lady of Spain," "Bye Bye Blues," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World," and "Vaya con Dios" (which stayed at number one for 11 weeks).

They faded from the charts, as Paul's revolutionary studio techniques were adapted by other artists and producers. Mary grew disenchanted with the work and tour schedule of the music industry, while Les was happiest working, and so their relationship grew distant, resulting in a bitter divorce in 1964, which forever ended their professional association. Mary Ford died at the young age of 53, in 1977, from diabetes-related illness. A year later, In 1978, Les Paul & Mary Ford were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Les Paul has won countless awards, the latest being in 2006, at the age of 90, when he won two Grammys for the album American Made World Played by Les Paul & Friends. Despite the onset of arthritis, Paul continues to perform weekly at the Iridium club in New York.

Track Listing:

1. Brazil
2. Jealous
3. If I Had You
4. That Old Feeling
5. Just One More Chance
6. Tiger Rag
7. Caravan
8. June In January
9. The Lonesome Road

LINK

Snail - Flow (1979)

2009-08-14T08:11:00.011-05:00

This is the second and final album release for Snail.

Track Listing:

1. I've Got A Lady
2. Here With You
3. Love Should Flow
4. Threw It Away
5. Lettin' Go
6. Tonight
7. Rollin' In Your Love
8. Forever
9. And Your Bird Can Sing
10. Broke Up, Broke Down

LINK

Moby Grape - Wow (1968)

2009-08-07T09:08:00.010-05:00

Review by Mark Deming - allmusic.com

Between the time that Moby Grape released their brilliant self-titled debut and when their second album Wow appeared in 1968, a little thing called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band happened, and for the next few years it was no longer enough for a band with some claim to importance to just play rock & roll, even if they approached it with the freshness and imagination Moby Grape displayed on their first LP. Bowing to the pervading influences of the day, Wow is a far more ambitious album than Moby Grape, trading in the latter's energetic simplicity for an expansive production complete with strings, horns, and lots of willful eccentricity, best typified by the helium-treated vocals on the hillbilly pastiche "Funky Tunk" and "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot," a woozy '60s dance band number complete with introduction from Arthur Godfrey (the band went so far as to master the tune at 78 rpm on the original vinyl edition). While at first glance Wow pales in comparison to the instant classic Moby Grape, repeated listening reveals this album has plenty of strengths despite the excess gingerbread; the horn-driven boogie of "Can't Be So Bad" swings hard, "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" is a tough and funky blues number, "He," "Rose Colored Eyes," and "Bitter Wind" are lovely folk-rock tunes with shimmering harmonies (even if the latter is marred by a pretentious noise collage at the close), and "Motorcycle Irene" is a witty tribute to a hard-livin' biker mama. Wow lacks the rev-it-up spirit of Moby Grape's masterpiece, but Peter Lewis, Jerry Miller, and Skip Spence's guitar work is just as impressive and richly layered, and the group's harmonies and songwriting chops are still in solid shape. While the unobtrusive production on Moby Grape showcased the group's many virtues, those attributes are visible on Wow despite the layers of studio excess, which sapped the momentum and charm of this band without snuffing them out altogether.

Track Listing:

1. The Place and the Time
2. Murder in My Heart for the Judge
3. Bitter Wind
4. Can't Be So Sad
5. Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot
6. He
7. Motorcycle Irene
8. Three-Four
9. Funky-Tunk
10. Rose Colored Eyes
11. Miller's Blues
12. Naked, If I Want To

LINK

Moby Grape - Grape Jam (1968)

2009-08-06T08:04:00.006-05:00

Grape Jam was criticized for its rather loose and mostly improvised performances which contrast sharply with the heavily produced material on "Wow". This studio album was recorded in New York City in January and February 1968. Skip Spence is mostly absent and Peter Lewis does not appear on the album. Never is notable as a probable source for Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Loving You: the opening lyrics, the bluesy feel and some melodic elements are almost identical. "The Lake" is a strange combination of poetry submitted by a fan and avant-garde psychedelic Musique concrète sound effects somewhat like side four of Freak Out! or Revolution 9. Grape Jam is also notable in that it features a guest appearances on piano by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. The album was the inspiration for a number of other studio "jam" albums during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Later examples of this trend included Al Kooper's Super Session and the 3rd LP of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. (wikipedia)

Track Listing:

1. Never
2. Boysenberry Jam
3. Black Currant Jam
4. Marmalade
5. The Lake

LINK

O.C. Smith - Hickory Holler Revisited (1968)

2009-08-04T11:19:00.005-05:00

Biography by Ron Wynn - allmusic.com

O.C. Smith began as a jazz vocalist and later moved into country and R&B. The Louisiana vocalist was hired to replace Joe Williams in Count Basie's band in the early '60s after cutting some unsuccessful records for Cadence and others in the '50s. He sang with Basie's band from 1961 to 1963. Following a period where he sang country and even had a hit with "Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp," Smith moved into soul. His biggest hit was "Little Green Apples," which was number two on both the pop and R&B charts in 1968. His other big R&B single was "Daddy's Little Man," which reached number nine in 1969. Smith stayed on Columbia until 1974, but didn't score any more big records. He moved to Caribou in 1976 and recorded later for Shady Brooks, Family, Motown, and Rendezvous. In 1985 he began to balance his work in the recording studio with his new passion for Christian ministry, but despite the fact that he founded his own church in Los Angeles, The City of Angels Church of Religious Science, he continued to perform and record until the time of his death on November 23, 2001.

Track Listing:

1. Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp
2. Sitting On The Dock Of Bay
3. Main Street Mission
4. By The Time I Get To Phoenix
5. Long Black Limousine
6. The House Next Door
7. Little Green Apples
8. Take Time To Know Her
9. Honey (I Miss You)
10. The Best Man
11. Seven Days

LINK

Snail - Snail (1978)

2009-08-03T16:54:00.006-05:00

This is the first of two albums ever recorded by the group Snail. Not much is written about the group, but I remember buying this album after hearing Music Is My Mistress on a local FM station in the late 70s. Turned out to be a great album, prompting me to get their second release of Flow about a year later. Very hard to find either of them. Take a listen and enjoy.

Track Listing:

1. The Joker
2. Catch Me
3. Music Is My Mistress
4. Childhood Dreams
5. Try And Wonder
6. Keep On Livin'
7. You Gotta Run
8. Carry Me
9. Freedom In The Country

LINK

Strawberry Alarm Clock - Wake up..it's tomorrow (1968)

2009-08-02T10:09:00.007-05:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

For their second album, Wake Up...It's Tomorrow, Strawberry Alarm Clock built upon the solid writing and musicianship that inevitably carried over from the Incense and Peppermints project. In retrospect, it is baffling as to why they were relegated to the "one-hit wonders" file, as their most social and musically relevant statements had yet to be made. Stylistically, the material on this album vacillates between the lighter and pop-oriented sides such as "Tomorrow" and the stunningly agile vocal arrangements on "Pretty Song from Psych-Out" to the exceedingly ominous "Curse of the Witches" and "Nightmare of Percussion." Howard Davis -- whose spoken word narration can be heard during the latter track -- arranged some stunning vocal charts for "Soft Skies, No Lies," "Go Back, You're Going the Wrong Way," and the "future" section of the "Black Butter" trilogy. They are reminiscent of the tight harmonies incorporated by Harpers Bizarre or the retro New Vaudeville Band. Conversely, "Sitting on a Star," "They Saw the Fat One Coming" (which refers to the infiltration of Roy Freeman, a lyricist hired by the band's management), and the first two movements in the "Black Butter" trilogy reflect the group's mod garage rock roots. Here the band projects a more primal sound akin to People or the Chocolate Watchband.

Track Listing:

1. Nightmare of percussion
2. Soft skies, no lies
3. Tomorrow
4. They saw the fat one coming
5. Curse of the witches
6. Sit with the guru
7. Go back you're going
8. Pretty song from psych-out
9. Sitting on a star
10. Black butter, past
11. Black butter, present
12. Black butter, future

LINK

Mendelbaum - Mendelbaum (1970)

2009-08-02T09:20:00.004-05:00

Review by François Couture - allmusic.com

This is an excellent unearthed gem of West Coast psychedelic rock: inspired songs, sturdy musicianship, and a fantastic cleanup job on the master tapes. Mendelbaum was active in the late '60s and early '70s in San Francisco. Singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Chris Michie would become a studio musician (he recorded with the Pointer Sisters and Van Morrison) and solo artist, while drummer Keith Knudsen would later join the Doobie Brothers. Bassist Tom LaVarda, sax player George Cash, and organist Ronnie Page (heard on the live cuts from the Matrix on the second disc, later replaced by J.D. Sharp) complete the group. The first disc of this double eponymous set is comprised of studio demos recorded in 1970 for Warner Bros. The group's blues-rock leanings and troubled topics make this music heavier than your run-of-the-mill West Coast psych rock (and at times evoking England's Savoy Brown). Pop attempts like "Since I Met Her" had no chance to make it on the radio -- the song is simply too frantic and ecstatic (which is all the better). Other highlights include Sharp's "Key of Be" and Michie's "Oh, Yes, Yes!" The second disc culls 54 minutes of live material from two concerts in 1969. Both recordings have been nicely restored. The group gets bluesier, stretching "Last Saturday Night" and "Every Day & Every Night" over seven minutes -- good occasions to witness Michie's impressive guitar work. Highly recommended to scavengers of psychedelia and '60s rock. Michie died on March 27, 2003, two months before the release date of this album.

Track Listing:

1. Days Gone Bye
2. Since I Met Her
3. Oh, Yes, Yes
4. Key Of Be
5. No Hiding Place
6. All My Life
7. Walk With Me
8. I´m A Fool
9. Blood Of The Nation
10. Wars To Rainstorms
11. Rhyme Of Time
12. No Reason
13. They Don´t Know
14. Message For The People
15. What To Do
16. Last Saturday Night
17. Learning To Die
18. Lost Hope
19. Every Day & Every Night
20. Drivin´ Wheel
21. Since I Met Her

LINK1
LINK2

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

2009-07-31T09:46:00.011-05:00

Review by Bruce Eder - allmusic.com

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's most successful and well-realized album (after their first), and their most ambitious as a group, as well as their loudest, Brain Salad Surgery is also their most electronic sounding one. The main focus, thanks to the three-part "Karn Evil 9," is sci-fi rock, approached with a volume and vengeance that stretched the art rock audience's tolerance to its outer limit, but also managed to appeal to the metal audience in ways that little of Trilogy did. Indeed, "Karn Evil 9" is the piece and the place where Keith Emerson and his keyboards finally matched in both music and flamboyance the larger-than-life guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix. Pete Sinfield's lyrics, while not up to his best King Crimson-era standard, were better than anything the group had to work with previously, and Greg Lake pulled out all the stops on his heaviest singing voice in handling them, coming off a bit like Peter Gabriel in the process. The songs (except for the throwaway "Benny the Bouncer") are also among their best work — the group's arrangement of Sir Charles Hubert Parry's setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem" manages to be reverent yet rocking, while Emerson's adaptation of Alberto Ginastera's music in "Tocatta" outstrips even "The Barbarian" and "Knife Edge" from the first album as a distinctive and rewarding reinterpretation of a piece of serious music. Lake's "Still...You Turn Me On" is his last great ballad with the group, possessing a melody and arrangement sufficiently pretty to forgive the presence of the rhyming triplet "everyday a little sadder/a little madder/someone get me a ladder."

Track Listing:

1. Jerusalem
2. Toccata
3. Still...You Turn Me On
4. Benny The Bouncer
5. Karn Evil 9: First Impression, Part 1
6. Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression, Part 2
7. Karn Evil 9: 2nd Impression
8. Karn Evil 9: 3rd Impression

LINK

Roger McGuinn - Cardiff Rose (1976)

2009-07-30T08:17:00.008-05:00

Review by Mark Deming allmusic.com

On the surface, Roger McGuinn, the former leader and 12-string jangle-meister of the Byrds, and Mick Ronson, who contributed the wicked guitar crunch to David Bowie's Spiders from Mars period, might seem like a wildly unlikely musical combination, but the two became friendly when they both toured as part of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, and after that road trip came to a close, Ronson went into the studio with McGuinn to produce his next solo album. The result, 1976's Cardiff Rose, is easily one of McGuinn's finest solo efforts; with fellow Rolling Thunder veterans Rob Stoner, Howie Wyeth, and David Mansfield joining McGuinn and Ronson in the studio, the band sounds tight and enthusiastic from front to back, and while this rocks a good bit harder than the average McGuinn effort, Ronson's six-string swagger never gets in the way of the songs, and Mick's production is unexpectedly sympathetic, adding the right seafaring touches to the pirate tale "Jolly Roger" and coming up with a lovely old-timey arrangement for "Pretty Polly." McGuinn also had a better batch of material at his disposal than on his previous set, Roger McGuinn & Band; he wrote a handful of strong originals, including "Partners in Crime" (a witty salute to Abbie Hoffman, then on the lam), the charging rockers "Rock and Roll Time" and "Take Me Away," and the beautifully atmospheric "Jolly Roger," while he was also lucky enough to receive fine contributions from Bob Dylan ("Up to Me") and Joni Mitchell ("Dreamland"). Sadly, Cardiff Rose didn't fare especially well on the sales charts, which is a shame -- it finds McGuinn in excellent form, and proves he could have moved outside of the musical framework of the Byrds and still had plenty to say with the right collaborators.

Track Listing:

1. Take Me Away
2. Jolly Roger
3. Rock And Roll Time
4. Friend
5. Partners In Crime
6. Up To Me
7. Round Table
8. Pretty Polly
9. Dreamland

LINK

Al Kooper & Shuggie Otis - Kooper Session (1970)

2009-07-28T09:17:00.008-05:00

Review by Lindsay Planer - allmusic.com

In 1969, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist Al Kooper added "talent scout" to his already lengthy résumé on the follow-up to the highly successful Super Session disc, which had been issued the previous year. One major difference between the two, however, is the relatively unknown cast featured on Kooper Session. Both albums again converge with the presentation of top-shelf musicianship and inspired performances. At only 15 years of age, guitarist Shuggie Otis is equally potent a performer as the seasoned keyboardist/guitarist Kooper. The duo is able to manifest an aggregate of material whose success leans as much on Kooper's experience as it does on Otis' sheer inspired youthful energy. The LP is divided between a side of shorter works (aka "songs") and a few extended instrumentals (aka "blues"). Kooper and Otis steer their house band, which includes Stu Woods (bass), Wells Kelly (drums), and Mark Klingman (piano). The tight arrangements aptly reveal Kooper's uncanny ability as a musical conduit. "Bury My Body" -- a variation on "In My Time of Dyin'" -- has been reworked into a gospel rave-up and features Kooper on one of the album's only vocals. Conversely, "Double or Nothing" is a spot-on re-creation of a Booker T. & the MG's track, which not only retains every Memphis-inspired intonation, but also shows off Otis' ability to cop Steve Cropper's guitar solo note for note. The blues instrumental jams are documented live and presented on this album the way that they originally went down at the recording sessions. The descriptively titled "Shuggie's Old Time Dee-Di-Lee-Di-Leet-Deet Slide Boogie" is endowed with a nostalgic piano/bottleneck slide duet and even features the added production value of manufactured surface noise. Both "12:15 Slow Goonbash Blues" and "Shuggie's Shuffle" are certainly no less traditional, allowing both Otis and Kooper the chance to stretch out and interact in real time.

Track Listing:

1. Bury My Body
2. Double Or Nothing
3. One Room Country Shack
4. Lookin' For A Home
5. 12:15 Slow Goonbash Blues
6. Shuggie's Old Time (Dee-Di-Lee-Di-Leet-Deet) Slide Boogie
7. Shuggie's Shuffle

LINK

Leo Sayer - Leo Sayer (1978)

2009-07-26T10:58:00.009-05:00

Review by Joe Viglione - allmusic

Richard Perry's 1978 production of the self-titled Leo Sayer album is one of the artist's most serious and heartfelt, though it only generated a minor hit in the cover of the Boudleau Bryant/Felice Bryant tune "Raining in My Heart." With Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham on electric guitar, Waddy Wachtel on slide guitar, and Ben Benay on acoustic, the performance and production of that particular song offers much on an album that is equally impressive. James Brown/Russell Smith's "Dancing the Night Away," with David Lindley's important and unobtrusive fiddle and steel guitar, and "Stormy Weather," the Tom Snow/Leo Sayer collaboration which opens the album, all work in unison, providing evidence that Sayer had superstardom just within his grasp. It's also interesting to note the recurring themes, from the previous album's "Thunder in My Heart" hit single to this album's "Raining in My Heart," or the aforementioned "Dancing the Night Away" as a loose sequel to his first number one hit, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing." Perry's production is perfect, and it's interesting to note that the engineer here, Bill Schnee, wasn't able to give Kiki Dee the same finesse for her Stay With Me album which he produced this same year, with some of the same musicians, like Jeff Porcaro, Steve Lukather, Tom Snow, James Newton Howard (Sayer's musical director), David Paich, Davey Johnstone...that's a lot of overlap on two distinctly different albums. Lindsey Buckingham plays acoustic guitar and provides backing vocals with Sayer on the cover of Jackson Browne's "Something Fine" and stays on board for the next number, a Tom Snow co-write with Johnny Vastano that is "Running to My Freedom." This musical composite should have been dynamite on the charts, the soulful vocals adding to the style of music the Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Fleetwood Mac were all so successful with at this point in time. Perhaps the straying from the style he was so comfortable with on the previous outing hurt Sayer at radio. Ray Parker, Jr. co-writes "Frankie Lee" with Sayer, and it's some strange folk/funk combo which, like the Thunder in My Heart album, is a diversion which throws the listener. Two Tom Snow/Leo Sayer compositions end this unique snapshot, the harder-rocking "Don't Look Away" and the closing ballad "No Looking Back." The artist would look back as David Courtney came back to produce 1979's Here, and in 1980, Sayer would achieve chart success again with the Alan Tarney-produced Living in a Fantasy, but this Richard Perry/Leo Sayer combination was a very worthwhile venture, and this album is one of the artist's most respectable in a large body of good work.

Leo Sayer Store at Amazon

Track Listing:

1. Stormy Weather
2. Dancing The Night Away
3. I Can't Stop Loving You (Though I Try)
4. La Gooba Rooba
5. Raining In My Heart
6. Something Fine
7. Running To My Freedom
8. Frankie Lee
9. Don't Look Away
10. No Looking Back

Sorry; no DL. Copyright problem.

America - America (1971)

2009-07-22T16:58:00.005-05:00

America's debut album is a folk-pop classic, a stellar collection of memorable songs that would prove influential on such acts as the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg. Crosby, Stills & Nash are the group's obvious stylistic touchstone here, especially in the vocal harmonies used (compare the thick chordal singing of "Sandman" and "Children" to CS&N's "You Don't Have to Cry" and "Guinevere") and the prominent use of active strummed acoustic guitar arrangements (contrast "Riverside" to CS&N's "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"). America's intricate interplay of acoustic guitar textures is more ambitious than that of their influences, however. Performance quality is usually good, though on occasion sloppily executed or out of tune (especially on the openings to "Donkey Jaw" and "I Never Found the Time"). Lengthy instrumental introductions ("Donkey Jaw"), middle improvisatory interludes ("Here"), and closings ("Clarice") are frequently encountered. Most of these selections boast highly unusual and inventive chord progressions that work well without drawing undue attention to themselves. Lyrics are sometimes trite ("I need you/Like the flower needs the rain") or obscure ("He flies the sky/Like an eagle in the eye/Of a hurricane that's abandoned"), but the music more than makes up for any verse problems; only the odd "Pigeon Song" seems an unsalvageable misstep. Sound quality here has a covered, intimate feel that lends a ghostly aura to this release. Chart hits from this album include the spectrally loping "A Horse with No Name," the squarishly tuneful "I Need You," and the nervously dour "Sandman." Other highlights include the buoyantly charming "Three Roses," the yearningly lovely "Rainy Day," and the quietly ringing "Clarice." In spite of its flaws, this platter is very highly recommended.

Track Listing:

1. Riverside
2. Sandman
3. Three Roses
4. Children
5. A Horse With No Name
6. Here
7. I Need You
8. Rainy Day
9. Never Found The Time
10. Clarice
11. Donkey Jaw
12. Pigeon Song

LINK

The Nazz - Nazz (1968)

2009-07-17T07:56:00.006-05:00

Though many of their American peers interpreted the sounds of the British Invasion in different ways, the Nazz's take on jangly guitar pop and nascent heavy psychedelia turned into a blueprint for the American Anglophile power pop guitar bands that followed in the '70s. Which is why the Nazz's eponymous debut album is still a fascinating listen, even if portions of the record haven't dated particularly well. Ironically, one of the songs that hasn't aged well is "Hello It's Me," a ballad that Todd Rundgren later turned into a contemporary standard. It fails here because its dirgey arrangement meanders -- something that can't be said for the rest of Nazz. That's not to say that the bandmembers know exactly where they're going, since it often seems like they don't; they just like to try a lot of different styles, cross-breeding their favorite bands in a blatant act of fanboy worship. At their best, the results of this approach are flat-out stunning, as on the lead cut "Open My Eyes," which twists the Who's "I Can't Explain" around until it winds up in Roy Wood territory. While that may be the only undisputed classic on the record, almost everything else on the album will be interesting to listeners that are as obsessive about '60s Brit-rock as the Nazz themselves. It's great to hear Rundgren and lead vocalist Stewkey approximate the high-pitched harmonies of Cream on "Back of Your Mind," or hearing them swing through London on "See What You Can Be." It's possible that some pure pop fans will hear too much Cream and Hendrix on the record, but they're exceptional showpieces for Rundgren's fine guitar. And that's what shines through on Nazz -- even when the record gets muddled, it's possible to hear the first flowering of Rundgren's talents. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Track Listing:

1. Open My Eyes
2. Back Of Your Mind
3. See What You Can Be
4. Hello It's Me
5. Wildwood Blues
6. If That's The Way You Feel
7. When I Get My Plane
8. Lemming Song
9. Crowded
10. She's Goin' Down

LINK

Loggins & Messina - Mother Lode (1974)

2009-07-15T13:13:00.004-05:00

From its brown-toned cover to its contents, Loggins & Messina's fourth studio album is a sober, low-key, reflective affair. The band's music, with its single flute, violin, and horn lines, directed by Messina's intricate guitar and mandolin playing, serves a series of mid-tempo tunes expressing a lot of quiet dissatisfaction signalled by titles like "Be Free," "Changes," and "Move On." As usual in a Jim Messina production, all of this is elegantly, tastefully accomplished, but one could hardly come away from the record feeling that all was well in the L&M camp. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Track Listing:

1. Growin'
2. Be Free
3. Changes
4. Brighter Days
5. Time To Space
6. Lately My Love
7. Move On
8. Get A Hold
9. Keep Me In Mind
10. Fever Dream

LINK

The Nazz - Nazz Nazz (1969)

2009-07-12T09:59:00.003-05:00

Originally intended as a double album titled Fungo Bat, Nazz Nazz is at once as equally diverse and more cohesive than the Nazz's eponymous debut. It's a weird trick, but the group pulls it off, largely due to the rapidly maturing talents of Todd Rundgren, their main songwriter and producer. Throughout the Nazz's first record, he proved that he was a gifted mimic and a savvy melodicist, yet he never quite landed upon a signature style outside of their debut single "Hello It's Me"/"Open My Eyes." Not coincidentally, these were the two songs on the record that the Nazz produced themselves, and they followed that lead on Nazz Nazz, fusing their sundry influences into a distinctive psych pop sound. Sonically, it's certainly more ambitious than its predecessor and, apart from the odd forays into soul and blues (filtered through Cream, naturally) on "Featherbedding Lover" and "Kiddie Boy," it's more consistent. In many ways, that makes Nazz Nazz a better listen than its predecessor, even if it doesn't have a knockout punch like "Open My Eyes." That's because Rundgren's songs exhibit a stronger sense of identity, as ballads like "Letters Don't Count" and snarky pop-rockers like "Hang On Paul" point the way toward his solo career. There are a few embarrassing detours, such as the hippie-dippy "Meridian Leeward," but the second Nazz record rivals the first because it offers a progression. It shows that the band, or at least Rundgren, have figured out how to blend their influences into something original. The Nazz may never have delivered a follow-up to this -- Nazz III consists of the remaining sessions from the abandoned double album -- but this is certainly ground zero for Rundgren's fascinating solo career. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Track Listing:

1. Forget All About It
2. Not Wrong Long
3. Rain Rider
4. Gonna Cry Today
5. Meridian Leeward
6. Under The Ice
7. Hang On Paul
8. Kiddie Boy
9. Featherbedding Lover
10. Letters Don't Count
11. A Beautiful Song

LINK

The Nazz - Nazz III (1971)

2009-07-11T10:12:00.008-05:00

Fungo Bat was scrapped for a variety of reasons, among them Todd Rundgren's insistence on singing lead vocals on his newer songs. Nazz Nazz was released instead, leaving the second half of the proposed LP temporarily in the vaults. Rundgren left the group before it was released. Taking hold of uncontested leadership of the group, lead vocalist Robert "Stewkey" Antoni erased Rundgren's lead vocals, replacing them with his own and releasing the entire project as Nazz III. This is, at the very least, sour grapes, but the situation is made all the more peculiar since much of the material finds Rundgren's songwriting moving toward the signature pop style that dominated his first solo records. Stewkey has publicly stated his distaste for Rundgren's Laura Nyro infatuation, so it's a little odd to hear him sing such finely crafted songs as "Only One Winner" and "Some People." That aside, Nazz III is an impressive effort that, if taken in conjunction, would have resulted in a very good double record. Sure, there's some clutter, but such detours as "Loosen Up," a po-faced parody of Archie Bell & the Drells' "Tighten Up," reveal the snotty side of Rundgren's humor. More importantly, the bulk of the record indicates how rapidly he was developing as a songwriter and a producer. Where he proved himself as a gifted mimic on Nazz, the group's second two albums found him assimilating those influences and developing a signature style. If anything, Nazz III demonstrates that better than its predecessor, which often seemed a little disjointed. There still isn't anything as immediate and indelible as "Open My Eyes," yet the best moments easily provide the road map for Rundgren's solo career. Even if he doesn't sing on it. [Originally released in 1970, Nazz III was reissued in 2006 and included bonus tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Track Listing:

`1`	`Some People`
`2`	`Only One Winner`
`3`	`Kicks`
`4`	`Resolution`
`5`	`It's Not That Easy`
`6`	`Old Time Lovemaking`
`7`	`Magic Me`
`8`	`Loosen Up`
`9`	`Take The Hand`
`10`	`How Can You Call That Beautiful?`
`11`	`Plenty Of Lovin'`
`12`	`Christopher Columbus`
`13`	`You Are My Window`

LINK

VinylTap Radio

Art Garfunkel - Breakaway (1975)

The Meters - Fire On The Bayou (1975)

The Walker Brothers - Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers (1965)

The Artwoods - Art Gallery (1965)

Brinsley Schwarz - S/T (1970)

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Paul Revere & The Raiders - Here They Come! (1964)

The Pozo-Seco Singers - I Can Make It With You (1967)

Charline Arthur - Welcome To The Club (1996)

Robert Michum - That Man, Robert Mitchum Sings (1967)

Lenny Dee - Most Requested! (1964)

The Three Suns - On A Magic Carpet (1960)

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Quill - Quill (1970)

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant(1967)

Marvin Gaye - Moods Of Marvin Gaye (1966)

Mark Fry - Dreaming With Alice (1972)

Twist-A-Rama - Various Artists (1965)

Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan (1964)

Shindig! - (1965?)

Woodstock 1969 - Up The Country

Dave Loggins - Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop) (1974)

Key To The Highway - Pete Seeger, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee

Teegarden & Van Winkle - S/T (1968)

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Thunderclap Newman - Hollywood Dream (1969)

The Smoke - It's Smoke Time (1967)

The Fool - S/T (1969)

The Creation - We Are Paintermen (1967)

Golden Earring - Moontan (1973-Import)

Graffiti - S/T (1968)

The 101'ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown *Revisited* (1981)

Teegarden & VanWinkle - On Our Way (1972)

Keef Hartley Band - Seventy Second Brave (1972)

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band - It Should Have Been Me (1965)

Charles Mingus Sextet w/Eric Dolphy - Cornell 1964 (1964)

Family Dogg - The View From Rowlands Head (1971)

Hummingbird - Diamond Nights (1977)

Gass - Gass (Juju) (1970)

Mark-Almond - Rising (1972)

Booker T. & the MG's - Green Onions (1962)

Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart (1977)

Sopwith Camel - The Miraculous Hump Returns From The Moon (1972)

Rodriguez - Coming From Reality (1972)

Rodriguez - Cold Fact (1970)

Mainhorse - Mainhorse (1970)

Spider John Koerner - Running, Jumping, Standing Still (1969)

Rush - 2112 (1976)

Chuck Berry - Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll (1987)

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Underdogs Blues Band - And Beyond (1967)

Julie London - In Person At The Americana (1964)

The Flower Pot Men - A Walk In The Sky (1967)

Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Great Conspiracy (1968)

The Ashes - Ashes (1968)

Mars Bonfire - Faster Than The Speed Of Life (1969)

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Matching Mole - Matching Mole (1972)

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom (1974)

The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1968)

Colwell-Winfield Blues Band - Cold Wind Blues (1968)

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David Pomeranz - It's In Everyone Of Us (1976)

Earth Opera - The Great American Eagle Tragedy (1969)

All This And World War II - VA Soundtrack (1976)

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Kak - Kak-Ola (1999)

Sacred Mushroom - The Sacred Mushroom (1969)

Fleetwood Mac - Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (1968)

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Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - The Cream of..... (73-79)

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The 101'ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (1981)