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Osanna - Palepoli (Progressive Rock, Italy 1973)

2012-01-31T19:52:00.000+01:00

320:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

'Palepoli' is Osanna's crowning achievement, and a definite cornerstone in the hard wave of Italian prog - the band members themselves describe it as the first Italian opera rock ever (in their offcial website). The album consists basically of two sidelong suites, plus a brief reprise of 'Oro Caldo' intro that serves as an individual interlude. From the very beginning of the first suite 'Oro Caldo', you can anticipate that this is going to be a very special experience: the North African Muslim intro, with those hand drums, and those evocative, exuberant flute lines, with street sounds laid in the background... until an incendiary heavy bluesy rock section surfaces and contaminates the ambience with its infectuous red heat.

The constant riffing of two guitars, the burning solos on guitar, flute and sax, the solid rhythm section, all of these elements are handled with finesse and attitude, while the softer side of Osanna's music is managed in the shape of acoustic- driven interludes between the heavier sections. The presence of layers of keyboards (mostly mellotron, but you can also hear some occasional organ chords, as well as weird synth effects) gives the overall sound an epic dimension. But the album's leit-motiv is not the power or rock per se, but the adventurous management of the diverse consecutive musical ideas: what you find here is a well crafted, lunatic collage of heavy rock, Mediterranean folk, psychodelia, electric blues, exotic Arabic colours, Wagnerian pomp and circumstance.

The influences of JT, VdGG, Led Zep, and 69-70 KC are obvious, but not overwhelming. The musicians handle their inheritances with an inspired sense of originality, as well as skillful musicianship and devoted enthusiasm - particularly, D'Anna on saxes and flutes, and Guarino on drums and percussion, but the ensemble as a whole is simply terrific. Once you're finished with 'Oro Caldo', you're prepared to receive the other tout-de- force 'Animale senza Respiro': personally, I find this one less achieved in comparison, since it gets lost in meandering at times. But it is not without its brilliant moments: a few examples, the opening martial tune, the fiery drum solo near the end, and then, the symphonic closure, where the combination of organ and mellotron shines like a tower of gold. Maybe the sound production is a little "primitive", but it shouldn't distract us from teh fact that the music contained in this recording is amazing beyond words - who knows, maybe a more polished production work would have spoiled some of the essential fire of 'Palepoli'... A masterpiece! [progarchives.com]

01. Oro Caldo (18:30)
02. Stanza Città (1:45)
03. Animale Senza Respiro (21:36)

Aerosmith - 'Rocks' (Classic Album US 1976)

2012-01-30T10:42:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Rocks is the fourth album by American rock band Aerosmith, released May 3, 1976. Allmusic described Rocks as having "captured Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking". Rocks also ranked #176 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and is also noted in musician Kurt Cobain's top 50 favorite albums in his journals. Additionally, it has greatly influenced several people in the hard rock and heavy metal community, including members of Guns N' Roses and Metallica.

The album was also a commercial success, charting Four singles on the Billboard Hot 100, two of which reached the Top 40 ("Back in the Saddle" and "Last Child"). The album also was one of the first albums to ship platinum when it was released. The album has since gone quadruple platinum.

Few albums have been so appropriately named as Aerosmith's 1976 classic Rocks. Despite hard drug use escalating among bandmembers, Aerosmith produced a superb follow-up to their masterwork Toys in the Attic, nearly topping it in the process. Many Aero fans will point to Toys as the band's quintessential album (it contained two radio/concert standards after all, "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion"), but out of all their albums, Rocks did the best job of capturing Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking. Like its predecessor, a pair of songs have become their most renowned — the menacing, hard rock, cowboy-stomper "Back in the Saddle," as well as the downright viscous funk groove of "Last Child." Again, even the lesser-known tracks prove essential to the makeup of the album, such as the stimulated "Rats in the Cellar" (a response of sorts to "Toys in the Attic"), the Stonesy "Combination," and the forgotten riff-rocker "Get the Lead Out." Also included is the apocalyptic "Nobody's Fault," the up-and-coming rock star tale of "Lick and a Promise," and the album-closing ballad "Home Tonight." With Rocks, Aerosmith appeared to be indestructible.

01. "Back in the Saddle" Steven Tyler, Joe Perry 4:40
02. "Last Child" Tyler, Brad Whitford 3:26
03. "Rats in the Cellar" Tyler, Perry 4:07
04. "Combination" Perry 3:39
05. "Sick as a Dog" Tyler, Tom Hamilton 4:12
06. "Nobody's Fault" Tyler, Whitford 4:25
07. "Get the Lead Out" Tyler, Perry 3:43
08. "Lick and a Promise" Tyler, Perry 3:05
09. "Home Tonight" Tyler 3:18

Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic (Klassiker US 1975)

2012-01-30T10:40:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Toys in the Attic is the third album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in April 1975 by Columbia Records. The album's first single release, "Sweet Emotion", was released a month later on May 19th and "Walk This Way" was later released on August 28th in the same year. The album is their second-most commercially successful studio album, with eight million copies sold in the United States alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Steven Tyler claims that his original idea for the album cover was a teddy bear sitting in the attic with its wrist cut and stuffing spread across the floor. They decided, in the end, to put all of the animals in instead.

For Aerosmith's last album, 1974's Get Your Wings, the band began working with record producer Jack Douglas, who co-produced the album with Ray Colcord. Even though in the liner notes to the 1993 reissue of Greatest Hits it was said by an unnamed member of the group that they "nailed" the album, it was not at all a hit, only reaching #71 on the Billboard 200 and none of the album's singles charted.

At the beginning of 1975 the band started worked at The Record Plant in New York City for the album that became Toys in the Attic. The sessions for Toys were produced by Jack Douglas without Ray Colcord and were engineered by Jay Messina with assistant engineers Rod O'Brien, Corky Stasiak, and Dave Thoener. The songs for Toys were recorded with 12-track tape recorders.

01. "Toys in the Attic" Steven Tyler, Joe Perry 3:07
02. "Uncle Salty" Tyler, Tom Hamilton 4:09
03. "Adam's Apple" Tyler 4:33
04. "Walk This Way" Tyler, Perry 3:41
05. "Big Ten Inch Record" Fred Weismantel 2:16
06. "Sweet Emotion" Tyler, Hamilton 4:34
07. "No More No More" Tyler, Perry 4:34
08. "Round and Round" Tyler, Brad Whitford 5:03
09. "You See Me Crying" Tyler, Don Solomon 5:12

The Byrds - Mr.Tambourine Man (1a Albumet US 1965)

2012-01-30T10:37:00.000+01:00

270:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. utgången utgåva. Klassiker.)

Mr. Tambourine Man is the debut album by the American folk-rock band, The Byrds. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, staying on the charts for 38 weeks; it also went to #7 in Great Britain. The single of the same name, Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," had been released on April 12, 1965, and went to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and in the UK; another single and Dylan cover from the album, "All I Really Want to Do," just made the Top 40, peaking at #40.

The single instantly established the band on both sides of the Atlantic, introducing the new genre of folk rock. Its most distinctive features were the vocal harmonies of Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn and David Crosby, and McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar playing (which complemented the lyric's "jingle jangle morning"). This combination became the band's signature sound in this early period.

Of the album tracks, most of the band originals were penned by Clark, the group's central songwriter over its first eighteen months of existence, including "Here Without You" and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" (the latter becoming a rock and roll standard, inspiring many cover versions). There was also an abundance of Dylan material, with three songs taken from his Another Side of Bob Dylan LP, leading to accusations of the band being too reliant on his work. Other covers included an expansive arrangement of Pete Seeger's "The Bells Of Rhymney", stressing the band's folk music roots, and Vera Lynn's war years standard "We'll Meet Again," given a very sardonic reading influenced by the song's appearance in the final scene of Stanley Kubrick's movie Dr. Strangelove.

The label had replaced most of the band with session musicians for the single and its b-side, "I Knew I'd Want You," with only McGuinn allowed to play on the tracks, although Clark and Crosby did sing on the two tracks. By the time the album was recorded, the group had polished their sound to producer Terry Melcher's satisfaction, and The Byrds themselves played on the remaining tracks.

01."Mr. Tambourine Man" (Bob Dylan) –2:29
02."I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" (Gene Clark) –2:32
03."Spanish Harlem Incident" (Bob Dylan) –1:57
04."You Won't Have to Cry" (Gene Clark/Jim McGuinn) –2:08
05."Here Without You" (Gene Clark) –2:36
06."The Bells of Rhymney" (Idris Davies/Pete Seeger) –3:30
07."All I Really Want to Do" (Bob Dylan) –2:04
08."I Knew I'd Want You" (Gene Clark) –2:14
09."It's No Use" (Gene Clark/Jim McGuinn) –2:23
10."Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" (Jackie DeShannon) –2:54
11."Chimes of Freedom" (Bob Dylan) –3:51
12."We'll Meet Again" (Ross Parker/ Hughie Charles) –2:07

Bonus Tracks:
13."She Has a Way" (Gene Clark) – 2:25
14."I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" [Alternate Version] (Gene Clark) – 2:28
15."It's No Use" [Alternate Version] (Gene Clark/Jim McGuinn) – 2:24
16."You Won't Have to Cry" [Alternate Version] (Gene Clark/Jim McGuinn) – 2:07
17."All I Really Want to Do" [Single Version] (Bob Dylan) – 2:02
18."You and Me" [Instrumental] (David Crosby/Gene Clark/Jim McGuinn) – 2:11

Ufo - Ufo Live (Great Live Album UK 1972, Endast Utgiven I Tyskland 1972)

2012-01-24T19:29:00.002+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och svår att hitta nu.)

Live is the third album by the band UFO. It was the group's first live recording and was initially released only in Japan in 1972. The album was later re-issued with different titles, such as UFO Live in Japan and UFO Lands In Tokyo.

It features the original lineup of the band with Mick Bolton on guitar, and consists of blues covers and songs from their first two space-rock albums. All of the tracks are in a jam-oriented style which is very different from the aggressive, song-oriented style they would be later known for. It was the last album to feature Mick Bolton on guitar, he would be replaced with Michael Schenker.

Singer Phil Mogg, guitarist Mick Bolton, bassist Pete Way, and drummer Andy Parker formed the band in August 1969. Originally taking the name Hocus Pocus, the group changed their name in October 1969 to UFO in honour of the London club where they were spotted by Noel Moore, who signed them to his Beacon Records label. Their eponymously titled first album debuted in 1970 and was a typical example of blues and boogie based hard rock. The album included a heavy version of the Eddie Cochran's classic "C'mon Everybody." Both UFO 1 and its follow-up UFO 2: Flying, were very successful in Japan (especially the single "C'mon Everybody" which became a huge hit there) and Germany (the song "Boogie For George," also from the first album, reached #30 in German singles charts as well as "Prince Kajuku" from Flying reached #26), but generated poor interest in Britain and America. Consequently, their third effort, Live (later re-issued as UFO Lands In Tokyo), was originally only released in Japan in 1972.

Part of UFO's early heavy metal work was strongly influenced by space rock (their second album, including a 26-minute long title track and a 19-minute long opus "Star Storm", was subtitled One Hour Space Rock) that was modestly popular at the time, but the band soon realised the style was somewhat limited. In January, 1972 Mick Bolton left the group, and UFO set out to find a guitarist who could provide the band with a more standard rock sound.

01."C'mon Everybody" (Cochrane-Capeheart) 4:10
02."Who Do You Love" (Ellas McDaniel) 9:00
03."Loving Cup" (Butterfield-Butterfield) 5:10
04."Prince Kajuku"/"The Coming of Prince Kajuku" (Way-Mogg-Parker-Bolton) 8:20
05."Boogie for George" (Way-Mogg-Parker-Bolton) 11:30
06."Follow You Home" (Way) 6:00

Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love (US 1973) (Box Konvolut)

2012-01-24T12:54:00.001+01:00

370:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Wellpapp box konvolut + alla tillbehör såsom klistermärke m.m.)

Muscle of Love is the seventh studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1973. It is the final studio album recorded by the original Alice Cooper band, and is a concept album about teenage angst, life on the streets of New York City, and implied male prostitution.

In place of the usual jacket, the original LP was packaged in a shallow corrugated cardboard carton, with a "stain" intentionally printed along the bottom. The original release also included a paper "book-cover" with Teen-Age Lament '74 theme and an illustration of the band in pink and white.

As per Alice Cooper (Billion Dollar Babies/Bob Greene, 1974), the track "Man with the Golden Gun" was intended to serve as the title song for James Bond film of the same name. The goal was for the song's popularity to force the producers of the film to use the song. However the ploy failed. "Teenage Lament '74" features Liza Minnelli on background vocals.

01."Big Apple Dreamin' (Hippo)" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith) - 5:10
02."Never Been Sold Before" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) - 4:28
03."Hard Hearted Alice" (Cooper, Bruce) - 4:53
04."Crazy Little Child" (Cooper, Bruce) - 5:03
05."Working Up a Sweat" (Cooper, Bruce) - 3:32
06."Muscle of Love" (Cooper, Bruce) - 3:45
07."Man With the Golden Gun" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) - 4:12
08."Teenage Lament '74" (Cooper, Smith) - 3:53
09."Woman Machine" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) - 4:31

Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare (US 1975)

2012-01-24T12:50:00.000+01:00

330:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

With the 1974 disintegration of the original Alice Cooper group, Alice was free to launch a solo career. He wisely decided to re-enlist the services of Bob Ezrin for his solo debut, Welcome to My Nightmare, which was a concept album tied into the story line of the highly theatrical concert tour he launched soon after the album's release. While the music lost most of the gritty edge of the original AC lineup, Welcome to My Nightmare remains Alice's best solo effort -- while some tracks stray from his expected hard rock direction, there's plenty of fist-pumping rock to go around.

The disco-flavored, album-opening title track would be reworked on the stage as more of a hard rock tune, while "Some Folks" dips into cabaret territory, and "Only Women Bleed" is a sensitive ballad that became a Top Ten hit. But the rockers serve as the album's foundation -- "Devil's Food," "The Black Widow," "Department of Youth," and "Cold Ethyl" are all standouts, as is the more tranquil yet eerie epic "Steven." Despite this promising start to Cooper's solo career, the majority of his subsequent releases were often not as focused and were of varying quality.

Welcome to My Nightmare is the eighth album by Alice Cooper, released in 1975. This was Alice Cooper's first solo album (all previous Alice Cooper releases were band efforts). The cover artwork was created by Drew Struzan for Pacific Eye & Ear. Rolling Stone would later rank it as one of the "Top 100 Album Covers Of All Time".

Welcome to My Nightmare is a concept album. The songs, heard in sequence, form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven.

Welcome to My Nightmare inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special and a worldwide concert tour in 1975, and the Welcome To My Nightmare concert film in 1976.

The song Welcome to my Nightmare is a parody of the 1968 novel "There's a Nightmare in My Closet" by Mercer Mayer.

Famed film actor of the Horror genre Vincent Price provided the introductory monologue in the song "The Black Widow".

The remastered CD version adds three alternate version bonus tracks.

In 2011, the sequel Welcome 2 My Nightmare was released.

01."Welcome to My Nightmare" (Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner) – 5:19
02."Devil's Food" (Cooper, Bob Ezrin, Kelley Jay) – 3:38
03."The Black Widow" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 3:37
04."Some Folks" (Cooper, Ezrin, Alan Gordon) – 4:19
05."Only Women Bleed" (Cooper, Wagner) – 5:49
06."Department of Youth" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 3:18
07."Cold Ethyl" (Cooper, Ezrin) – 2:51
08."Years Ago" (Cooper, Wagner) – 2:51
09."Steven" (Cooper, Ezrin) – 5:52
10."The Awakening" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 2:25
11."Escape" (Cooper, Mark Anthony, Kim Fowley) – 3:20

Alice Cooper - Goes to Hell (US 1976)

2012-01-24T12:45:00.000+01:00

330:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

Following the success of his first solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper followed it up with another concept album, Goes to Hell, similar in style to its predecessor. Again, longtime Alice producer Bob Ezrin was on board, and while there are a few highlights, Goes to Hell signaled an Alice era where he pretty much forsook the raw garage rock of his early days (Killer, School's Out) in favor of polished studio glitz. That said, the title track is worthy of any headbanger's time (and remains one of Cooper's most overlooked rock tunes), while "I Never Cry" was another Alice ballad that found a place near the top of the charts.

Other highlights include such tracks as the disco-rock-boogie of "You Gotta Dance" and the laid-back yet sinister funk groove of "I'm the Coolest." Elsewhere, the musical experiments aren't as successful -- the old-time sounds of "Give the Kid a Break," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," and the album-closing "Going Home" are about as far removed from the expected hard-rocking AC direction as you can get. And while the rocker "Wish You Were Here" would become a late-'70s concert standard for the Coop, the original studio version lacks the firepower the song achieved on the stage. Alice was supposed to follow up the album's release with another highly theatrical stage show (following the cue of his first solo tour in 1975), but an illness squashed the tour altogether. Despite its missteps, the gold-certified Goes to Hell would prove to be Alice's most commercially successful solo album for quite some time.

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is the ninth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare, this concept album was written almost exclusively by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin.

With the success of "Only Women Bleed" from his first solo effort, Alice continued with the rock ballads on this album. "I Never Cry" was written about his drinking problem, which would in one year send the performer into rehab. Cooper called the song "an alcoholic confession".

The "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" tour of 1976 was completely cancelled prior to commencement due to Cooper suffering from anemia at the time.

In 2005 the first track, "Go to Hell", was featured as the theme song to the sixth episode of Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil titled "Human Sacrifice". The song was also featured in the 2009 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, and in the 1986 movie The American Way.

01."Go to Hell" – 5:15
02."You Gotta Dance" – 2:45
03."I'm the Coolest" – 3:57
04."Didn't We Meet" – 4:16
05."I Never Cry" (Cooper, Wagner) – 3:44
06."Give the Kid a Break" – 4:14
07."Guilty" – 3:22
08."Wake Me Gently" – 5:03
09."Wish You Were Here" – 4:36
10."I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" (Harry Carroll, Joseph McCarthy) – 2:08
11."Going Home" – 3:47

Fairport Convention - What We Did On Our Holidays (Folk-Rock UK 1969)

2012-01-18T17:22:00.004+01:00

350:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Bonusomslag medföljer. Utgången utgåva.)

What We Did on Our Holidays is the title of the second album release by the band Fairport Convention. This album included the vocals of Sandy Denny unlike their previous (and first) album, Fairport Convention. This album contains some very memorably early Fairport tunes. Sandy Denny's vocals are moving, especially their take on "She Moves Through the Fair". When Richard Thompson was asked to sign this CD in the early 90's at a show in Detroit, MI, he responded "Oh, I forgot about this album, and I had no idea it was released on CD. Mind if I take a look at it?"In the USA, the album was released by A&M Records (SP-4185). It contained an identical tracklisting but featured new cover art, and was retitled "Fairport Convention."Sandy Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978), was an English singer and songwriter. She is best known for her involvement with the British folk rock movement, including two spells as a member of Fairport Convention, as well as her duet with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's fourth album in 1971 - the song "The Battle of Evermore".In 1965, she enrolled at the Kingston College of Art in London, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. Contempories included John Renbourn, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton. After her first public appearance at the Barge in Kingston-Upon-Thames Sandy started working the folk club circuit in the evenings with an American-influenced repertoire, including songs by Tom Paxton, together with folk songs. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of Strawbs heard her. In 1967, she was invited to join the band, and recorded one album with them in Denmark; the album includes an early version of her best-known (and widely covered) song, Who Knows Where the Time Goes. Judy Collins recorded the song, helping to bring Sandy Denny attention. Denny also recorded her first solo album in this period, featuring traditional songs and covers of folk contemporaries including a boyfriend of this period, Jackson C. Frank.In 1968, Denny became the lead vocalist for Fairport Convention (replacing Judy Dyble), recording three albums with them. Denny is credited with encouraging Fairport Convention to explore the traditional British folk repertoire, and is thus a key figure in the development of British folk rock.Denny left Fairport Convention in 1969, after recording and, very briefly, touring their release Liege & Lief . The other members of Fairport were interested in exploring the folk rock path that they had started down, but Sandy wanted to develop her own song writing. She went on to form her own band, Fotheringay, including her boyfriend, Australian born Trevor Lucas. She dissolved the group after one album to record solo albums, with several members of Fairport Convention as guests. The North Star Grassman and the Ravens and Sandy remain her most popular solo albums. In 1973, she married Lucas, and returned to Fairport Convention for a world tour and another album, Rising for the Moon, featuring several of her own compositions.During her solo period, Denny appeared in a brief cameo on Lou Reizner's version of The Who's rock opera, Tommy, and duetted memorably with Robert Plant on "The Battle of Evermore" from Led Zeppelin's 1971 album (Led Zeppelin IV). She was voted "Female singer of the year" by Melody Maker in 1970 and 1971. Together with contemporaries including Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, she participated in a one-off project called The Bunch, recording a collection of rock standards.She gained a devoted cult following, but remained deprecating of her talent and unsure of her true direction. Some of her best-loved recordings are interpretations of British traditional song. Denny herself was unsure as to whether she wanted to continue in that vein (in the manner of Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior) or that of a singer-songwriter like Joni Mitchell. She also had yearnings for success in the mass market, for which her shy, unpredictable nature and insecurity about her looks were ill-suited. Her solo albums feature efforts in all three directions, gaining her a reputation for charming eclecticism rather than the star power she and Lucas craved.Her charisma and extraordinary alto voice were never in doubt. Unfortunately, the stress of the Fairport Convention world tour in 1974 helped to make it apparent that Denny's heavy drinking and smoking were damaging her voice, inclining her to put elaborate string arrangements on her last two solo albums (Like an Old-Fashioned Waltz and Rendezvous). These heavily produced albums were not as well received by the critics. Denny began to question her career goals in earnest and decided to turn her attention to raising a family. At the same time, her substance abuse became critical and her behavior, always erratic, became sufficiently trying to alienate most of her fellow musicians, including Trevor Lucas and her other colleagues in Fairport Convention.It is noteworthy (and possibly unique) that every member of Sandy Denny's Fotheringay group, except for Pat Donaldson, would later join her earlier band, Fairport Convention.01. "Fotheringay" (Sandy Denny)

02. "Mr Lacey" (Ashley Hutchings)
03. "Book Song" (Iain Matthews/Richard Thompson)
04. "The Lord Is in This Place...How Dreadful Is This Place" (Ashley Hutchings/Richard Thompson/Sandy Denny)
05. "No Man's Land" (Richard Thompson)
06. "I'll Keep It With Mine" (Bob Dylan)
07. "Eastern Rain" (Joni Mitchell)
08. "Nottamun Town" (Traditional, arr. by Sandy Denny/Iain Matthews/Richard Thompson (musician)Richard Thompson]]/Simon Nicol/Ashley Hutchings/Martin Lamble)
09. "Tale in Hard Time" (Richard Thompson)
10. "She Moves Through the Fair" (Traditional, arr. by Sandy Denny/Iain Matthews/Richard Thompson/Simon Nicol/Ashley Hutchings/Martin Lamble)
11. "Meet on the Ledge" (Richard Thompson)
12. "End of a Holiday" (Simon Nicol)Bonus tracks:
13. "Throwaway Street Puzzle" (Ashley Hutchings/Richard Thompson)
14. "You're Gonna Need My Help" (McKinley Morganfield)
15. "Some Sweet Day" (Felice & Boudleaux Bryant)

Fleetwood Mac - English Rose (US 1969)

2012-01-11T12:43:00.000+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Inkl. "Albatross".)

For reasons that no one seems to recall in detail -- but for which we can be grateful -- when it was time to release a second Fleetwood Mac LP in America, producer Mike Vernon and the band didn't just send the existing Mr. Wonderful album across the Atlantic -- a little fine-tuning and retooling was in order. The band had just expanded by one member, to a quintet -- with the addition of guitarist Danny Kirwan -- by the end of 1968, whereas Mr. Wonderful represented them as a four-piece outfit. Additionally, the group had just toured the U.S. for the first time, as a quintet, playing to very enthusiastic audiences, and so there was some point to sending U.S. licensee Epic Records something extra, representing who they were at the start of 1969. And that became the English Rose album, offering three Kirwan-authored instrumentals, plus the hit U.K. single "Albatross," and also their previous single, "Black Magic Woman," which had been a British Top 40 hit (though it was unknown in the U.S., and preceded Santana's hit recording of it by almost two years). Half of Mr. Wonderful was still there, including the opener, "Stop Messin' Round" and "I've Lost My Baby," representing the stronger tracks from that record. Between the paring down of Mr. Wonderful and the addition of the single tracks, English Rose ended up being a stronger album than its predecessor, though without a hit single in America to drive sales and get it exposure, it barely brushed the Top 200 LP listings in the U.S. Strangely enough, despite the overlap with Mr. Wonderful, English Rose was released in England about six months later, probably to help make up for the loss of the group's contract (due to an oversight) by Blue Horizon.

English Rose is a compilation album by Fleetwood Mac, released in January 1969. It was originally a US-only compilation, combining six tracks from the UK release Mr. Wonderful (Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 11), three UK non-album single sides (Tracks 2, 7, and 12), two not-yet-released songs from the UK version of Then Play On (Tracks 9 and 10) and one other previously unreleased track (Track 4). It was released some months before the UK release of The Pious Bird of Good Omen, sharing five songs with that album. Mick Fleetwood appears in drag on the cover.

01."Stop Messin' Round" (Clifford Adams, Peter Green) – 2:22
02."Jigsaw Puzzle Blues" (Danny Kirwan) – 1:36
03."Doctor Brown" (J. T. Brown, W. Glasco) – 3:46
04."Something Inside of Me" (Kirwan) – 3:57
05."Evenin' Boogie" (Jeremy Spencer) – 2:42
06."Love That Burns" (Adams, Green) – 5:05
07."Black Magic Woman" (Green) – 2:48
08."I've Lost My Baby" (Spencer) – 4:17
09."One Sunny Day" (Kirwan) – 3:12
10."Without You" (Kirwan) – 4:40
11."Coming Home" (Elmore James) – 2:40
12."Albatross" (Green) – 3:09

Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride (Klassiker US 1971)

2012-01-11T12:38:00.000+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket fin utgåva.)

Following the success of Climbing! and appearances at Woodstock and other outdoor festivals of the day, Mountain recorded more of the same for Nantucket Sleighride. The title track is a nice mixture of classical-leaning intertwined with moderate rock; both "Don't Look Around" and "The Animal Trainer and the Toad" continue on the hard rock path so well-worn by this band. Not groundbreaking, but it is well worth listening to.

Mountain is an American blues-rock band that formed in Long Island, New York in 1969. Originally comprising vocalist and guitarist Leslie West, bassist Felix Pappalardi and drummer N. D. Smart, the band broke up in 1972 before reuniting in 1974 and remaining active until today. Arguably best known for the song "Mississippi Queen", Mountain is one of many bands to be commonly credited as having influenced the development of heavy metal music in the 1970s.

The band was formed shortly after Leslie West, formerly of the Long Island R&B band The Vagrants, recorded a solo album titled Mountain with bassist and former Cream collaborator Felix Pappalardi producing. The album also featured former Remains drummer N.D. Smart. It was decided to name the band Mountain after Leslie West's immense size. West's raw vocals and melodic, bluesy guitar style, and Pappalardi's heavy and elegant bass lines were the elements of Mountain's distinctive sound. Though heavily inspired by seminal British blues-rock band Cream (with which Pappalardi had been a frequent collaborator: he produced Disraeli Gears, Goodbye and Wheels of Fire, also contributing viola, brass, bells and organ to the latter), keyboardist Steve Knight was added to avoid Mountain being perceived as a simple imitation. Cream drummer Ginger Baker held a brief stint as manager of the band during their early years.

They played their fourth live concert at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York (later chronicling the experience in their song "For Yasgur's Farm"), but the band did not appear in the film of the event nor was their performance included on volume 1 of the festival's live album. It was however included on the second volume. Soon after, Smart was replaced by Laurence "Corky" Laing. Their debut, Climbing!, was released in 1970 and featured the band's signature song, "Mississippi Queen", which reached the middle of the top 40 charts. The album itself reached the top 20 on the US album charts.

The follow-up album Nantucket Sleighride, released in 1971, also reached the top 20 but failed to yield a hit single. The title track was used in the United Kingdom as the theme to ITV's Sunday political program Weekend World. After these early releases the band continued to receive a certain measure of critical acclaim but never again achieved great commercial success.

After Nantucket Sleighride, the band produced Flowers of Evil consisting of one side of studio material and one live side, culled from a concert at New York City's legendary Fillmore East. The following year, Mountain broke up. Shortly after, West and Laing formed West, Bruce and Laing with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, producing two studio albums and a live release over the next two years.

01."Don't Look Around" - 3:47
02."Taunta (Sammy's Tune)" - 1:00
03."Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin)" - 5:55
04."You Can't Get Away" - 3:28
05."Tired Angels (To J.M.H.)" - 4:42
06."The Animal Trainer And The Toad" - 3:29
07."My Lady" - 4:35
08."Travellin' In The Dark (To E.M.P.)" - 4:26
09."The Great Train Robbery" - 5:50

Santana - Abraxas (US 1970)

2012-01-11T12:35:00.000+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.)

Abraxas is the second studio album by the Latin influenced rock band Santana. Consolidating their highly acclaimed live performance at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, and the interest generated by their first album, Santana (released in May 1969), the band took some time to issue a follow-up. Released in September, 1970, the album's mix of rock, blues, jazz, salsa and other influences made it a classic that defined Santana's early sound, and showed a musical maturation from their first album.

The title of the album comes from a line from Herman Hesse's book Demian, which is quoted on the album's back cover: "We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas...." The word "Abraxas" has use within Gnostic cosmology.

01. "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts [Instrumental]" Carabello 4:51
02. "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" Green/Szabo 5:22
03. "Oye Como Va" Puente 4:16
04. "Incident at Neshabur [Instrumental]" Gianquinto, Santana 4:57
05. "Se a Cabo" Areas 2:50
06. "Mother's Daughter" Rolie 4:25
07. "Samba Pa Ti [Instrumental]" Santana 4:54
08. "Hope You're Feeling Better" Rolie 4:11
09. "El Nicoya" Areas 1:30

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main ST (UK 1972)

2012-01-05T14:02:00.000+01:00

360:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its original release, Exile on Main St. has become generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album. Part of the reason why the record was initially greeted with hesitant reviews is that it takes a while to assimilate. A sprawling, weary double album encompassing rock & roll, blues, soul, and country, Exile doesn't try anything new on the surface, but the substance is new. Taking the bleakness that underpinned Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers to an extreme, Exile is a weary record, and not just lyrically. Jagger's vocals are buried in the mix, and the music is a series of dark, dense jams, with Keith Richards and Mick Taylor spinning off incredible riffs and solos. And the songs continue the breakthroughs of their three previous albums.

No longer does their country sound forced or kitschy — it's lived-in and complex, just like the group's forays into soul and gospel. While the songs, including the masterpieces "Rocks Off," "Tumbling Dice," "Torn and Frayed," "Happy," "Let It Loose," and "Shine a Light," are all terrific, they blend together, with only certain lyrics and guitar lines emerging from the murk. It's the kind of record that's gripping on the very first listen, but each subsequent listen reveals something new. Few other albums, let alone double albums, have been so rich and masterful as Exile on Main St., and it stands not only as one of the Stones' best records, but sets a remarkably high standard for all of hard rock.

01. "Rocks Off" 4:31
02. "Rip This Joint" 2:22
03. "Shake Your Hips" (Slim Harpo) 2:59
04. "Casino Boogie" 3:33
05. "Tumbling Dice" 3:45
06. "Sweet Virginia" 4:25
07. "Torn and Frayed" 4:17
08. "Sweet Black Angel" 2:54
09. "Loving Cup" 4:25
10. "Happy" 3:04
11. "Turd on the Run" 2:36
12. "Ventilator Blues" (Jagger/Richards/Taylor) 3:24
13. "I Just Want to See His Face" 2:52
14. "Let It Loose" 5:16
15. "All Down the Line" 3:49
16. "Stop Breaking Down" (Robert Johnson) 4:34
17. "Shine a Light" 4:14
18. "Soul Survivor" 3:49

Earth & Fire - Song Of The Marching Children (Bra Progrock Från Holland 1971)

2012-01-04T09:53:00.000+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket svår att hitta.)

EARTH & FIRE's "Song Of The Marching Children" falls somewhere within the song-oriented prog category. The album consists of short tracks on side A, and a larger epic on side B (my CD also came with a bonus track, but there is another CD that features SOTMC, and Atlantis). All of the tracks on Side A feature some of the best qualities found in more adventurous progressive rock, and they end up sounding like miniature epics. The side- long track sounds like 5 songs pieced together. Overall, the music from this band has a strong European symphonic sound, meaning that Baroque, classical, and even circus influences are all over the place.

The band likes to weave in and out of major/minor chords and scales, so the music alternates between happy and sad moods. I also hear a noticeable early KING CRIMSON sound (heavy on the orchestral mellotron sound). EARTH & FIRE had a female lead-singer with one of the warmest, and charismatic, voice that I've heard in prog. She is usually mentioned first when people talk about the band. Some of her lyrics are silly in a surreal, counterculture, sort of way, but her beautiful voice quickly makes you forgive the naive lyrics. This is a majestic album that will please fans of early KING CRIMSON, PFM's "Per Un Amico", and FANTASY.

The albums “Song of the Marching Children” and “Atlantis” belong to the best of the Dutch progrock history. The epic title tracks from both albums (between 16 and 19 minutes) are recommended: the sound is very warm and melodic with lots of changing atmospheres, accelerations and surprising breaks. The one moment you hear a mellow organ, twanging acoustic guitars and a fairy-like voice from Jerney, the other moment there are bombastic eruptions with majestic Mellotron, heavy floods of organ and some fiery electric guitar work, topped by the powerful voice of Jerney. By the way, she has been married for almost 30 years with Bert Ruiter, former bass player from FOCUS...!

01. Carnival of the animals (2:42)
02. Ebbtide (3:06)
03. Storm and thunder (6:25)
04. In the mountains (3:00)
05. Song of the marching children (18:20)
...a) Theme of the marching children - 2:20
...b) Opening the seal - 1:10
...c) Childhood - 3:10
...d) Affliction - 1:30
...e) Damnation - 2:53
...f) Purification - 4:17
...g) The march - 3:02

Bonus tracks on Polydor cd release:
06. Lost forever (2:48)
07. Invitation (3:50)
08. Song for the marching children (single version) (4:08)

Jade - Fly on Strangewings (Bra Folkrock UK 1970)

2012-01-04T09:46:00.000+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

The British folk-rock trio Jade made one obscure album in 1970, Fly on Strangewings, that might have sounded closer to 1968-1969-era Fairport Convention than any other record not by Fairport themselves. Jade's lead singer, Marian Segal (who also played acoustic guitar), had a very similar voice and style to that of Fairport's woman singer of the late '60s, Sandy Denny. Too, Jade blended parts of modern folk-rock and traditional British folk in their songs, vocal harmonies, and arrangements. Jade were not as big on traditional British folk as Fairport were by late 1969, however, recalling the Fairport albums What We Did on Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking far more than the later 1969 Fairport record that took a more traditional direction in repertoire, Liege & Lief.

Jade were also a wee bit more pop in their songwriting and arrangements (which occasionally used orchestration) than Fairport, their inevitable point of comparison. While Fly on Strangewings isn't as strong or original as Fairport Convention's early albums, it can be heartily recommended to anyone who loves the sound of early Fairport with Sandy Denny on vocals, and wants something in a very similar style.Jade's Marian Segal had been in a school band with future Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan, and began singing in London folk clubs around 1966.

In 1967 she formed a duo with singer, fellow acoustic guitarist, and banjo player Dave Waite; he'd formerly been in the folk group the Countrymen, who had a minor British hit single in 1962 with "I Know Where I'm Going." By the end of the 1960s they'd moved away from traditional folk to contemporary material and original songs, and were managed by Jon Miller, who was in partnership with famous British music publisher Dick James.

They got a deal with James' DJM label and Miller, who'd produce Jade's album, introduced them to singer and keyboardist Rod Edwards, who became the third member of the band. Moving to a more rock-oriented sound, the album benefited from session work by several noted musicians of the time, including Michael Rosen (who'd been in the underrated British folk-rock group Eclection), Pete York (of the Spencer Davis Group and Hardin & York), Terry Cox (of the Pentangle), Pete Sears (later of Jefferson Starship), top U.K. session drummer Clem Cattini, and Mick Waller (who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart during that period).

While their debut album had come out in the U.K. in mid-1970 under the name Jade, there was another group of that name in the U.S., so the album was billed to Marian Segal With Silver Jade when it was issued by Bell in America in mid-1971. The group toured the States in the summer of 1971, but split up that autumn, by which time Segal was working on an unfinished solo album. Segal and Waite continued playing as the Marian Segal Band with other musicians for a few years, but didn't get a recording deal before they split up in the mid-'70s. Fly on Strangewings was reissued on CD in 2007, with both sides of an unreleased 1971 single (on which John Wetton plays bass) added as bonus tracks.*

01. Amongst Anemones 3.53
02. Raven 2.35
03. Fly On Strangewings 4.27
04. Mayfly 3.33
05. Alan's Song 3.17
06. Bad Magic 3.18
07. Clippership 2.46
08. Five Of Us 4.06
09. Reflections On A Harbour Wall 2.32
10. Mrs Adams 3.27
11. Fly Me to the North 3.22
12. Away From The Family 4.48

13. Sepember Song Live 2 [Bonus]
14. Big Yellow Taxi [Bonus]
15. Carolina In My Mind [Bonus]
16. Chicago Radio Spots [Bonus]

Big Brother & The Holding Company - Cheap Trills (Klassiker US 1968)

2012-01-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Minst lika fint gjort som den japanska fast billigare. Numrerad utgåva.)

Cheap Thrills is the second album from Big Brother and the Holding Company and their only studio album with Janis Joplin as primary lead vocalist.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 338 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The cover was drawn by underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. It is number 9 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest album covers.

The album debuted at the number one spot and stayed there for weeks while the single, "Piece of My Heart," also became a huge hit.

Initially, the album was to be called Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills, but the title was not received well by Columbia Records.

"Piece of My Heart" is a song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns and originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. The song came to mainstream attention when Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the song in 1968 on their album Cheap Thrills and had a hit with it. The song has since been remade by several singers, including hit versions by Faith Hill in 1994 and Beverley Knight in 2006.

In 2004, the Big Brother and the Holding Company version of this song was ranked number three hundred and forty-four on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is also included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

The original version of "Piece of My Heart" was recorded by Aretha Franklin's older sister Erma in 1967. The song was a top ten R&B hit in the U.S., and also peaked at number sixty-two on the U.S. Pop Singles chart. However, in the UK, the actual single was not released until 1992, when it peaked inside the UK Singles Chart at number nine.

The song became popular, however, when recorded by Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1968, with lead singer Janis Joplin. The song was taken from the group's album Cheap Thrills, recorded in 1968 and released on Columbia Records. This rendition made it to number twelve on the U.S. pop chart.

Franklin said in an interview that when she first heard Joplin's version on the radio, she didn't recognize it because of the vocal arrangement.[1] Noted cultural writer Ellen Willis wrote of the difference: "When Franklin sings it, it is a challenge: no matter what you do to me, I will not let you destroy my ability to be human, to love. Joplin seems rather to be saying, surely if I keep taking this, if I keep setting an example of love and forgiveness, surely he has to understand, change, give me back what I have given". In such a way, Joplin used blues conventions not to transcend pain, but "to scream it out of existence".

01. "Combination of the Two" (Sam Andrew) – 5:47
02. "I Need a Man to Love" (Andrew, Joplin) – 4:54
03. "Summertime" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) – 4:00
04. "Piece of My Heart" (Bert Berns, Jerry Ragovoy) – 4:15
05. "Turtle Blues" (Joplin) – 4:22
06. "Oh, Sweet Mary" (Peter Albin, Andrew, David Getz, James Gurley, Joplin) – 4:16
07. "Ball and Chain" (Big Mama Thornton) – 9:37

Il Baletto Di Bronzo - Sirio 2222 (Progressive Rock, Italy 1970)

2012-01-03T10:29:00.003+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Minst lika fint gjord som den japanska utgåvan. Numrerad utgåva.)

In this case I think that statement is obvious, and I am referring to the first Il Balleto di Bronzo album and line-up, though there will always be people who differ from your opinion, I believe this time most of you will agree with me.

This Italian band released their first effort in 1970, where prog music was just a baby and its older brothers like psychedelic or rock n´roll predominated in the world musical scene, so in that year their first line-up gave birth to the album called "Sirio 2222" which did not have the success they may have expected, after the creation of the album, 2 members left the band, the leader and vocalist Marco Cecioni and their former bassman Miky Cupaiolo, and then a (nowadays)well known Italian dude named Gianni Leone joined the band in order to give a 360° spin to their music, changing their musical direction, and of course creating what would be their masterpiece (my all time favorite Italian album by the way) entitled "YS". So now I was clear I think you understand what I meant with my first statement.

Now let´s focus on the album, which features 9 songs and a total time of 40 minutes, most of them are short pieces going for 3 to 4 minutes, but there are a couple of longer songs, one with almost 7 minutes, and the last one with a 9-minute length.

The album opens with "Un Posto", the first thing you will listen is the electric guitar, playing some notes that you may keep on your head, the song style has some psychedelic elements, along with heavy rock tones and all mixed with the always great Italian vocals, this is a very nice song actually. Then we have "Eh eh Ah ah", we will find here the lack of good sound production, but well, the song is acoustic guitar with vocals and some claps over there, then harmonica making a kind of bluesy song. "Neve Calda" is one of the best tracks here, it opens heavy but then it slows down, delicate Italian vocals, constant drumming and then again heavy guitars and bass lines, the chorus is kind of addictive.

"Ma ti Aspettero" opens with guitar chords, some percussion and vocals, the style is heavy though they make some short pauses, suddenly a good guitar solo appears. "Meditazione" has a romantic style, I don't know if the instrument that opens the song is a cello, but it sounds beautiful along with the delicate vocals, this song in particular reminds me a lot to New Trolls, after that beginning, and a short stop the music changes into another short musical passage and then returns to the same structure, but now with the addition of the other elements, this is an excellent song actually, bravo. "Girotondo" sounds really rockish a la Cream very 60s, you can hear by the drums and electric guitar. "Incantesimo" is one of the longer songs, and since the beginning it has a slow blues direction, there is some jamming and in the second half of the song we can hear to some strong psychedelic passages, this is a well elaborated song, enjoyable. "Ti Risveglierai con Me" reminds me a bit to Neve Calda, their heavy and rock style prevails, and the psychedelic elements are also present here. The last song is called "Sirio 2222" and is the longest song of the album, nice track to finish the album I believe; the starting is soft acoustic guitar and vocals, then it makes a brief pause, and starts again with different rhythm, more eclectic, then pause again just in order to start with a heavier sound with raw guitars, later on there is a drum solo, some voices and noises, and that rockish style that is developing little by little, at the end, the song returns as it began.

This is a nice album, nothing to do with YS so don't expect it to be a masterpiece, actually the prog element in this album can be found in one or two songs at most, my final grade is 3 stars, good but non-essential, anyway Italian lovers should take a listen to it.

01. Un posto (3:23)
02. Eh eh ah ah (3:59)
03. Neve calda (2:56)
04. Ma ti aspetterò (3:20)
05. Meditazione (3:53)
06. Girotondo (3:15)
07. Incantesimo (6:46)
08. Ti risveglierai con me (2:41)
09. Missione Sirio 2222 (9:37)

Il Rovescio Della Medaglia - Contaminazione (Progressive Rock, Italy 1973)

2012-01-03T10:24:00.001+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Minst lika bra och fint gjord som den japanska. Numrerad utgåva.)

It's about time I got this original, Italian language album. For many years, I've been familiar with the English language version, "Contamination", because I owned the Italian RCA LP of it. Well let's say I like the original "Contaminazione" even better. Not that it sounds any different, vocals aside, of course, but that this album was meant to be sung in Italian, and the English vocals on "Contamination" seem a bit unnatural for the band (like what PFM did on "Photos of Ghosts"). OK, I noticed some slight differences in some of the places (for one, I didn't notice any trumpets at the end of "Contamination", and some of the studio effects on the vocals are a bit different).

Well prior to "Contaminazione", RDM released two hard rock albums, "Io Come Io" in '72 and "La Bibbia" in '71. Neither album too well liked by prog rock fans, although I have to admit "La Bibbia" isn't all that bad (it's pretty rough and unpolished hard rock with prog trappings and don't compare it with "Contaminazione" / "Contamination", you should be fine), although I hadn't heard "Io Come Io" yet. But figuring they couldn't keep going the hard rock direction, the band added a keyboard played and became the legend of Italian prog people associate them with.

"Contaminazione" they decided to record yet another concept album, about a Scottish musician so obsessed with the music of Bach he went insane. They merged the style of classical music in the style of Bach (specifically that of The Well Tempered Clavier) and merge it with the Italian prog scene of the time. Thanks to a keyboardist being added, there's no shortage of keyboards (Hammond organ, Mini Moog, VCS-3, ARP 2600, harpsichord, piano, Eminent, pipe organ). They also wanted to include orchestra and hired Argentine-born Luis Enriquez Bacalov to conduct the strings (he already had a hand in OSANNA's "Milano Calibro 9" and NEW TROLLS' "Concerto Grosso Per 1"). This is usually regarded as Bacalov's best work for a prog rock album. There are times this album reminds me of NEW TROLLS' "Concerto Grosso Per 1" (I guess that's little surprise given the Bacalov involvement), only more progressive and without the TULL and HENDRIX trappings of that album. There isn't a single cut on "Contaminazione" that's over 4 minutes, but they're all segued in to each other for continuous play. It's only the end of "La Mi Musica" and the beginning of "Johann" that divides side one and side two (that is, if you own the LP). Most often it's interludes, experimental bits, and orchestra that goes between actual songs like "Ora Non Ricordo Piu`", "Lei Sei Tu: Lei", "La Mia Musica", "Johann", "Scotland Machine", "Alzo un Muro Elettrico" and "La Granda Fuga". I really love that dramatic organ found on "Mi Sono Svegliato e... Ho Chiuso Gli Ochhi". There is so much going on, they don't stick with one thing, and there are always going to be a few people thrown off by that. It's because it don't have the 15-20 minute epics letting the band really show their stuff, so RDM approaches thing different. Regardless this is truly a must-have album.

01. Absent for this Consumed World (1:05)
02. Ora non ricordo piu (1:47)
03. Il suono del silenzio (5:16)
04. Mi sono svegliato e... ho chiuso gli occhi (4:19)
05. Lei sei tu: Lei (2:04)
06. La mia musica (4:10)
07. Johann (1:23)
08. Scotland Machine (3:06)
09. Cella 503 (3:18)
10. Contaminazione 1760 (1:04)
11. Alzo un muro elettrico (2:55)
12. Sweet Suite (2:17)
13. La grande fuga (3:42)

Reale Accademica Di Musica - S/T (Progessive Rock Italy 1972

2012-01-03T10:20:00.002+01:00

260:- (Sony Korea 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Minst lika fint gjord som den japanska fast billigare. Numrerad utgåva.)

Some people may disagree with me but I consider REALE ACCADEMIA DI MUSICA truly a one-shot band since their second album was done much more as a support for a singer (not a band member) and can also barely be considered as progressive. But here within the "Reale Accademia Di Musica", their self-title album, we have an almost perfect example of what Italian Symphonic Prog means. Really astonishing!

It's hard to talk about band's influences once this album was released in 1972 and in fact it seems better to nominate other acts that have been influenced instead - the sad point is that apparently RADM has been forgotten in the dust of time. Apart the skilful musicianship and fine arrangements I'd like to spot the exquisite and unique vocals, a bit different from the more acute vocals generally observed in other Italian progressive bands of the same period.

The friendly and relatively short 'Favola' opens the album nicely; bucolic and pastoral guitars are joined by poignant vocals that spread through the track in its entirety along with a catchy and beautiful middle section - there's magic in the air, and we go avidly to the next song.

'Il mattino' continues with the dream-like vocals, this time accompanied by incredible and unforgettable keyboards. But now the main gift is the solo part: a 5-minute dazzling intermezzo where piano, guitar, drums and bass provide a marvelous communion like shaped outside of the real world. Instruments run in crescendo, leaving hearts in suspension with so many musical magnificence and grandiosity. 'Ognuno sa', the next song, keeps high the atmosphere; an adequate follow-on for the previous marvel.

'Padre' starts with soft mellotron and hard guitars, just to blast into a short rock section introducing a sorrowful singing part. A good song, much more in a classic rock style however with neat progressive touches supplied by the ever-present keyboards. 'Lavoro in città' maintains the rock ambience conjugated with spices of avant-garde, blues and romanticism supplied by strange intro choir, crying guitars and harmonious vocals.

'Vertigine' closes the album in a true and enjoyable prog-rock mood. This time, vocals appear more sharpened and incisive, while the band plays explosively. Instruments come and go in an amusing manner, always surprising the hearer - the real essence of the progressive sound. After listening to this ender and if I were there in 1972, I'd be eager for their next release which unfortunately did not happen, at least in the way we like.

After hearing and re-hearing, enjoying and tasting this work, in my opinion there are no doubts left about "Reale Accademia Di Musica": a masterpiece.

01. Favola (3:46)
02. Mattino (9:19)
03. Ognuno Sa (5:19)
04. Padre (8:41)
05. Lavoro In Citta' (5:56)
06. Vertigine (7:11)

Slapp Happy, Henry Cow - Desperate Straights (Folkrock UK 1975)

2011-12-29T18:46:00.000+01:00

300:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket bra folkrock.)

Looking back, the decision to join forces made by German art-pop band Slapp Happy and Canterbury avant-garde jazz/prog etc. ensemble Henry Cow seems like an especially strange one, especially considering it was the mid-1970's. Bizarre though it seems, the merger produced two excellent albums, not to mention plenty of unreleased material and future collaborations. Although Desperate Straights, the first of the team-ups, isn't necessarily the best place to start for either Slapp Happy or Henry Cow, fans of each group should find that the album combines the best of both bands without sacrificing either group's individuality.

Like the first Slapp Happy album(s) (the history of their second album is too complicated to go into now--I recommend Acnalbasac Noom above the other options), Desperate Straights is primarily structured around the lyrics of Peter Blegvad, sung by the peerless Dagmar Krause, set to music by both Blegvad and Anthony Moore. Of course, since Henry Cow is along for the ride, there are many exceptions and much of the instrumental backing is made complete thanks to their collective virtuosity.

Compared with Slapp Happy's first two albums, this one's much more out there--Dagmar's chanteuse-style of previous releases often gives way to a much more elastic, otherwordly sound. Her German accent gives the English lyrics a unique sound, and she's obviously in complete control of her tone and phrasing as she waltzes through alien avant-garde, cabaret, prog-jazz and weird rock styles without breaking a sweat. Of course, it helps that Blegvad's lyrics are great--concise, multi-layered, surreal, bizarre and often hilarious. Take "Some Questions About Hats," which is just that, featuring such classic lines as "Can one pit hats against vicious things, pernicious things? Licorice? Fish with wings?"

While the spirit of Casablanca Moon is still at play, fans of that album who are unfamiliar with Henry Cow may find themselves scratching their heads at the dearth of straight-up pop tunes. "Bad Alchemy" sees Dagmar doubling an angular piano line while Fred Frith and Chris Cutler go hog wild on the guitar and drums, respectively (Cutler's drumming all over this album has to be some of the most creative and entertaining I've ever heard). "Giants" is a dialog between a father and daughter set to creepy, swirling clarinet and piano. Though the structure is very progressive, the songs are actually chock full of hooks and most clock in at less than 3 minutes. "A Worm At Work" has that irresistibly catchy "no no no no no stop that cynical line!" refrain, "Strayed" sounds like a Velvet Underground outtake without the cutesy lo-fi feel, "Riding Tigers" and "Excerpt From Messiah" rock with a generous helping of pathos. Throughout, Henry Cow lends a totally off-kilter hand with unconventional wind arrangements, crazy jazz, but the tightly-written nature of the songs reins them in from their usual sprawling and more challenging sounds (for a darker take on this sound, check out the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy In Praise of Learning).

Really, the only thing holding this fine, challenging and eclectic batch of experimental pop from five stars is the length--"Caucasian Lullabye" and "Desperate Straights" (less so) seem present to take up space, and without them this would be a very short album indeed. But with such entertaining music, it's hardly a serious complaint. If you're new to either band, check out Acnalbasac Noom for Slapp Happy or Leg End for Henry Cow. If you like what you hear, you'll probably enjoy Desperate Straights.

01. Some Questions About Hats
02. The Owl
03. A Worm Is At Work
04. Bad Alchemy
05. Europa
06. Desperate Straights
07. Riding Tigers
08. Apes In Capes
09. Strayed
10. Giants
11. Excerpt From The Messiah
12. In The Sickbay
13. Caucasian Lullaby

Fruupp - The Prince of Heavens Eyes (UK 1974)

2011-12-29T11:21:00.000+01:00

370:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mini singel + bok medföljer. Utgången utgåva och svår att hitta.)

Fruupp's third album 'Prince Of Heaven's Eyes' is their 2nd release for the year of 1974 (busy lads), and whilst lacking in much of the free-spirited instrumental excursions of the previous 'Seven Secrets' album, displays a fresher, more up-dated sound. Immediately noticeable is keyboardist Stephen Houston adding a string ensemble to his regular organ/pianos set-up and lacing many of the arrangements with it. The majestic and grandiose guitar soloing of Vincent McCusker have taken a back seat for this keyboards-heavy adventure but bassist Peter Farrelly persists in playing his bass like a lead-guitar (no bad thing) and drummer Martin Foye has a great sense of dynamics and knows when to hold back or let loose. I suppose you could say I like the way these guys play. A lot. Now, I spent my birthday money for a pristine LP of this, but I didn't get the accompanying booklet which many copies contain. I figure the concept is of a young man going out on his own to discover the world and grow - maybe a tad twee and innocent, but sweet and original. Houston composed six of the eight tracks here (probably explains the keyboard dominance) although 2 tracks composed by McCusker are possibly the album's high points - 'Knowing You' is a lovely ballad featuring a touching passage where Houston's oboe is put to good use, and the lengthy 'Crystal Brook' is inspired, with an almost jazzy mid-section where Houston's subtle organ solo over a rumbling rhythm creates a tranquil atmosphere. I actually liked the way a previous reviewer described the opening track 'It's All Up Now'. Credit goes to band for successfully conveying the feeling of this young man setting off into the big, wide world. 'Prince Of Darkness' is an eccentric little tune of under 4 minutes, with galloping horses and a unique collage of sounds underpinning much of it. 'Jaunting Car' is possibly the weakest track, something akin to a romp through the country-side with a piece of straw stuck between the teeth..... 'Annie Austere' is a heavier track, and is the subject's love interest. Foye's drumming to the fore. 'Seaward Sunset' is a pretty piano/flute piece with an angelic sounding Houston on a very high falsetto vocal and the album's epic closer, 'The Perfect Wish' is almost 10 minutes of upbeat symphonic prog with classical flavours and a triumphant finale (.....and they all lived happily ever after.....). Actually, I really go for the heady jams of Seven Secrets a lot more than this, but Prince Of Heaven's Eyes is still worthy of 4 stars.

01. It's all up now (7:20)
02. Prince of darkness (3:48)
03. Jaunting car (2:23)
04. Annie Austere (5:14)
05. Knowing you (2:46)
06. Crystal brook (7:58)
07. Seaward sunset (3:08)
08. The perfect wish (9:49)
09. Prince Of Heaven (3:31)

The Who - BBC Session (2CD) (SHM-CD)

2011-12-28T15:48:00.001+01:00

390:- (2CD, SHM-CD Limited Remaster edition.)

BBC Sessions by The Who was released 15 February 2000 on Polydor Records internationally and MCA Records in the US. It contains 24 songs and two jingles recorded live at the BBC studios in London.

With the exception of the jingles being used to bookend the album, and the third track being misplaced, The Who's recordings are presented in chronological order.

01."My Generation (BBC Radio 1 jingle)" – 0:57
02."Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" (Townshend, Roger Daltrey) – 2:44
03."Good Lovin'" (Rudy Clark, Arthur Resnick) – 1:49
04."Just You and Me, Darling" (James Brown) – 2:01
05."Leaving Here" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) – 2:34
06."My Generation" – 3:23
07."The Good's Gone" – 2:59
08."La-La-La-Lies" – 2:11
09."Substitute" – 3:30
10."Man with Money" (Don Everly, Phil Everly) – 2:31
11."Dancing in the Street" (William "Mickey" Stevenson, Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter) – 2:23
12."Disguises" – 2:57
13."I'm a Boy" – 2:39
14."Run Run Run" – 3:16
15."Boris the Spider" (John Entwistle) – 2:13
16."Happy Jack" – 2:09
17."See My Way" (Daltrey) – 1:50
18."Pictures of Lily" – 2:34
19."A Quick One, While He's Away" – 7:01
20."Substitute" (Version 2) – 2:12
21."The Seeker" – 3:04
22."I'm Free" – 2:24
23."Shakin' All Over/Spoonful" (Johnny Kidd, Willie Dixon) – 3:41
24."Relay" – 4:56
25."Long Live Rock" – 3:52
26."Boris the Spider" (BBC Radio 1 jingle) (Entwistle) – 0:10
Due to publishing restrictions, the American version dropped "Man with the Money" and edited out the few lines from "Spoonful" contained in "Shakin' All Over".

Bonus Disc:
01.Townshend Talks Tommy
02."Pinball Wizard"
03."See Me, Feel Me"
04."I Don't Even Know Myself"
05."I Can See for Miles"
06."Heaven and Hell"
07."The Seeker"
08."Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart)

Alice Cooper - Pretties For You (1:a Albumet US 1969)

2011-12-27T15:01:00.000+01:00

350:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

Pretties for You was the debut album by Alice Cooper. At this time, the name "Alice Cooper" referred to the band, not its lead singer, though the lead singer was also known as Alice Cooper. The music has a psychedelic flavor to it. The group had yet to develop the more concise hard rock sound that they would become known for. Most of the tracks from the album have a distinct loud and dynamic rock sound. However, very few songs have some sort of hard rock quality. Pretties For You was a critical and commercial failure.

The song "Reflected", Alice Cooper's first single, was later rewritten as "Elected" (which featured on their 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies).

The artwork for this album was hanging on the wall of the living room in Frank Zappa's house. The original painting was done by Ed Beardsley.

01."Titanic Overture" – 1:12 (Instrumental)
02."10 Minutes Before the Worm" – 1:39
03."Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" – 5:42
04."Today Mueller" – 1:48
05."Living" – 3:12
06."Fields of Regret" – 5:44
07."No Longer Umpire" – 2:02
08."Levity Ball"(Live) – 4:39
09."B.B. on Mars" – 1:17
10."Reflected" – 3:17
11."Apple Bush" – 3:08
12."Earwigs to Eternity" – 1:19
13."Changing Arranging" – 3:03

Alice Cooper - Easy Action (US 1969)

2011-12-27T14:59:00.000+01:00

350:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

Easy Action is the second studio album by Alice Cooper, released by Straight Records in March 1970. The title comes from a line in the musical film West Side Story, which was one of the band's favorite films. As with Pretties For You, the band's debut from the previous year, Easy Action was neither a commercial nor critical success.

Drummer Neal Smith later said of the record producer David Briggs, "David hated our music and us. I recall the term that he used, referring to our music, was "Psychedelic Shit". I think Easy Action sounded too dry, more like a TV or radio commercial and he did not help with song arrangement or positive input in any way."

01."Mr. & Misdemeanor" – 3:05
02."Shoe Salesman" – 2:38
03."Still No Air" – 2:32
04."Below Your Means" – 6:41
05."Return of the Spiders" – 4:33
06."Laughing at Me" – 2:12
07."Refrigerator Heaven" – 1:54
08."Beautiful Flyaway" – 3:02
09."Lay Down and Die, Goodbye" – 7:36

Alice Cooper - Love it To Death (US 1971)

2011-12-27T14:54:00.000+01:00

350:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

Love It to Death is the third album by Alice Cooper, released in 1971. Hits include "Ballad of Dwight Fry", "Is It My Body", and one of Cooper's trademark songs, "I'm Eighteen". After two failed albums, this was the album that brought the Alice Cooper band into the mainstream. Much credit is generally given to producer Bob Ezrin, cleaning up the band's sound with fresh ideas and making it more accessible, most notably on the track, 'I'm Eighteen'. It originally was a much longer song, and in more of a psychedelic vein like the band's first two albums, which contained several longer songs.

The album cover caused much controversy at the time of its release. Early pressings show Cooper's thumb sticking out of his pants, thus giving the illusion of a penis (see cover photo). This led Warner Brothers to censor it (four different versions of the front cover exist on LP). Alice Cooper's thumb along with his right arm is clearly airbrushed out on censored versions. The original CD release, uses the most common censored LP cover for the booklet cover.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 460 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Both "Second Coming" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry" were covered by alternative metal band The Melvins for their album Lysol. "Is It My Body" was covered by Sonic Youth. On December 8, 2009, the album was reissed by audiophile label Audio Fidelity in a limited-edition 24-karat gold CD. Remastered by Steve Hoffman, it also featured the original uncensored artwork.

The first issue of the album was on Straight Records, a company created by Frank Zappa and manager Herb Cohen. By the time the album became a success it had already been re-issued by Warner Bros. Records, who were the original distributors of the Straight label.

Love It to Death reached #35 on the Billboard album chart.

01."Caught in a Dream" (Michael Bruce) – 3:10
02."I'm Eighteen" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith) – 3:00
03."Long Way to Go" (Bruce) – 3:04
04."Black Juju" (Dunaway) – 9:09
05."Is It My Body" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) – 2:39
06."Hallowed Be My Name" (Smith) – 2:29
07."Second Coming" (Cooper) – 3:04
08."Ballad of Dwight Fry" (Cooper, Bruce) – 6:33
09."Sun Arise" (Harry Butler, Rolf Harris) – 3:50

Alice Cooper - Killer (US 1971)

2011-12-27T14:51:00.000+01:00

350:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Gimmick konvolut.)

Killer is the fourth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1971.

Cooper said in the liner notes of Fistful of Alice and In the Studio with Redbeard, which spotlighted the Killer and Love it to Death albums, that the song "Desperado" was written about his friend Jim Morrison, who died the year this album was released. According to an NPR radio interview with Alice Cooper, "Desperado" was written about Robert Vaughn's character from the movie The Magnificent Seven. "Halo of Flies" was, according to Cooper's liner notes in the compilation The Definitive Alice Cooper, an attempt by the band to prove that they could perform King Crimson-like progressive rock suites, and was supposedly about a SMERSH-like organisation. "Desperado" , along with "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" have appeared on different compilation albums by Cooper. The song "Dead Babies" stirred up some controversy following the album's release, despite the fact that its lyrics conveyed an "anti-child abuse" message.

Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. called Killer the greatest rock album of all time. Punk icon Jello Biafra & The Melvins covered the song "Halo of Flies" on their 2005 release Sieg Howdy!. Psychobilly musicians Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper covered the song "Be My Lover" on their 1986 release Frenzy. Power Metal band, Iced Earth, covered the song "Dead Babies" for their 2002 release, Tribute to the Gods.

The album reached #21 on the Billboard Album chart and two singles made the Hot 100 chart. "Under My Wheels" reached #59, and "Be My Lover" reached #49 on the Billboard chart.

This album also caused controversy from the attached calendar, which shows Alice Cooper hanging from a noose with a stab wound in his torso.

01."Under My Wheels" (Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Bob Ezrin) - 2:51
02."Be My Lover" (Bruce) - 3:21
03."Halo of Flies" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Neal Smith) - 8:22
04."Desperado" (Cooper, Bruce) - 3:30
05."You Drive Me Nervous" (Cooper, Bruce, Ezrin) - 2:28
06."Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" (Cooper, Bruce) - 3:39
07."Dead Babies" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) - 5:44
08."Killer" (Bruce, Dunaway) - 6:57

Alice Cooper - School's Out (US 1972)

2011-12-27T14:47:00.000+01:00

370:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Original tillbehör såsom trosorna medföljer. Gimmick konvolut.)

School's Out is the fifth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1972. The album's title track has remained a staple song in Alice Cooper's live setlist and receives regular airplay on many "Classic Rock" radio stations.

The original album cover (designed by Craig Braun[) had the sleeve opening in the manner of an old school desk. The vinyl record inside was wrapped in a pair of girl's panties. This original issue was recalled because the panties were not flame-retardant.

School's Out reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard album chart and #1 on the Canadian RPM 100 Top Albums Chart, holding the top position for four weeks. The single "School's Out" reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, #3 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart and went all the way to #1 in the U.K

01."School's Out" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith) – 3:34
02."Luney Tune" (Cooper, Dunaway) – 3:36
03."Gutter Cat Vs. the Jets" (Buxton, Dunaway, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim) – 4:39
04."Street Fight" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith) – 0:55
05."Blue Turk" (Cooper, Bruce) – 5:29
06."My Stars" (Cooper, Bob Ezrin) – 5:46
07."Public Animal #9" (Cooper, Bruce) – 3:53
08."Alma Mater" (Smith) – 3:39
09."Grande Finale" (Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Bob Ezrin, Smith, Mack David, Leonard Bernstein) – 4:36/13:14
Hidden song: Grande Finale (Part 2)

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (US 1973)

2011-12-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

360:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Alla original tillbehör medföljer. Gimmick konvolut.)

Billion Dollar Babies is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Alice Cooper, released in 1973. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and went on to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album was heavily praised by such critics as Robert Christgau, Greg Prato of allmusic, and Jason Thompson of popmatters, but Rolling Stone gave the album only two and a half stars.

Songs were recorded in both the state of Connecticut and London, England. Lyrics cover topics and themes such as necrophilia, the fear of dentists, horror, and a comedic take on sexual harassment.

Drummer Neal Smith has said that the album can be traced back to the song "Caught in a Dream" from the album Love It to Death. The first recording sessions for the album took place in Greenwich, Connecticut in a mansion called the Galecie Estate. To achieve certain vocal sounds and echos, microphones were run through rooms of various sizes and a greenhouse. Others sessions were held at Morgan Studios in London, where singer Donovan contributed to the album by singing on its title track. The album was produced by Bob Ezrin.

Guitarists, Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, both used Gibson SGs for the album. Two more guitarists, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, were also featured on the album to help cover for Buxton who at the time was suffering from substance abuse.

01. "Hello Hooray" Kempf 4:15
02. "Raped and Freezin'" Cooper, Michael Bruce 3:19
03. "Elected" Cooper, Glen Buxton, Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith 4:05
04. "Billion Dollar Babies" Cooper, Bruce, Smith, Vinson 3:43
05. "Unfinished Sweet" Cooper, Bruce, Smith 6:18
06. "No More Mr. Nice Guy" Cooper, Bruce 3:06
07. "Generation Landslide" Cooper, Buxton, Bruce, Dunaway, Smith 4:31
08. "Sick Things" Cooper, Bruce, Bob Ezrin 4:18
09. "Mary Ann" Cooper, Bruce 2:21
10. "I Love the Dead" Cooper, Ezrin 5:09

Affinity - Selftitled (Folkrock UK 1970)

2011-12-25T18:38:00.004+01:00

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva, eftertraktad och mycket svår att finna nu.)

With horn-based rock bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears, Chase and Chicago enjoying massive late-1960s commercial successes, it was only naturally that record companies all over the world would begin signing any group of folks holding brass instruments. If nothing else, statistics would dictate that on occasion someone with actual talent would get signed to a recording deal and in this instance the Vertigo label had the numbers on their side. (Paramount acquired US distribution rights.) Affinity traces its roots back to the mid-1960s when Lynton Naiff, Nick Nicholas and Grant Serpell met while attending Sussex University. The three discovered a common interest in jazz, forming The US Jazz Trio.

When Serpell graduated fellow student Mo Foster took over the drums. Graduating themselves, Naiff and Serpell recorded a pair of singles with the Sussex-based pop outfit Ice, before deciding to return to a more jazz-oriented sound. Auditions added English teacher/singer Linda Hoyle and former Tridents guitarist Mike Jopp to the fold (Jopp had previously replaced Jeff Beck in The Tridents). Jopp's addition had another benefit in that his father agreed to finance the purchase of instruments for the group. With their line up in place the band spent several month rehearsing and settling on the name Affinity. They made their public debut at a October 1968 performance at Ronnie Scott's London Revolution Club. Scott signed them on as house band and quickly became their manager. Showcasing the talents of bassist Mo Foster, singer Linda Hoyle, guitarist Mike Jopp, keyboard player Lynton Naiff and former Ice drummer Grant Serpell, 1970's John Anthony produced "Affinity" is actually pretty entertaining.

It's far better than the critics careless 'jazz rock' label would have you expect and while the horns undoubtedly put off lots of potential listeners, they're kept largely under control throughout the seven tracks. Instead the primary focus was on the attractive and talent Ms. Hoyle and to a lesser degree Naiff's keyboards (betcha thought I was going to say 'Naiff's organ') and Jopp's tasty guitar (check out his work on 'Three Sisters'). That's not to say I don't understand where the critics were coming from. Musically the collection shared some common ground with the likes of Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll, though thankfully without the irritating jazz influences favored by the former. I've also read comparisons to Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane though I don't really hear it. Hoyle certainly had a nice voice that shared the same crystalline delivery, but anyone expecting to hear West Coast-styled psych would be grossly disappointed by these measured performances.

So what are the highlights? Well, to my ears Hoyle and company were at their best on the more focused, rock-oriented tracks like 'I Am and So Are You' and 'Night Flight'. On the downside, they turn in one of the worst Hendrix-does-Dylan covers I've ever heard (a seemingly endless 'All Along the Watchtower'). Vertigo also tapped the album for a UK-only single: 1970's 'I Wonder If I Care As Much' b/w 'Three Sisters' (Vertigo catalog number 6059 007).Credited to Linda Hoyle and Affinity, there's also a 1970 English non-LP single: 'Eli's Coming' b/w 'United States Of Mind' (Vertigo catalog number 6059 018). Having begun sessions for a follow-on album and an American tour, in early 1971 Hoyle and Naiff both handing in their resignations. The survivors subsequently recruited ex-Principal Edwards Magic Theatre singer Vivienne McAuliffe and former Tornados keyboardist Dave Watts as replacements.

The new line recorded some demos and actively toured, but didn't release another effort until some thirty years later when the small Angel label reissued the original LP with the inclusion of the single and five previously unreleased tracks, including two new instrumentals recorded by Foster and Jupp ("Affinity 1971 - 1972" - Angel catalog number SPJCD145). I've never heard it, but Hoyle subsequently released what's become a high priced collectable solo effort ("Pieces of Me"). Naiff reappeared in a number of bands, including Killing Floor and Toe Fat. Foster became an in-demand sessions player and also recorded as a solo act. Serpell enjoyed some commercial success as a member of Sailor.

01.I Am and So Are You (Alan Hull) - 3:30
02.Night Flight (Mike Jopp - Linda Hoille) - 7:15
03.I Wonder If I Care As Much (Don Everly - Phil Everly) - 3:19
04.Mr. Joy (A. Peacock) - 5:03
05.Three Sisters (Lynton Naiff -Linda Hoyle) - 4:56
06.Cocoanut Grove (sic) (John Sebastian - Zal Yanovsky) - 2:45
07.All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan) - 11:37
+ Bonus Tracks

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre - The Asmoto Running Band (UK 1971)

2011-12-21T15:57:00.000+01:00

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och är nu mycket svår att finna.)

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre were a collective of musicians, dancers, poets and lighting technicians who were active between 1968 and 1971. This is their second and last LP, released januari 1971 on John Peel's Dandelion label.

Asmoto Running Band, produced by Nick Mason, Pink Floyd's drummer, is some sort of theme album, telling a spaced out tale of the Asmoto Running Band and someone called McAlpine’s. It's very far out and obscure, like a progressive folk Sgt Pepper.

The band would break up shortly after this release. The times they were a’changing (unfortantly), and this sort of theatrical, pretentious hippie-folk music was becoming pretty out of fashion by the early seventies. It's still a fun-loving and joyeous album that brings the listner back to those wild and hazy hippie days so long gone.

The collective was originally formed at the University of Exeter in the late 1960s and then was later based at farmhouse in Kettering, Northamptonshire. The group was signed to John Peel's Dandelion Records and their single, The Ballad of a Big Girl Now, was released in 1969. Following the single was the release (under the same label) of two albums - Soundtrack and The Asmoto Running Band - the second of which was produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.

The sometimes whimsical, sometimes epic (verging on progressive rock) writing style of guitarist Root Cartwright was paired with the eclectic lyrical contributions of David Jones, Gillian Hadley and Monica Nettles, and was performed by vocalist Vivienne McAuliffe. The violin and recorders of Bindy Bourquin were another key element of the group's trademark sound.

Later, with a smaller nucleus (including new bassist Richard Jones from Climax Blues Band) and a name-change to, simply, Principal Edwards, they recorded a few new singles and a third album called Round One for Deram Records. Most of the Deram recordings were also produced by Nick Mason.

By the way, the album cover is designed by Hipgnosis!

01. Mcalpines Dream
02. Mcalpine V The Asmoto
03. The Asmoto Running Band (Houamih)
04. Asmoto Celebration
05. Further Asmoto Celebration (After The Ball)
06. Total Glycerol Esther
07. Freef (R) All
08. Autumn Lady Dancing Song
09. The Kettering Song
10. Weirdsong Of Breaking Through At Last

Deep Purple - Shades of Deep Purple (1a Albumet UK 1968)

2011-12-19T11:15:00.000+01:00

350:- (K2HDHQ Limited Remaster Edition. Bonus konvolut medföljer.)

Shades of Deep Purple is the debut album by English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1968 on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Tetragrammaton in the United States.

It was released without much attention in the UK, where it did not perform sales-wise. In the US on the other hand, it was a massive success, contributing largely to the attention Deep Purple would get there and also eventually also over to the UK. Sound-wise, it is more leaned on psychedelia and progressive rock.

Rehearsing began in February, after Nick Simper, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice (as of yet without an appropriate drum kit) had hired Rod Evans to sing after some auditions. Their first rehearsals (Paice having now gotten his favoured drum kit) involved mostly jamming and some occasional glimpses with the instrumentals "And The Address" and "Mandrake Root", which Blackmore had written earlier that year. (Mandrake Root was also the name of an earlier band that Blackmore had been trying to form in Germany when the call came from Deep Purple's management.)

Their previous test-singer, Chris Curtis had been wanting to add a cover of a Beatles song to an eventual album and therefore the first proper song that was set in motion turned out to be "Help!". "Mandrake Root" was given lyrics, so the album would feature only one instrumental. Then, with those three well inducted, the band started to think on "I'm So Glad", a song by Skip James, which had earlier been covered by Cream. Ian Paice and Rod Evans had also recorded the song earlier, with their band The Maze.

It was to be proven typical with Deep Purple in these early years that all the cover songs recorded were considerably longer and more grandiose than the originals. "I'm So Glad" was certainly no exception. When the track was recorded, the first movement of Scheherazade was added before the actual song began.

The next song added to the rehearsals was "Hey Joe", a song originally, but disputably, written by Billy Roberts and mistakenly credited to "Deep Purple" on original releases of the Shades album. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had recorded a version of this song in late 1966 and this was used as the main inspiration. But as well as "I'm So Glad", the song was heavily blown up and stretched in length. Joe South had written a song for Billy Joe Royal the previous year, called "Hush" and this song was also picked up by the band.

01. "And the Address" Blackmore, Lord 4:38
02. "Hush" Joe South 4:24
03. "One More Rainy Day" Lord, Evans 3:40
04. "Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad" Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov[4] Skip James 7:19
05. "Mandrake Root" Blackmore, Lord, Evans 6:09
06. "Help" John Lennon, Paul McCartney 6:01
07. "Love Help Me" Blackmore, Evans 3:49
08. "Hey Joe" Billy Roberts 7:33

Bonus:
09. "Shadows" (album outtake) Lord, Evans, Simper, Blackmore 3:39
10. "Love Help Me" (instrumental version) Blackmore, Evans 3:30
11. "Help" (alternate take) John Lennon, Paul McCartney 5:24
12. "Hey Joe" (BBC Top Gear Session; 14 January 1969) Billy Roberts 4:06
13. "Hush" (live US TV 1968) Joe South 3:53

Deep Purple - S/T (3e Albumet UK 1969)

2011-12-19T11:04:00.003+01:00

350:- (K2HDHQ Limited Remaster Edition. Bonuskonvolut medföljer.)

Deep Purple, also referred to as Deep Purple III, is the third studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, released in 1969 on Harvest Records in the UK and on Tetragrammaton in the US. It was to be the last album with the original lineup.

It was released at a time when the band were starting to grow as performers, both live and in the studio, finding their direction musically. There were some conflicts over whether the band should continue on their rawer, heavier direction. This caused turmoil, which was partially responsible for two of the members, Nick Simper (bass) and Rod Evans (vocals), being replaced. Commercially, this album was the least successful of the three Mark I era albums.

Deep Purple had been on tour overseas in late 1968 to promote their second album, The Book of Taliesyn. Their two so-far released singles and albums had yet to make an impact in Britain when they returned there on 3 January 1969. Their English label EMI pressured the band to make a successful single on their home-court, so there was not much time for restitution after coming home. "Kentucky Woman" had, as their previous single "Hush" not fared well there, even if it had been a hit in the States and done even better in Canada. The band themselves had come up with much more solid original material the second time around, wanting to unleash the full potential for each song. Hence, making a song that would easily fit the three-minute range was becoming difficult. However, they could not release a new album without such a single to promote it.

The band had tried to record a new single to fit the smash-criteria in December, while in America, but nothing had come of it, so they eventually gave up. After returning to England, they settled in studio again in early 1969, and the new single contender, "Emmaretta" was completed on January 7, after four takes needed. It was scheduled as a B-side. They needed a new A-side, so after experimenting a bit with different ideas, "The Bird Has Flown" was yielded. It was a more progressive and complicated work than "Emmaretta", so the song itself took a bit longer time to finish, which they did later on the 7th. Following this short visit to the studio, the band set up for a series of one-nighters across Britain the following February and March. "Wring That Neck" from their previous album, which had yet to be released in the UK, was issued there as the single B-side to promote the touring band.

01. "Chasing Shadows" Lord, Paice 5:34
02. "Blind" Lord 5:26
03. "Laleña" Leitch 5:05
04. "Fault Line" Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 1:46
05. "The Painter" Evans, Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 3:51
06. "Why Didn't Rosemary?" Evans, Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 5:04
07. "Bird Has Flown" Evans, Blackmore, Lord 5:36
08. "April" Blackmore, Lord 12:10

Bonus:
9. "The Bird Has Flown" (alternate b-side version) Evans, Blackmore, Lord 2:54
10. "Emmaretta" (single a-side) Evans, Blackmore, Lord 3:00
11. "Emmaretta" (BBC radio session; 16 January 1969) Evans, Blackmore, Lord 3:09
12. "Lalena" (BBC radio session; 6 June 1969) Leitch 3:33
13. "The Painter" (BBC radio session; 6 June 1969) Evans, Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 2:18

Melvin Van Pebbles - Sweet Sweetback (Soul/Funk US 1971)

2011-12-15T12:34:00.000+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Svår att hitta. Bra Funk/Soul från 1971)

Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was an important film that paved the way for black filmmakers in American cinema in general, and in the 1970s blaxploitation genre in particular. Van Peebles hasn't been nearly as well known as a musician as he has a filmmaker, but he did compose the soundtrack, which was performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, who had then just released their first album. Heard on its own, the soundtrack, unlike Superfly or Shaft, is not a significant musical achievement. It's serviceable period funk-soul, both instrumental and vocal, sprinkled with some dialog from the film, although it did make number 13 on the soul album charts. "Hoppin' John" is an obvious James Brown-inspired tune, though sung with considerably less heat than Brown himself would have mustered.

"Come On Feet Do Your Thing" is the cut most like Van Peebles' pre-rap excursions on A&M Records, which is unsurprising, as he had already recorded it on his A&M album Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. Sweet Sweetback's has been reissued as one disc of the two-CD release The Melvin Van Peebles Collection, which also includes the 1972 original cast recording of Don't Play Us Cheap, the Broadway production (originally a film) that Van Peebles staged, and for which he also composed the music.

01. Sweetback Losing His Cherry Van Peebles 2:47
02. Sweetback Getting It Uptightand Preaching It So Hard the ... Van Peebles 4:59
03. Come on Feet VanPeebles 4:16
04. Sweetback's Theme Van Peebles 7:39
05. Hoppin' John/Voices Van Peebles 2:36
06. Mojo Woman/Voices Van Peebles 2:58
07. Sanra Z/Voices Van Peebles 4:13
08. Reggin Hanging on in There as Best They Can (Bye and Bye)/Voices Van Peebles 4:01
09. Won't Bleed Me Van Peebles 2:41
10. The Man Tries Running His Usual Game But Sweetback's Jones Is So Strong He Van Peebles 4:28

Strawberry Path, Jimmy & Hiro - When the Raven Has Come to The Earth (Japan 1971)

2011-12-13T19:03:00.000+01:00

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Superb hårdrock. Missa inte denna pärla...)

An excellent album this time. this band was the forerunner of one of japan's most influential prog rock bands in the 70's: Flied Egg

Sounds like a mix of jimi hendrix with some other classic hard rock bands.
the vocalist of this band(George Yanagi) did the vocals on the Shinki Chen & Friends album.

We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact.

This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind".

01.I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman
02.Woman Called Yellow l
03.The Second Fate
04.Five More Pennies
05.Maximum Speed Of Moji Bird
06.Leave Me Woman
07.Mary Janes On My Mind
08.Spherical Illusion
09.When The Raven Has Come To The Earth

Renaissance - Scheherazade (UK 1975)

2011-12-13T18:56:00.000+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster edition. Utgången utgåva.)

The band style is quite made for that! "Song of Scheherazade" song (around 20 minutes) is probably the best prog classical song never recorded! Here, the classical orchestration doesn't act in the background, as it is often the case: it really participates and it is the principal agent of this perfect song. Annie Haslam's voice is perfect for this romantic theme. Her voice is high class in a high class ensemble. The piano parts are absolutely unbelievable: you hear that and really stargaze!! It is the same case for wind instruments bits. Everything is accompanied with tender percussion (xylophones and smnall bells i think)which give a magical touch to the whole. The eponym song is rythm changing and extremely prog classical. The other side of the album is made of excellent songs having more the Renaissance traditional style. Here again, the piano, keyboards, percussions, female lead voice, guitars and bass are really well played and clearly justify the romantic style of the album. The song "Trip To The Fair" gives you the feeling that you are a kid riding a horse on an enchanted merry-go-round!! "Ocean Gypsy" has some orchestral arrangements but the band took more the main place: it gives a really impressive prog song with a piano and arrangements very well played. The melody is always present!!

01. Trip To The Fair (10:48)
02. The Vultures Fly High (3:07)
03. Ocean Gypsy (7:05)
04. Song Of Scheherazade: (24:52)
a) Fanfare (2:37)
b) The betrayal (4:55)
c) The sultan (2:46)
d) Love theme (2:29)
e) The young prince and princess as told by Scheherazade (4:04)
f) Festival preparations (1:07)
g) Fugue for the sultan (2:12)
h) The festival (2:12)
i) Finale (2:30)

R.E.O. Speedwagon - Live (You Get What You Play For (UK 1977) (2CD)

2011-12-04T19:21:00.002+01:00

340:- (2CD, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Klassiker.)

Live: You Get What You Play For is a live album by rock band REO Speedwagon, which was released as a double-LP in 1977 (and years later as a single CD). It was recorded at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, the Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kiel Auditorium in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom in Atlanta, Georgia.

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. Hi Infidelity is the group's most commercially successful album, selling over ten million copies and charting four Top 40 hits in the US. Over the course of its career, the band has sold more than forty million records and has charted thirteen Top 40 hits. REO Speedwagon's popularity has declined over the years but the band still tours regularly, and remains popular on the fair and casino circuits and teams up with other acts to play larger venues. In summer 2010, the band – then touring with Pat Benatar – announced that it will release a 30th anniversary deluxe edition reissue of Hi Infidelity.

REO Speedwagon took its name from the REO Speed Wagon, a flatbed truck and fire engine, manufactured by the REO Motor Car Company. ("R.E.O." are initials of the company's founder, Ransom Eli Olds, who also founded Oldsmobile, once a division of General Motors.)

REO Speedwagon was formed by students attending the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois in the fall of 1967 to play cover songs in campus bars. The first line up consisted of Alan Gratzer on drums and vocals, Neal Doughty on keyboards, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals, and Mike Blair on bass and vocals. In the spring of 1968, Terry Luttrell became lead singer, and Bob Crownover and Gregg Philbin replaced Matt and Blair. Joe McCabe played sax at this time until moving to Southern Illinois University. Crownover played guitar for the group until the summer of 1969 when Bill Fiorio replaced him. Fiorio then departed in late 1969, eventually assuming the name Duke Tumatoe, and went on to form the All Star Frogs. Another guitarist, Steve Scorfina, came aboard briefly, and was replaced by Gary Richrath in late 1970.

Richrath was a Peoria, Illinois-based guitar player and prolific songwriter who brought original material to the band including REO's signature song "Ridin' the Storm Out". With Richrath on board, the regional popularity of the band grew tremendously. The Midwestern United States was the original REO Speedwagon fan stronghold and is pivotal in this period of the band's history.

The band signed to Epic Records in 1971. Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. The lineup on the first album consisted of Richrath, Gratzer, Doughty, Philbin, and Luttrell.

With their equipment being hauled to dates in a friend's station wagon, REO played bars and clubs all over the Midwest. The band's debut album, REO Speedwagon, was released on Epic Records in 1971. The most popular track on this record was "157 Riverside Avenue". The title refers to the Westport, Connecticut address, where the band stayed while recording in Leka's studio in nearby Bridgeport and remains an in-concert favorite.

Although the rest of the band's line-up remained stable, REO Speedwagon switched lead vocalists three times for their first three albums. Luttrell left the band in early 1972, eventually becoming the vocalist for Starcastle. He was replaced by Kevin Cronin. Cronin recorded one album with the band, 1972's R.E.O./T.W.O. but left the band during the recording sessions for 1973's Ridin' the Storm Out because of internal conflicts.[4] Ridin' the Storm Out was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal. Murphy stayed on for two more albums, Lost in a Dream and This Time We Mean It, before Cronin returned to the fold in January 1976 and recorded R.E.O., which was released that same year. Cronin's return came after Greg X. Volz turned down the position for lead vocalist due to his commitment to Christianity.

In 1977, REO convinced Epic Records that their strength was in their live performances. Amazingly, Epic agreed to let them produce their own record, Live: You Get What You Play For. REO Speedwagon's first live album, Live: You Get What You Play For (1977), was certified platinum. In 1977 Philbin was replaced with Bruce Hall to record You Can Tune a Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish, released in 1978, which received FM radio airplay. The album was REO's first to make the Top 40, peaking at #29. The album sold over 2 million copies in the U.S., which led it to go 2x Platinum. In 1979 the band took a turn back to hard rock with the release of Nine Lives.

CD1
01."Like You Do" (Richrath) – 6:54
02."Lay Me Down" (Richrath, Philbin) – 3:39
03."Any Kind of Love" (Richrath) – 3:34
04."Being Kind (Can Hurt Someone Sometimes)" (Cronin) – 6:35
05."Keep Pushin'" (Cronin) – 4:06
06."(Only A) Summer Love" (Richrath) – 6:05
07."Son of a Poor Man" (Richrath) – 5:30
08."(I Believe) Our Time Is Gonna Come" (Cronin) – 4:49

CD2
01."Flying Turkey Trot" (Richrath) – 2:35
02."Gary's Guitar Solo" (Richrath) - 6:10
03."157 Riverside Avenue" (Richrath, Philbin, Doughty, Gratzer, Luttrell) – 7:38
04."Ridin' the Storm Out" (Richrath) - 5:47
05."Music Man" (Cronin) – 2:58
06."Little Queenie" (Chuck Berry)- 4:45
07."Golden Country" (Richrath) – 8:26

The Old Man and The Sea - S/T (Heavy Progressiv Rock Denmark 1972)

2011-11-29T13:30:00.003+01:00

370:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Utgåva från "Belle Antique Records" som är lite dyrare än vanliga Mini LP utgåvor. Mycket bra Heavy progressiv album.)

Record collectors into Nordic rock are well aware of this band that recorded one album that is very much sought after (it was also counterfeited at least twice), with its highly rated Hammond-driven hard rock rather typical of that era. They do have their own sound but can be compared to a rough TULL (Aqualung-style) or ATOMIC ROOSTER, playing tight music, but also leaving some space for instrumental interplay on some tracks.

The Old Man & The Sea is the sole self-titled studio album by Danish band The Old Man & The Sea. The album was released in 1972. The band enjoyed moderate succes with the album and played lots of live shows in the following years. Most notable on the Roskilde Festival, Denmark in 1973 and 1974. They have also opened for both Led Zeppelin and Ten Years After in Denmark.

The music has Yes influenced vocal harmonies and Kansas like hard rock parts. There are lots of Blues solos but also some soul inspired vocals. Princess is especially in the Yes mold and The Monk Song 1 is also in that vein. The Monk Song 1 also has some great flute. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Atomic Rooster and Deep Purple has also had an impact on the style on The Old Man & The Sea as the music is very organ laden.

The musicianship is excellent on this album. Lead singer Ole Wedel is a very skilled singer with a distinct voice and the rest of the band really knows how to rock but also play more subtle when that is needed. Organ and piano player and main composer Tommy Hansen is today one of the most famous Danish producers of rock and metal and owns his own sound studio called Jailhouse Studios.

The production is very good and really gives the music oppertunity to unfold.

I would probably have put The Old Man & the Sea in the eclectic prog catagory instead of the crossover prog one. The music has both hard rock, jazz and more symphonic influences and it´s actually hard to pin down one specific genre they belong to. I think The Old Man & The Sea is a good album and I´ll rate it 3 stars. This is not my favorite genre and I´m sure that people more into this genre will rate this album higher because this is certainly a quality product.

01. Living Dead (7:51)
02. Princess (6:02)
03. Jingoism (6:54)
04. Prelude (1:12)
05. The Monk Song 1 (5:54)
06. The Monk Song 2 (3:36)
07. Going Blind (10:31)

The Kinks - Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (SHM-CD) (2CD) (UK 1969)

2011-11-28T12:32:00.001+01:00

390:- (2CD, SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Magnifikt bonus omslag från den holländska utgåvan 1969.)

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) is a rock opera by English rock band, The Kinks, released in late 1969. The album followed a rough period for the band, with the commercial failure of the critically acclaimed concept album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and its follow up single "Plastic Man" and the departure of founding member Pete Quaife. Songwriter Ray Davies constructed the album as the soundtrack to a planned television play, which was never produced but whose storyline had been developed in collaboration with Julian Mitchell.

Mitchell recently recalled: "Arthur had a most unhappy history...we got as far as casting (excellent director and actors) and finding locations and were about to go when the producer went to a production meeting without a proper budget, tried to flannel his way through it, was immediately sussed and the production pulled. I have never been able to forgive the man."

The story is based on Davies' brother-in-law Arthur, who emigrated from England to Australia with his wife Rose (Ray and Dave's older sister) in the early 1960s. The lead character, Arthur, is a carpet layer and he and his family's plight in the opportunity-poor setting of post-war England is depicted.

The songs describe the England that Arthur once knew, the promise of life in Australia for one of his sons, the emptiness of his superficially comfortable life in his home, "Shangri-La", the resolve of the British people in World War II and the death of his brother in World War I, among other things. Many of the songs (such as "Victoria" and "Brainwashed") represent a strong return to Rock and Roll by the Kinks, which they had largely forgone during the 1966-1968 period.

The album was critically acclaimed at the time of release, especially in the US rock press. It was very favourably compared to Tommy by The Who, the highly successful rock opera released earlier in the year. Arthur was a moderate commercial success and was seen as something of a turnaround from The Kinks' commercial failures of 1968.

It also set the stage for their return to touring the US in late 1969 (after a five year absence) and for even greater commercial success with the hit song "Lola" the following year. In their special issue commemorating the year 1969, Guitar World magazine ranked it as one of the greatest albums of the year.

Original bassist Peter Quaife resigned in March 1969 to form his own band Mapleoak, and was swiftly replaced by John Dalton. The American ban upon the band was finally removed that same year. Yet the band had to now adapt to an American concert scene that had changed radically in their absence — when The Kinks returned to the US their shows were at first held in smallish venues such as the Fillmore East. It would take several years of extensive touring in the US between 1969 and 1972 before the band developed a disciplined stage act that would generate positive reviews and draw crowds to larger concert venues.

Before their return to the US, The Kinks recorded another album - Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). As with the previous two albums, Arthur was soaked with British lyrical and musical hooks, having been conceived as the score for a proposed but never realised television drama. It was a modest commercial success and was particularly well received by music critics in America, where it was favourably compared to the rock opera Tommy by The Who. Much of the album was inspired by Ray and Dave's beloved sister Rosie, who had migrated to Australia in the early 1960s with her husband. Rosie was a significant musical influence on the brothers in their youth, and she inspired numerous Kinks songs, including "Australia", "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home" and "Come Dancing".

The band added keyboardist John Gosling to their permanent line-up while recording the follow-up to Arthur. Before that, veteran keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, along with Ray, had done most of the session work. Gosling debuted with The Kinks on "Lola" (1970), a clever account of a confused romantic encounter with a transvestite that became a hit in both the UK and the US. The song originally contained a reference to "Coca Cola", but the BBC refused to play it as this was considered a violation of their advertising policy. The single then had to be hastily re-recorded with the offending line changed to "cherry cola". The album Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One was their most successful since the mid-1960s. The album also featured the group's final UK Top 10 hit, "Apeman."

Disc One (Mono)
01. Victoria
02. Yes Sir, No Sir
03. Some Mother's Son
04. Drivin'
05. Brainwashed
06. Australia
07. Shangri-La
08. Mr Churchill Says
09. She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina
10. Young And Innocent Days
11. Nothing To Say
12. Arthur
13. Plastic Man
14. This Man He Weeps Tonight
15. Mindless Child Of Motherhood
16. Creeping Jean
17. Lincoln County
18. Hold My Hand
19. Victoria [BBC Version]
20. Mr Churchill Says [BBC Version]
21. Arthur [BBC Version]

Disc Two (stereo)
01. Victoria
02. Yes Sir, No Sir
03. Some Mother's Son
04. Drivin'
05. Brainwashed
06. Australia
07. Shangri-La
08. Mr Churchill Says
09. She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina
10. Young And Innocent Days
11. Nothing To Say
12. Arthur
13. Plastic Man [Stereo Mix]
14. This Man He Weeps Tonight [Stereo Mix]
15. Drivin' [Alternate Mix]
16. Mindless Child Of Motherhood [Stereo Mix]
17. Hold My Hand [Stereo Mix]
18. Lincoln County [Stereo Mix]
19. Mr Shoemaker's Daughter
20. Mr Reporter [Stereo Mix]
21. Shangri La [Backing Track]

The Byrds - Ballad of Easy Rider (Klassiker US 1969)

2011-11-24T04:41:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Ballad of Easy Rider is the eighth album from the influential folk rock group The Byrds, released in October of 1969 on Columbia Records, catalogue item CS 9942 in stereo. It peaked at #36 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums during a chart stay of seventeen weeks, a substantial improvement over its predecessor, but not in the United Kingdom where it only made it to #41. A single released ahead of the album, "Ballad of Easy Rider," peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is the second album featuring the new line-up of Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons and John York.

Bob Dylan had been asked by the producers of Easy Rider to compose a theme song for their film; but, apparently disapproving of the ending, he merely wrote out a couplet on a cocktail napkin and had it sent to Roger McGuinn with the instructions to flesh it out. The result was the film's exit music (in a solo, bluesy version by McGuinn), and, eventually, the ensuing Byrds album's title track. It was to be McGuinn's sole songwriting contribution to the LP; at the time McGuinn was preoccupied with composing the music for Broadway impresario Jacques Levy's pop-music adaptation of Peer Gynt, cheekily entitled Gene Tryp by the pair. The play was never completed, but most of the songs would see release on the next two Byrds albums.

The album's programme consists mostly of covers. The group's earlier days are harkened back to in a version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," which the original quintet configuration first recorded in 1965. Every member of the band penned an original: White contributed a loud, deliberately-paced, harmony-laden arrangement of a Baptist hymn, "Oil In My Lamp;" York offered "Fido," making this the second Byrds album in a row with a paean to a canine friend; and Parsons's "Gunga Din" would become something of a signature song. McGuinn also arranged and sang a highly influential version of "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)".

Terry Melcher, producer of The Byrds' first two albums in 1965, returned to the dials to produce Ballad of Easy Rider, beginning an association that would last even longer than their first one - three albums up until Byrdmaniax in 1971. It revived The Byrds' commercial fortunes, giving them their first U.S. Top 40 album in two years. Two singles were released - the abovementioned title track and "Jesus Is Just Alright," which topped out at #97 in the US. The latter received some airplay, and went on to inspire a hit version by the Doobie Brothers. "Jesus Is Just Alright" was covered once more in 1992 by dc talk.

01."Ballad of Easy Rider" (Bob Dylan/Roger McGuinn) – 2:00
02."Fido" (John York) – 2:40
03."Oil in My Lamp" (Gene Parsons/Clarence White) – 3:13
04."Tulsa County" (Pamela Polland) – 2:49
05."Jack Tarr the Sailor" (trad. arr. Roger McGuinn) – 3:31
06."Jesus Is Just Alright" (Arthur Reynolds) – 2:10
07."It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" (Bob Dylan) – 4:53
08."There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)" (Vern Gosdin/C. Gosdin/Rex Gosdin) – 3:29
09."Gunga Din" (Gene Parsons) – 3:03
10."Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" (Woody Guthrie/Martin Hoffman) – 3:50
11."Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins" (Zeke Manners/S. Seely) – 1:41

bonus tracks:
12."Way Beyond the Sun" (trad. arr. McGuinn) – 2:56
13."Mae Jean Goes to Hollywood" (Jackson Browne) – 2:44
14."Oil in My Lamp" (Gene Parsons/Clarence White) (alternate version) – 2:02
15."Tulsa County" (Pamela Polland) (alternate version) – 3:39
16."Fiddler a Dram (Moog Experiment)" (trad. arr. McGuinn) – 3:10
17."Ballad of Easy Rider" (Bob Dylan/Roger McGuinn) (long version) – 2:26
18."Build It Up" (Clarence White/Gene Parsons) (instrumental) – 2:35

Dave Edmunds - Twangin... (UK 1981)

2011-11-24T04:38:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.)

Twangin' was recorded as Rockpile was in the process of breaking up, and the record suffered as a result. Where the previous Rockpile collaborations were loose and rocking, Twangin' is tight and precise, as if Edmunds recorded it on his own. Only on "The Race Is On" does the record truly cut loose, and he's backed by the Stray Cats on that one. Still, there are a number of fine moments on the record, particularly in the pseudo-new wave pulse of John Hiatt's "Something Happens," the pub rock of Mickey Jupp's "You'll Never Get Me Up (In One of Those)," and the gorgeous Everly-esque "(I'm Gonna Start) Living Again if It Kills Me." The rest of the record is pleasant filler which could have used some of the old Rockpile spark.

01. Something Happens Hiatt 3:16
02. It's Been So Long Gomm 2:16
03. Singin' the Blues Endsley, McCreary 3:00
04. (I'm Gonna Start) Living Again If It Kills Me Carter, Edmunds, Lowe 3:21
05. Almost Saturday Night Fogerty 2:13
06. Cheap Talk, Patter and Jive Cowart, DeVito, Dowart 3:08
07. Three Time Loser Covay, Miller 2:46
08. You'll Never Get Me Up (In One of Those) Jupp 3:49
09. I'm Only Human Bremner, Lowe, Rockpile, Williams 2:10
10. The Race Is On Rollins 2:08
11. Baby Let's Play House Gunter 2:18

Stackwaddy - Selftitled (Tung, Rå Bluesrock UK 1971)

2011-11-23T19:23:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och svår att hitta.)

Stack Waddy's debut album is one of the "must hear" discs of the early 1970s, an uncompromising roar that might cavort through that shell-shocked no man's land that sprawls between Captain Beefheart and the Edgar Broughton Band, but which winds up defiantly beholden to absolutely nothing else you've ever heard — one reason, perhaps, why the group vanished with so little trace.Recorded live in the studio (or thereabouts, Stack Waddy is a blurring blend of brutal band originals and deliciously mauled covers. Beefheart's "Sure Nuff Yes I Do" is an unblinking highlight, while raw takes on "Suzie Q" and "Road Runner" remind us of the group's mid 60s genesis on the Manchester R&B scene.

There's also a version of Jethro Tull's "Love Story" that comes close to topping the Sensational Alex Harvey Band in terms of lascivious power and ferocity. Certainly John Knail takes no prisoners as he howls his way through and, while Stack Waddy holds back from completely recreating the live band experience (there's no breaking bottles, for a start), still this is one of those few albums that genuinely requires you to wear protective clothing.

01. Roadrunner McDaniel 3:26
02. Bring It to Jerome Green 5:18
03. Mothballs Banham, Knail, Revell, Stott 3:35
04. Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do Bermann, VanVilet 2:29
05. Love Story Anderson 2:19
06. Suzie Q Broodwater, Hawkins, Lewis 2:27
07. Country Line Special Davies 3:55
08. Rolling Stone Waters 3:25
09. Mystic Eyes Morrison 6:05
10. Kentucky Banham, Knail, Revell, Stott 2:42

Shelagh McDonald - Shelagh McDonald Album (Folk UK 1970)

2011-11-23T19:20:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Svår att finna.)

Shelagh McDonald (born 1948) is a Scottish folk singer, song-writer and guitarist who released two albums before her abrupt and mysterious disappearance in 1971. On her albums, she was backed up by many notables within the English folk-rock scene, including Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Danny Thompson, Keith Christmas, the Fotheringay rhythm section, as well as Ian Whiteman, Roger Powell and Michael Evans, then members of Mighty Baby.

In November 2005, after stories circulated worldwide about her disappearance and interest in her music increased, McDonald turned up in the offices of the Scottish Daily Mail and told them her story. She retreated from public life after a bad LSD trip left her paranoid and hallucinating, with a ruined voice. Living with her parents and working privately in Edinburgh, she met and married bookseller Gordon Farquhar; together, they lived a nomadic lifestyle in north Britain, living on welfare benefits and moving from house to house, and later tent to tent.

As of 2005, McDonald says her voice has improved and she is again interested in music, and the renewed interest in her work by the public surprised and gratified her. Since then, however, nothing more has been heard of her.

01. Mirage
02. Look Over the Hill and Faraway
03. Crusoe
04. Wating For the Wind to Rise
05. Ophelia's Song
06. Richmond Sign In to rate!
07. Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
08. Peacock Lady
09. Silk and Leather
10. You Know You Can't Lose
11. Ophelia's Song

Bonus Tracks
12. Jesus Is Just Alright
13. Book Of Rhyme
14. What More Can I Say?
15. City's Cry [Version 1]
16. City's Cry [Version 2]
17. Rod's Song
18. Stargazer [False Start]
19. Stargazer

Tomorrow - Tomorrow (UK Psychedelia Feat. Keith West 1968)

2011-11-23T19:17:00.000+01:00

330:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva. Klassiker med många bonusspår.)

In the early days of British psychedelia, three bands were consistently cited as first-generation figureheads of the London-based underground sound: Pink Floyd, the Soft Machine, and Tomorrow. Pink Floyd became superstars and the Soft Machine influential cult legends, but Tomorrow is mostly remembered (if at all) for featuring Steve Howe as their lead guitarist in his pre-Yes days.

Actually, Tomorrow was nearly the equal of the two more celebrated outfits. Along with the early Floyd and Soft Machine, they shared a propensity for flower-power whimsy. Though they were less recklessly innovative and imaginative, their songwriting was accomplished, with adroit harmonies, psychedelic guitar work, and adventurous structures and tempo changes. They never succumbed to mindless indulgence or jamming; indeed, their tracks were rather short and tightly woven in comparison with most psychedelic bands.

A couple singles (especially "My White Bicycle") were underground favorites, but the group only managed to record one album before breaking up in 1968. Lead singer Keith West, even before the breakup, had a number two British hit with "Excerpt From a Teenage Opera," which helped inspire Pete Townshend's Tommy. Drummer Twink joined the Pretty Things and, later, the Pink Fairies.

01. My White Bicycle
02. Colonel Brown
03. Real Life Permanent Dream
04. Shy Boy
05. Revolution
06. The Incredible Journey Of Timothy Chase
07. Auntie Mary's Dress Shop
08. Strawberry Fields Forever
09. Three Jolly Little Dwarfs
10. Now Your Time Has Come
11. Hallucinations
12. Claramount Lake
13. Real Life Permanent Dream (Alternate Version)
14. Why
15. Revolution (Phased Mono Version)
16. Now Your Time Has Gone (Mono)
17. 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box - Aquarian Age
18. Good Wizzard Meets Naughty Wizzard - Aquarian Age
19. Me - ZION DE GALLIER
20. On A Saturday - Keith West
21. The Kid Was A Killer - Keith West
22. She - Keith West
23. The Visit - Keith West

Le Orme - Collage (Italy 1971)

2011-11-20T15:12:00.000+01:00

290:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

Le Orme began life in Venice in 1966 as a "beat" band. After two albums in a beat and psychedelic style and some line up changes, in 1971 they released what many people think is the first Italian progressive rock album, "Collage". The line up here featured Aldo Tagliapietra (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar), Antonio Pagliuca (Hammond organ, electric piano) and Michi Dei Rossi (drums, percussion). In studio they got the help of an expert producer as Gian Piero Reverberi who contributed to shape their innovative sound blending British prog influences (Emerson Lake & Palmer and, most of all, Quatermass) with Italian melody and classical music. The result was an extremely successful album that is now considered as a cornerstone of Italian progressive rock.

The opener title track is almost a "prog baroque" anthem inspired by Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in E major, K 380. It starts with a powerful organ attack soon backed by a lively marching beat while the middle section is softer and has a strong classical flavour. Organ and rhythm section then come back for the "grand finale". It's a magnificent track and it has become a kind of trademark of the band.

Acoustic guitar introduces next track, "Era inverno" (It was winter), which is about a troubled love between a young man and a prostitute... "Every night you get ready / Always beautiful and smiling / An actress who doesn't change scene / The sadness of the moon / In the hands of the people / Who own you fake joy... I would like to tell you / I don't care what people think / I still remember that evening / It was winter time and you were shaking / You were shining on the snow / I said: It's the first time...".

The claustrophobic "Cemento Armato" (Reinforced concrete) is about the need to run away from the smog and pollution you find in modern metropolitan areas. It begins almost like as desperate burst of pain, just vocals and piano... "Reinforced concrete, the big city / You can feel that life is going away / Near home you can't breath / It's always dark, we're grieving / There are more hooters in the air than nightingale songs / It's better run away and never come back...". The long instrumental section is complex and frenzy, you can almost feel the oppressive atmosphere of a busy and foggy city. Eventually tension fades out... "Sweet wake up, the sun is with me / In the air you can hear the sound of a guitar / Home is far away / Everything melted / I can't even remember yesterday friends / Reinforced concrete, the big city / You can feel that life is going away...".

"Sguardo verso il cielo" (Glance towards the sky) is still one of the best pieces of the band's repertoire. It's a song of hope full of positive energy, almost a laic prayer... "The joy to sing, the wish to play / The feel of reaching what you haven't got / Here comes another day like yesterday / You have to wait for the morning to start again... The strength to smile, the strength to fight / The fault of being alive and not being able to change / Like a dead branch, neglected / Which tries in vain to blossom... The mask of a clown in the middle of a desert / A fire that goes out, a glance towards the sky / A glance towards the sky where the sun is marvel / Where nothingness becomes the world / Where Your light shines...".

"Evasione Totale" (Total breakthrough) is a long instrumental where the members of the band can showcase their musicianship. It begins softly and the atmosphere is dark and spacey. After a chaotic and improvised middle section a church-like organ pattern and pulsing bass lines bring back a sense of order for the finale.

"Immagini" (Imagines) is a short organ driven piece. Lyrics suggest evocative images with a psychedelic touch... Well try to imagine a stream on the moon, a garden in the middle of the sun, a cypress in the desert, violet lawns, a moving statue and people talking around... But there's something missing! "A wonderful sun, a wonderful day / Many stars in the night / Some smiles on the lips, some lips on the lips / But she isn't there, she isn't there...".

"Morte di un fiore" (Death of a flower) begins with acoustic guitar and vocals, then organ and piano bring a melancholic and elegiac feeling. Lyrics describe the death of a young prostitute in a poetical way... "They wrote that for you the music was over between four and five in the morning / As the water of the stream running toward the sea / In a pale morning your last short time ran away / And the wind that had kissed you was your only companion...".

Well, a great album featuring many evergreen of the band that still performs "Collage" and "Sguardo verso il cielo" in medley as "gran-finale" on stage.

01. Collage (4:42)
02. Era inverno (5:00)
03. Cemento armato (8:08)
04. Sguardo verso il cielo (4:12)
05. Evasione totale (6:56)
06. Immagini (2:58)
07. Morte di un fiore (3:00)

Black Sabbath - Sabotage (UK 1975)

2011-11-18T18:47:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och svår att hitta.)

Black Sabbath began work on their sixth album in February 1975, again in England at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London. They had a decisive vision to differ the sound from their previous album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Guitarist Tony Iommi, who produced the album, said that "We could've continued and gone on and on, getting more technical, using orchestras and everything else which we didn't particularly want to. We took a look at ourselves, and we wanted to do a rock album - Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath wasn't a rock album, really."

Over the years, singer Ozzy Osbourne has often complained in interviews that this album marked the beginning of what he described as Tony Iommi's studio production obsession. Sabotage took considerably longer to record and produce than each of their preceding albums, making it the most costly Black Sabbath album to that point. In comparison, the band's first album, Black Sabbath (1970), took only twelve hours to record at a cost of a few hundred pounds.

01."Hole in the Sky" – 3:59
02."Don't Start (Too Late)" – 0:49
03."Symptom of the Universe" – 6:29
04."Megalomania" – 9:46
05."The Thrill of It All" – 5:56
06."Supertzar" – 3:44
07."Am I Going Insane (Radio)" – 4:16
08."The Writ" – 8:09

Mott The Hoople - Two Miles From Heaven (Rare Tracks 1969-72)

2011-11-18T18:44:00.000+01:00

280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Ett måste för Hoople fans.)

Two Miles From Heaven is a compilation album of tracks recorded by British underground rock band Mott the Hoople during their period with Island Records from 1969 to 1972. It features the original band line-up of Ian Hunter (vocals, piano, guitar), Mick Ralphs (guitar, vocals), Peter Watts (bass guitar, vocals), Dale Griffin (drums) and Verden Allen (organ). Incomplete tracks from original sessions were supplemented by overdubs of vocals, keyboards (by later Mott the Hoople and Mott member Morgan Fisher) and guitar (including contributions from Mott guitarist Ray Majors).

Of significance to followers of the group were the inclusion of alternative versions of extant Mott the Hoople songs ( a vocal version of "You Really Got Me", the discarded mix of "Thunderbuck Ram" and early demo tapes of songs that were later recorded for their All the Young Dudes album once the band had left Island and signed to Columbia Records: "One of the Boys", "Ride on the Sun" (better known as "Sea Diver") and "Black Scorpio" (Momma's Little Jewel). "Until I'm Gone" was an otherwise unreleased Ralphs track of note.

The veritable flood of archive-style Mott The Hoople releases that has descended upon the collector since the mid-1990s belies the fact that, for 25 years before that, the band's vault was one of the tightest locked around. Even the bootleggers had not found a way around the security, while the handful of compilations that made it out through official auspices during the 1970s and 1980s could at best pull a single out-take from the cellar.

There was just one exception to that rule, and it is impossible today to recapture precisely how exciting its arrival was. Two Miles From Heaven, released in Europe in 1981, was the first "new" Mott The Hoople album in six years, its 14 tracks dating from the four years (1969-72) that Mott spent with Island Records (Atlantic in America), seeking but seldom settling on a direction they could live with.

Chronologically, a total of six albums are represented here - the four that the band actually released during that span, plus two that exist only as legends, a self-produced follow-up to Wildlife that only slowly turned into the Guy Stevens-led Brain Capers, and a final Island release that was scrapped when David Bowie whisked the band off to stardom. Revised and occasionally retitled, three songs here ("Black Scorpio", "One Of The Boys" and "Ride On The Sun") would make it onto the breakthrough All The Young Dudes album, and it's fascinating to hear the band's own initial vision of them - fascinating, because whatever it was that Bowie gave the band, a tight grip on the fundaments of what became Glam Rock was not among them. The band had their finger on that pulse long before he showed up.

Out-takes and offcuts from earlier albums are similarly gripping - a tumultuous alternate version of "Thunderbuck Ram", a studio version of the live standout "Keep A Knocking" and a vocal rendition of the instrumental "You Really Got Me" all repay investigation, while there's also an appearance for "Road To Birmingham", a 1969 b-side that sneaked onto early pressings of the band's debut album, and has been a much-sought after legend ever since. The whole thing was then wrapped up with a clutch of previously unheard songs, with "Going Home", "Little Christine" and "Surfin' UK" among the best of them.

Though it has been largely, if not entirely, superceded by the wealth of exhumations made since the mid-1990s, Two Miles From Heaven retains its place in the Mott fanatics' heart, not only because it was the first of its ilk, but also because it remains the best one stop repository of them all.

01."You Really Got Me" (Ray Davies) 3.08
02."The Road to Birmingham" (Ian Hunter) 3.30
03."Thunderbuck Ram" (Mick Ralphs) 4.41
04."Going Home" (Ralphs) 3.00
05."Little Christine" (Ralphs) 3.06
06."Keep a Knockin'" (Richard Penniman) 3.25
07."Black Hills" (Ralphs) 1.32
08."Movin' On" (Ralphs) 2.44
09."Ride On the Sun" (Hunter) 3.38
10."Growin' Man Blues" (Hunter) 2.46
11."Until I'm Gone" (Ralphs) 3.14
12."One of the Boys" (Ralphs, Hunter) 4.19
13."Surfin' U.K." (Ralphs) 2.37
14."Black Scorpio" (Hunter, Peter "Overend" Watts) 3.36
15."Ill Wind Blowing" (Hunter) 3.53
16."The Debt" (Hunter) 4.15
17."Downtown" (Danny Whitten, Neil Young) 3.03

City Boy - Book Early (US 1978)

2011-11-16T08:37:00.000+01:00

280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.)

This was the album that brought City Boy their short-lived time in the spotlight. This might make you automatically assume that this is just a completely disposable album by any Art Rock standards and you'll probably be right about it. Still, I have somewhat of a soft spot for this release. The material featured here is easily among the band's most accessible stuff but I find it surprisingly enjoyable to simply breeze though these tracks just to get some of the magnificent energy that is embedded into tracks like the highly eclectic Cigarettes or the E.L.O.-sounding What A Night.

What really surprises me is the fact that Book Early is a very consistent album, or at least consistent by City Boy standards. The album definitely takes a lot of inspiration from artists like Eagles and E.L.O. in the song arrangements while still managing to maintain some of the classic City Boy magic. The overall feel of the material can be summed up by the words "album-oriented rock". If you like that stuff then this release will definitely be a delight for you, but I somehow doubt that this is something that we should admit enjoying on a Progressive Rock website, so let's keep it our own dirty secret.

Love it or hate it, this is a very commercially oriented album that dumbs down the familiar City Boy formula into a bunch of bright and energetic tracks. I, for one, don't find this a bad thing especially since the band is very up front about it. Just compare this album's cover to the three previous releases and tell me that you don't see a certain change in direction. Simply a good album that isn't trying to be more than what it actually is!

01. 5.7.0.5. (3:10)
02. Summer In The Schoolyard (3:52)
03. Goodbye Laurelie (3:10)
04. Raise Your Glass (To Foolish Me) (2:57)
05. Cigarettes (5:30)
06. What A Night (2:57)
07. Do What You Do, Do Well (3:29)
08. World Loves A Dancer (3:24)
09. Beth (2:45)
10. Moving In Circles (4:05)
11. Dangerous Ground (4:53)

Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn (Superb German Heavy Progressive 1973)

2011-11-12T06:53:00.000+01:00

330:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

The return of Schulze on drums and it is also the last classic ART album, IMO. Indeed, Klaus would drop by again in ART before releasing his first solo album: Irrlicht in 74 on the Ohr label, which is also the case for the last time for ART. The trio is again in top form, as is Rosi on vocals (not very present, though) ,but the deception is a very "poor" artwork, that seems to point to some kind of segregation towards Schulze: he's a framed pictured, compared to the rest of the band. anyway much less spell-binding as previous works.

This album follows again the blueprint of their debut. The first number makes me think of the best Hawkwind (but I am not suggesting who inspired who) and is a must. Slightly more refined than Amboss on the debut Freak'n Roll is very much that!!! A great 19-mins of jammed packed musical freedom, not stretching itself beyond its limits. Again the quieter side 2 is much scarcer in the music depth, relying on the ambiance and waiting the last five minutes to take off. Although much better than the S&B track from their Schwingungen album Jenseits cannot seem to develop past a good even excellent Floydian plan with bluesier jams, with the last parts dedicated to calm vocals (almost whispered) and cool heavenly organ drones..

I hate to speak in terms of Price/Quantity/Quality factor for music, but if such thing was acceptable, ART would not be well placed, because there is vacuous side to their usual side 2 tracks: very little substance and all ambiances. This third album is however much worth a spin and attentive listenings, like its predecessors.

With this album, Klaus Schulze is back on the drumkit and he also brought his VCS3 synth with him. He stepped out for the last album Schwingungen to record his debut solo album Irrlicht. He did not use any synth on that album, but did on the follow up Cyborg. I don't know which was recorded first: Cyborg or Join Inn; either way 1973 was the first year you hear Schulze using synth. Guitarist Manuel Gottsching brings along his girlfriend Rosi Mueller to add some vocals.

Like the previous two albums, the music here is based on improvisation and jamming. Like the self-titled debut from 1971, there are two long tracks; one a rocker, the other an ambient piece. I prefer "Amboss" from the debut to "Freak'n'Roll" here, but "Jenseits" is much better than "Traummaschine".

"Freak"n'Roll" starts off with typical late '60s/early '70s bluesy jamming. The synth noises used sparingly throughout the track are a nice addition. It keeps the music from being *just* another blues-rock improv. After the bluesy jamming the music goes into more free and frantic sections before going back to the bluesy jamming. Schulze does some interesting drumming after 13 minutes. Gottsching almost plays a riff at the end.

"Jenseits" is over 24 minutes long and must have been one of the longest tracks on one side of vinyl at the time. This 'song' deserves 5 stars alone. An early ambient masterpiece. You hear the voice of Rosi talking in German throughout the piece. I like Gottsching's tremoloed soundscapes here. There is more synth here than in "Freak'n'Roll". Hartmut Enke's bass playing is more minimalistic than on the other track. Schulze mostly plays organ on the track. There really is no drums or percussion, but there is a heartbeat type sound around 17 minutes which comes back later. The music gets very spacey at times with the synth and guitar effects. There is a synth near the end which almost sounds like a cello.

Not as rough around the edges as previous ART. A good sound and certainly not overproduced. This is my favourite ART album, although the bluesy jamming in "Freak'n'Roll" sometimes outstays it's welcome. In "Jenseits" you can hear glimpses of later solo Schulze and the more electronic Ashra. Great album. [Progarchives.com]

01. Freak'n'Roll (19:15)
02. Jenseits (24:18)

Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (Rare Soul US 1969)

2011-11-11T09:27:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Hot Buttered Soul was Isaac Hayes' second studio album. Released in 1969, it is recognized as a landmark in soul music.

The album almost never came to be. Hayes' solo debut, Presenting Isaac Hayes, had been a poor seller for Stax Records, and Hayes was about to return to his behind-the-scenes role as a producer and songwriter at the venerable soul label when it suddenly lost its complete back catalog after splitting with Atlantic Records in May 1968. Stax executive Al Bell decided to release a new, almost instant, back catalog of 27 albums and 30 singles at once, ordered all of Stax's artists to record new material, and encouraged some of Stax's prominent creative staff, including Hayes and Steve Cropper, to record solo albums.

Burned by the retail flop of Presenting Isaac Hayes, Hayes told Bell that he would not cut a follow-up unless he was granted complete creative control. Since Bell had encouraged Hayes to record Presenting... in the first place, he readily agreed.

The album begins with a cover of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic, "Walk On By". Second was "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", an uptempo funk song with wah-wah guitar and rolling pianos. "One Woman", at just over five minutes the shortest track on the album, focuses on the pangs of infidelity. An extended reinterpretation of Jimmy Webb's country music composition "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" closes the album. After an eight-minute spoken introduction, the song slowly builds to a climax of horns, strings, organs and vocals. (On most commonly heard versions of this song, there is an edit before the lyric "when he reached the age of maturity.." during the spoken intro – early vinyl pressings of the album do not feature this edit, and reveal a brief section that includes a technical error, where the sustained organ note briefly drops out.)

The album was notable for its use of innovative Bell/Hayes production and Terry Manning engineering techniques, and has deeply influenced a great deal of subsequent soul, hip hop and Motown music. Both "Walk on By" and "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" have been sampled extensively, the former showing up on tracks by the likes of Compton's Most Wanted, 3rd Bass, MF DOOM, Wu-Tang Clan, Hooverphonic and Notorious B.I.G., while the latter song was sampled by Public Enemy for "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos". "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" also appears on the soundtrack to the film Zodiac, while "Walk On By" appears along with Hayes' version of "The Look Of Love" on the soundtrack to the film Dead Presidents.

Much of the final production was done as part of the package of products brought to Detroit by producer Don Davis to expedite the production process. The project strings and horns were recorded at United Sound Studios by engineer Ed Wolfrum with vocals and final mix at Terra-Shirma by engineer Russ Terrana. The pre-delay reverberation technique, recorded in part by Manning on the tracking session, had been used at Artie Fields productions in Detroit in late 1950s, and at Columbia Records; it was also used by Wolfrum and others for numerous productions and commercials previous and after the release of this project including the Marvin Gaye What's Going On project, with orchestration also recorded at United. Russ Terrana went on to the engineering staff of Motown Records and was responsible recording and mixing of many hits on that label.

01."Walk On By" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) – 12:03
02."Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic" (Isaac Hayes, Alvertis Isbell) – 9:38
03."One Woman" (Charles Chalmers, Sandra Rhodes) – 5:10
04."By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (Jimmy Webb) – 18:42

Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxter's (Japan 1967)

2011-11-11T09:20:00.000+01:00

175:- (Promo omslag. Unikt konvolut från Japan 1967, så här såg den Japanska versionen ut. Utvikomslag. Mycket svår att hitta.)

The Searchers - Sweets For My Sweet (1a Albumet UK 1963)

2011-11-11T09:17:00.000+01:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva och svår att hitta nu.)

Meet the Searchers is a 1963 album by English rock band, The Searchers. The album featured their first single released in June 1963, a version of The Drifters' "Sweets for My Sweet", as well as their version of The Clovers "Love Potion No. 9", released as a single the following year. It peaked on the US charts at # 22 on December 19, 1964.

Founded in 1957 by John McNally (guitar/vocals), the Searchers were originally one of thousands of skiffle groups formed in the wake of Lonnie Donegan's success with "Rock Island Line." The Searchers' immediate competitors included bands such as the Wreckers and the Confederates, both led by Michael Pender (guitar, vocals), and the Martinis, led by Tony Jackson (guitar/vocals). By 1959, McNally and Pender were working together as a duet; later in the year, Jackson joined as the lead vocalist. After drummer Norman McGarry left the Searchers he was replaced by Chris Crummy, who quickly renamed himself Chris Curtis. Other changes were in the works as Jackson built and learned to play a customized bass guitar. Learning his new job on the four-stringed instrument proved too difficult to permit him to continue singing lead, and McNally and Pender brought in a fifth member, Johnny Sandon (born Billy Beck). Johnny Sandon & the Searchers lasted from 1960 through February of 1962, and were extremely popular on the dance hall and club circuit in Liverpool. Sandon cut out for a career on his own, with another band called the Remo Four in early 1962.

Meanwhile, the Searchers, now a quartet with Jackson once again lead singer, became one of the top acts on the Liverpool band scene, playing textured renditions of American R&B, rock & roll, country, soul, and rockabilly. The group was signed to Pye Records in mid-1963 and their first single, a cover of the Drifters' "Sweets for My Sweet," was released in August of 1963, hitting number one on the British charts. While the Beatles quickly outdistanced all comers, the Searchers did, indeed, go to the top of the charts with two of their next three singles, "Needles and Pins" and "Don't Throw Your Love Away." Another record, "Sugar and Spice," written by their producer Tony Hatch under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale, stalled at the number two spot. Over the next nine months, the band staked out a sound that was one of the most distinctive in a rock scene crawling with hundreds of bands. Their music was built around the sound of a crisply played 12-string guitar, coupled with strong lead vocals and carefully, sometimes exquisitely arranged harmonies, so that they could credibly cover American R&B standards like "Love Potion No. 9" or Phil Spector-based girl group pop like "Be My Baby." Their 1964 singles included a venture into folk-rock before the genre had been "invented" in the press, in the form of a cover of Malvina Reynolds' "What Have They Done to the Rain." Interestingly, their 12-string guitar sound would become a key ingredient in the success of the Byrds, who even took the riff from "Needles and Pins" and transformed it into the main riff of "Feel a Whole Lot Better."

In July of 1964, with the group riding the upper reaches of the British charts, and with their third album in nine months in release, it was announced that Tony Jackson was leaving the Searchers to form his own band, and would be replaced by Frank Allen, who had been playing bass with Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers. The turning point for the band came in 1965, as the British and international fascination with the Liverpool sound faded away. The Searchers began casting their net wider for material to cover, in addition to coming up with one original hit, the Curtis/Pender-authored "He's Got No Love." By the beginning of 1966, the group's string of chart hits seemed to have run out, and Chris Curtis exited in early 1966, claiming to have become exhausted from the group's constant touring. The Searchers, with Johnny Blunt on drums, continued working and had their last hit, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," which barely cracked the Top 50 in October of 1966. The group continued working, however, playing clubs and cabarets in England and Europe. Blunt exited at the end of the '60s, but was replaced by Billy Adamson, and this lineup of the Searchers continued intact until the mid-'80s, working for 35 weeks a year throughout Europe with an occasional U.S. visit. Although they played as part of Richard Nader's "Rock 'n Roll Revival" shows, they never became an "oldies" act, always adding new material, including originals and covers of work by songwriters such as Neil Young to their sets, and in 1972, the band cut an album for British RCA.

At the end of the '70s, their recording fortunes were revived once again as Seymour Stein, the head of Sire Records, signed the Searchers for two albums. Those records, The Searchers and Love's Melodies, were the best work the group ever did, highlighted by achingly beautiful yet vibrant and forceful playing and singing, and an unerring array of memorable hooks and melodies. Those two albums were followed by a series of tracks recorded for their original label, Pye Records, in the early '80s. The group held their audience well into the '80s, playing before crowds of as large as 15,000 along one U.S. tour. In 1985, after playing together for 26 years, Pender and McNally split up, with McNally continuing to lead the Searchers (with Adamson and Allen, with Spencer James added on second guitar and vocals), while Pender formed Mike Pender's Searchers, consisting of Chris Black (guitar, vocals), Barry Cowell (bass, vocals), and Steve Carlyle (drums, vocals). Both groups have toured extensively, and the Searchers under McNally have recorded on occasion.

01. "Sweets for My Sweet" Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman 2:28
02. "Alright" Ross/Vanador 2:09
03. "Love Potion No. 9" Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller 2:05
04. "Farmer John" Harris/Terry 1:59
05. "Stand By Me" King/Leiber/Stoller 3:28
06. "Money (That's What I Want)" Bradford/Gordy 2:47
07. "Da Doo Ron Ron" Phil Spector/Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich 2:25
08. "Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya" Smith 2:05
09. "Since You Broke My Heart" Don Everly/Phil Everly 2:50
10. "Tricky Dicky" Leiber/Stoller 2:08
11. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" Pete Seeger 2:57
12. "Twist and Shout" Medley/Russell 2:45

Bonus:
13. "It's All Been a Dream" Curtis 1:49
14. "Geld (Das Ist, Was Ich Wünsche) ("Money (That's What I Want)" in German)" Bradford/Gordy (Translator unknown) 2:46
15. "Landwirt John ("Farmer John" in German)" Harris/Terry (Translator unknown) 2:00
16. "Mais C'Était Un Rêve ("It's All Been A Dream" in French)" Curtis (Translator unknown) 1:51

Gravy Train - Ballad of a Peaceful Man (2nd Album UK Hardrock 1971)

2011-11-11T09:08:00.000+01:00

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

I do not succeed to understand why to the period the Gravy Train did not succeed to have success like Yes, Genesis, VDGG, ELP, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull... To my warning the Gravy Train deserved it and in some points were absolutely superior to the citated bands. And the listening of their album is also very simple.

This (A Ballad Of) A Peaceful Man" it is opened with "Alone In Georgia" piece almost Symphonic but a lot of American Folk Rock and continues with the "(A Ballad Of) A Peaceful Man", melodramatic ballad how much is dramatic. For the critics the Focus are Dutch Jethro Tull. blundering. They were not themeselves shrewd of the Gravy Train that are alone dramaticcer, thanks to mid tempo, but that in "Messenger" arrive almost to the plagiarism (but is more Jazz than Folk and damned dramaticer). J.D. Huges is not Ian Anderson, hears itself, but farewell Ian Anderson! "Besides in "Messenger" the use of the mellotron gives back even more dramatic a piece that together with "Alone In Georgia", (A Ballad Of) A Peaceful Man", "Can Anybody Hear Me" (plagiarism of the Tull more Hard Rockand yet personal) and to the Hard Rock "Won't Talk About It" are between the better Prog song of every period. A step under "Jule's Delight" and "Home Again" that do not succeed to carve. "Old Tin Box" is too different from the other (plagiarism of East Of Eden and yet personal). The sax gives back this piece an intruder and ruin the solidity of the album.

01. Alone in Georgia (4:35)
02. (A Ballad of) A Peaceful Man (7:06)
03. Jule's Delight (6:58)
04. Messenger (5:58)
05. Can anybody hear me (2:59)
06. Old Tin Box (4:45)
07. Won't talk about it (3:00)
08. Home again (3:25)

John Lee Hooker - House of the Blues (Superb 1:a Album US 1959)

2011-11-10T08:54:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Verbatim CD reissue of a 1959 Chess album that collected 1951-1954 efforts by the Hook. Some important titles here: an ominous "Leave My Wife Alone," and the stark "Sugar Mama" and "Ramblin' by Myself," and with Eddie Kirkland on second guitar, "Louise" and "High Priced Woman." This 1960 release is one of the definitive moments in the history of blues. Just the timbre of Hooker's voice is worth hearing by itself, but his clomping foot and wandering, crazed guitar playing certainly don't hurt. [AMG]

Personnel includes: John Lee Hooker (vocals, guitar); Eddie Kirkland (guitar); Bob Thurman (piano). Recorded in Detroit, Michigan between 1951-1954. Originally released on Chess (1438). Includes the original release liner notes and reissue liner notes by Bob Schnieders. Not only is HOUSE OF THE BLUES a vintage Hooker release--it is classic, essential blues of the highest order. Originally released on the Chess label in 1959, this disc features sidemen on a few tracks, sitting in on guitar or piano. But it is primarily Hooker's solo show, and the master charges ahead with nothing but his raw, electric guitar, soul-drenched, world-weary vocal delivery, and his foot to keep rhythm. One of Hooker's finest tracks, "Walkin' The Boogie," kicks off the set. This excellent example of his tremendously influential "boogie" style is made especially noteworthy by an overdubbed, speeded up guitar solo. Every song on the album is a Hooker original, and he varies the pace between slow, grinding blues ("Louise") and dan... [Dealtime.UK]

01. Walkin´The Boogie [1952]
02. Love Blues [1952]
03. Union Station Blues [1951]
04. It´s My Own Faults [1954]
05. Leave My Wife Alone [1951]
06. Ramblin´By Myself [1951]
07. Sugar Mama [1952]
08. Down at the Landing [1952]
09. Louise [1951]
10. Ground Hog Blues [1951]
11. High Priced Woman [1951]
12. Women and Money [1954]
13. Hey Boogie [Bonus 1950]
14. Mad Man Blues [Bonus 1950]

Alexis Korner - A New Generation of Blues (Klassiker UK 1968)

2011-11-10T08:52:00.000+01:00

300:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

A basically competent, though hardly enthralling, effort from the British bluesman that alternates between minimal, acoustic-flavored production and fuller arrangements with jazzy touches of flute and upright bass. Korner wrote about half of the material, leaving the rest of the space open for R&B/blues covers and adaptations of traditional standards.

"The Same for You" has a strange, ever-so-slight psychedelic influence, with its swirling flute, fake fadeout, and odd antiestablishment lyrics. Korner's voice is (and always would be) a tuneless bark, but it sounds better here than it did on the first album to prominently feature his vocals (I Wonder Who, 1967). As such, this album is one of the best representations of Korner as a frontman.

01. Mary, Open The Door Listen
02. Little Bitty Gal Blues
03. Baby Dont You Love Me
04. Go Down Sunshine
05. The Same For You
06. Im Tore Down
07. In The Evening
08. Somethin You Got
09. New Worried Blues
10. Whats That Sound I Hear?
11. A Flower

Bonus
12. Louisiana Blues (BBC session)
13. Corrina Corrina (BBC session)
14. The Love You Save (BBC session) Listen
15. Operator
16. Steal Away
17. Go Down Sunshine (BBC session - previously unreleased)
18. Stump Blues (BBC session)
19. Sweet Home Chicago (BBC session - previously unreleased)
20. Just The Blues (BBC session - previously unreleased)

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (UK 1973) (24-Bit)

2011-11-10T08:49:00.000+01:00

280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the fifth studio album by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in 1973. With this album, the band expanded upon their slow, crunching style of music and included synthesizers, strings, keyboards and more complex, orchestral arrangements.

Following the 1972-1973 world tour in support of their Volume 4 album, Black Sabbath again returned to Los Angeles, California to begin work on its successor. Pleased with Volume 4, the band sought to recreate the recording atmosphere, and returned to the Record Plant Studios with new producer and engineer Tom Allom. Although the album credits the band's manager Patrick Meehan as producer, guitarist Tony Iommi said "Meehan's ego got involved, and he stuck his name down as producer". With new musical innovations of the era, the band were surprised to find that the room they had used previously at the Record Plant was replaced by a "giant synthesizer". The band rented a house in Bel Air and began writing in the summer of 1973, but due in part to substance issues and fatigue, were unable to complete any songs. "Ideas weren't coming out the way they were on Volume 4 and we really got discontent" Iommi said. "Everybody was sitting there waiting for me to come up with something. I just couldn't think of anything. And if I didn't come up with anything, nobody would do anything."

After a month in Los Angeles with no results, the band opted to return to the UK, where they rented Clearwell Castle in The Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. "We rehearsed in the dungeons and it was really creepy but it had some atmosphere, it conjured up things, and stuff started coming out again". While working in the dungeon, Iommi stumbled onto the main riff of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", which set the tone for the new material. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman was brought in as a session player, appearing on "Sabbra Cadabra" and "Who Are You?".

Building off the stylistic changes introduced on Volume 4, new songs incorporated synthesizers, strings, keyboards and more complex arrangements. "Who Are You?" incorporates a Moog, a common instrument in Progressive rock at the time. Lyrics of some songs on the album were written about problems within the band at the time. "Killing Yourself to Live" was written by bassist Geezer Butler while in hospital for kidney problems caused by heavy drinking. Drummer Bill Ward was also suffering from binge drinking, and the song reflects the problems caused by their "extreme" lifestyles. Similarly, the lyrics of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" appear to be inspired by the band's frustration with their former manager, and the sense of betrayal they had felt at times.

Drew Struzan was the artist requested to do the cover painting. It depicts a man on a bed, seemingly having a nightmare or a vision of being attacked by demons in human form. At the top of the bed is a large skull with long, outstretched arms and 666 (the Number of the Beast) written below it.

01. "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" – 5:45
02. "A National Acrobat" – 6:16
03. "Fluff [Instrumental] " – 4:11
04. "Sabbra Cadabra" – 5:59
05. "Killing Yourself to Live" – 5:41
06. "Who Are You?" – 4:11
07. "Looking for Today" – 5:06
08. "Spiral Architect" – 5:29

Caravan - If i Could Do it All Over... (UK 1970)

2011-11-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

280:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You is a 1970 release by Canterbury scene rock band Caravan. According to Allmusic, "If I Could Do It All Over Again contains significant progressions over the first album." It was the second album by the band, the predecessor to their most well-known album In the Land of Grey and Pink. The album is known as the epitome of Canterbury rock, featuring representative organ solos and melodic vocals typical of the band's style. The album was released on Decca Records, as was the title track as a single release.

This record began to define what became the best-known Caravan sound that was heard on most releases through 1975. "For Richard" (the 14:21 medley) became a staple of Caravan shows and was typically heard as the closer. A fully orchestrated, live version can be heard on the 1974 release Caravan and the New Symphonia.

Caravan followed up their eponymous debut with the cryptically titled If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You in the fall of 1970. If I Could Do It All Over Again contains significant progressions over the first album. These include the intricacy with which compositions are sculpted around some of the finest instrumental improvisation in British rock at the time — or arguably since. Caravan's uncanny ability to create a montage that effortlessly maneuvers through acoustic folk and electric progressive rock is best exemplified on the "With an Ear to the Ground" suite. The extended instrumental passages weave in and out of each other, creating a hypnotic and otherwise psychedelic soundscape that would become a trademark of the European progressive rock movement. Another epic, "For Richard" quickly found solid standing as the Caravan live performance closer for decades after first appearing on this album. Juxtaposed against these pieces are several shorter works, which in essence clear the palette for the longer ones. The title track, as well as "Hello, Hello" are perfect examples of how Caravan was able to one-up many of their progressive contemporaries, creating shorter and more accessible songs for radio airplay — resulting in a guest appearance on BBC TV's Top of the Pops program.

01."If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" – 3:07
02."And I Wish I Were Stoned / Don't Worry" – 8:20
03."As I Feel I Die" – 5:06
04."With an Ear to the Ground You Can Make It / Martinian / Only Cox / Reprise" – 9:54
05."Hello Hello" – 3:45
06."Asforteri" – 1:21
07."Can't Be Long Now / Francoise / For Richard / Warlock" – 14:21
08."Limits" – 1:35

Bonus tracks
09."A Day in the Life of Maurice Haylett" – 5:40
10."Why? (And I Wish I Were Stoned) – 4:22
11."Clipping the 8th (Hello Hello)" – 3:13
12."As I Feel I Die" – 4:39

Caravan - It The Land of Grey and Pink (UK 1971) (24-Bit)

2011-11-09T14:19:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.)

In the Land of Grey and Pink is an album by progressive rock band Caravan, released in 1971. According to Allmusic, "it is considered by many to be the pinnacle release from Caravan." It has remained in the catalogue ever since its original release in 1971.

Along with the Soft Machine, Caravan were a leading exponent of what became known as "the Canterbury sound" - a concoction of styles including jazz, classical and traditional English influences.

In the Land of Grey and Pink is considered by many to be a pinnacle release from Caravan. The album contains an undeniable and decidedly European sense of humor and charm. In addition, this would mark the end of the band's premiere lineup. Co-founder David Sinclair would leave Caravan to form Matching Mole with Soft Machine drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt in August of 1971. As a group effort, In the Land of Grey and Pink displays all the ethereal brilliance Caravan created on their previous pair of 12" outings. Their blending of jazz and folk instrumentation and improvisational styles hints at Traffic and Family, as displayed on "Winter Wine," as well as the organ and sax driven instrumental introduction to "Nine Feet Underground." These contrast the decidedly aggressive sounds concurrent with albums from King Crimson or Soft Machine. In fact, beginning with the album's title, there seems to be pastoral qualities and motifs throughout. Another reason enthusiasts rank this album among their favorites is the group dynamic which has rarely sounded more singular or cohesive. David Sinclair's lyrics are of particular note, especially the middle-earth imagery used on "Winter Wine" or the enduring whimsy of "Golf Girl." The remastered version of this album includes previously unissued demos/alternate versions of both tracks under the titles: "It's Likely to Have a Name Next Week" and "Group Girl," respectively. The remastered disc also includes "I Don't Know Its Name (Alias the Word)" and "Aristocracy," two pieces that were completed, but shelved in deference to the time limitations imposed during the days of wine and vinyl. The latter composition would be reworked and released on Caravan's next album, Waterloo Lily. The 12-page liner notes booklet includes expanded graphics, memorabilia, and an essay penned specifically for the reissue.

01. "Golf Girl" R. Sinclair 5:05
02. "Winter Wine" R. Sinclair 7:36
03. "Love to Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)" P. Hastings 3:04
04. "In the Land of Grey and Pink" R. Sinclair 5:00
05. "Nine Feet Underground"
I. "Nigel Blows a Tune"
II. "Love's a Friend"
III. "Make It 76"
IV. "Dance of the Seven Paper Hankies"
V. "Hold Grandad by the Nose"
VI. "Honest I Did!"
VII. "Disassociation"
VIII. "100% Proof"
06. "Frozen Rose" (miscredited as "I Don't Know Its Name (Alias The Word)") R. Sinclair 6:12
07. "Aristocracy" P. Hastings 3:42
08. "It's Likely to have a Name Next Week" (Winter Wine Instrumental) R. Sinclair 7:48
09. "Group Girl" (first version of Golf Girl with different lyrics) R. Sinclair 5:04
10. "Dissassociation/100% Proof" (new mix) D. Sinclair 8:35

Bad Company - S/T (Deras 1a Album UK 1974)

2011-11-09T14:16:00.000+01:00

280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edution. Utgången utgåva.)

Bad Company's 1974 self-titled release stands as one of the most important and accomplished debut hard rock albums from the '70s. Though hardly visionary, it was one of the most successful steps in the continuing evolution of rock & roll, riding on the coattails of achievement from artists like the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. From the simple electric guitar lick on "Can't Get Enough" to the haunting bassline in "Bad Company" and the fast beats of "Movin' On," Bad Company exemplified raw rock & roll at its best. Erupting out of an experimental period created by the likes of Pink Floyd, Bad Company signified a return to more primal, stripped-down rock & roll. Even while labelmates Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and IV featured highly acclaimed, colorful album artwork, Bad Company's austere black and white record cover stood out in stark contrast. Six years later, AC/DC used the same idea on their smash Back in Black. Throughout the 35-minute album, Paul Rodgers' mesmerizing and gritty vocals hardly vary in tonal quality, offering a perfect complement to Mick Ralphs' blues-based guitar work. Several songs include three-chord verses offset by unembellished, distorted choruses, filled rich with Rodgers' cries. Bad Company is an essential addition to the rock & roll library; clearly influential to '70s and '80s hard rock bands like Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Boston.

01."Can't Get Enough" (Mick Ralphs) - 4:16
02."Rock Steady" (Paul Rodgers) - 3:46
03."Ready for Love" (Ralphs) - 5:01
04."Don't Let Me Down" (Rodgers, Ralphs) - 4:22
05."Bad Company" (Rodgers, Simon Kirke) - 4:50
06."The Way I Choose" (Rodgers) - 5:05
07."Movin' On" (Ralphs) - 3:21
08."Seagull" (Rodgers, Ralphs) - 4:06

Badger - One Live Badger (UK 1973)

2011-11-09T13:57:00.000+01:00

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word. Kaye had worked on a solo project by Foster that was never released.

The pair found drummer Roy Dyke, formerly of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, and Dyke suggested Brian Parrish on guitar. The new band signed to Atlantic Records.

Badger's first release was the live album, One Live Badger, co-produced by Jon Anderson and Geoffrey Haslam, and was taken from a show opening for Yes. In the progressive rock genre, five of the songs were co-written by the whole band, with a sixth by Parrish.

The early '70s marked the heyday of progressive rock — it seemed like every time you turned around and everywhere you looked, there were top-flight bands like Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, et al., all around, and their emulators and lesser rivals spreading out as far as the eye could see. Badger was part of that whole scene, a Yes offshoot group that managed to get signed by the same label. Officially, the group's origins go back to 1972 and Tony Kaye's departure from Flash, the group he'd co-founded with his fellow ex-Yes alumni, guitarist Peter Banks. Kaye was a virtuoso who favored more traditional instruments such as the Hammond organ over the more modern Moog synthesizer (not that he didn't play the latter, but he used the organ more prominently), and who had the bad fortune to have been succeeded in Yes by the much flashier Rick Wakeman. This time out, he was going to put together his own progressive rock supergroup, on a firmer footing than Flash (whose work had sometimes strayed too close to that of Yes).

The ex-Yes keyboard player called on his longtime friend David Foster, who had managed to skirt the orbit of Yes several times without ever being asked into that lineup (in part because his instrument was the bass, and Yes was incredibly well covered in that department by Chris Squire). Foster had been a member of the Warriors, Yes lead singer Jon Anderson's mid-'60s group, and had co-authored songs with Anderson on Yes' second album, Time and a Word. Kaye had ended up working with Foster on what was ultimately to be an unreleased Foster album — when Kaye quit Yes in 1971, he initially joined Banks in founding Flash, but after his exit from the latter, Kaye and Foster decided to finally take the plunge. They recruited drummer Roy Dyke, lately a member of Family and, before that, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke — he was a Liverpool veteran whose career went back to the early '60s and the Remo 4 and Brian Epstein protégé Tommy Quickly, and had played on one hit single, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke's "Resurrection Shuffle"; he, in turn, steered the organizers to Brian Parrish, an ex-member of Medicine Head and Three Man Army, who had played with Paul Gurvitz and Mike Kellie in an outfit called Parrish & Gurvitz, who'd cut one LP for Regal Zonophone.

The quartet, christened Badger, fit together perfectly, and after some rehearsals began building a name for itself on a European tour opening for Black Sabbath. The band was signed by Atlantic Records, which already had Yes and saw Badger as potentially offering another group of the same caliber. When it came time to record an album, however, it was decided that nothing they tried in the studio was capturing the intensity and involvement they demonstrated on-stage, and that a live album was the best way to introduce Badger. A show at the Rainbow Theatre, opening for a now well-established Yes, was recorded, produced by Jon Anderson and Geoffrey Haslam. One Live Badger did rather better in Europe than it did in America, though it got strong reviews everywhere. Perhaps if it had come out at another time — and not in the same season that the first wave of progressive rock albums from ELP's Manticore label was being released, with lots of publicity and advertising support — it might've done better, and a single might've been a help (even Yes had needed "Roundabout" to find a mass audience). By 1974, Badger was reduced to Kaye and Dyke, who reconstructed the group along somewhat different lines with the addition of Paul Pilnick, late of Stealers Wheel, on lead guitar, Kim Gardner (of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke) on bass, and ex-Apple alumnus Jackie Lomax on vocals.

In essence, it became Lomax's group, and he pushed the band away from progressive rock and into soul in a serious way; Badger's second album, White Lady, was made up entirely of songs co-authored by Lomax, and produced in New Orleans at Allen Toussaint's studio. The change in direction would have been difficult enough to pull off under the best of conditions, but stability wasn't one of Badger's long suits at this date — the group had split up before White Lady was even issued, leaving bewildered fans of both the old sound and new to ponder what had just happened. Pilnick later returned to the orbit of Stealers Wheel's Joe Egan and Parrish went on to cut a solo album, while Lomax signed with Capitol for two solo albums and Dyke passed through bands behind Pat Travers and jazz veteran Chris Barber. Tony Kaye was a member of Detective and later passed through a re-formed version of Badfinger before re-emerging with Yes in the 1980s, and even got to sing a little on the Union album. Finally, a quarter century after it was recorded, One Live Badger was re-released on CD by Repertoire Records, as part of that label's re-examination of the best progressive rock of the 1970s.

One Live Badger is the easier Badger album to find, and the one worth having anyway. As the album's title indicates, the band also took the unusual step of making their first album a live recording of original songs. It has aged very well — with all the energy of live performance, there's none of the usual studio excesses or noodling of the era. The Yes connection via Tony Kaye is abundantly evident; the album was co-produced by Yes singer Jon Anderson, uses long instrumental breaks and prominent Hammond organ solos, and features the obligatory Roger Dean cover art. Nonetheless, the brooding lyrics and soulful harmonies make comparisons to Traffic and Blind Faith a much closer musical match. The first half of the album is excellent, kicking off with the pleasingly hoarse vocals of David Foster on the full-tilt rocker "Wheel of Fortune" and the pensive "Fountain." There's an especially tight rhythm section underlying the restrained guitar work of "Wind of Change," combining to produce the album's best song. But the second half of the album, with rather mopy numbers like "The Preacher," doesn't quite keep up this momentum.

01. Wheel of Fortune - 7:50
02. Fountain - 7:22
03. Wind of Change - 7:15
04. River - 6:50
05. The Preacher - 3:59
06. On the Way Home - 7:39

Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry Is On Top (US 1959)

2011-11-08T08:57:00.000+01:00

300:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

If you had to sweat all of Chuck Berry's early albums on Chess (and some, but not all, of his subsequent greatest-hits packages), this would be the one to own. The song lineup is exemplary, cobbling together classics like "Maybellene," "Carol," "Sweet Little Rock & Roller," "Little Queenie," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Around and Around," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Almost Grown." With the addition of the Latin-flavored "Hey Pedro," the steel guitar workout "Blues for Hawaiians," "Anthony Boy," and "Jo Jo Gunne," this serves as almost a mini-greatest-hits package in and of itself. While this may be merely a collection of singles and album ballast (as were most rock & roll LPs of the 1950s and early '60s), it ends up being the most perfectly realized of Chuck Berry's career.

01. Almost Grown Berry 2:18
02. Carol Berry 2:44
03. Maybellene Berry, Fratto, Freed 2:18
04. Sweet Little Rock & Roller Berry 2:18
05. Anthony Boy Berry 1:50
06. Johnny B. Goode Berry 2:38
07. Little Queenie Berry 2:40
08. Jo Jo Gunne Berry 2:44
09. Roll over Beethoven Berry 2:20
10. Around and Around Berry 2:20
11. Hey Pedro Berry 1:54
12. Blues for Hawaiians Berry 3:22

+ 11 Bonus

Chuck Berry - One Dozen Berrys (US 1959)

2011-11-08T08:54:00.000+01:00

300:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition, US 1959)

Chuck Berry's second album is ever so slightly more sophisticated than its predecessor. Although One Dozen Berrys is hooked around a pair of hit singles, "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Rock & Roll Music," most of what's here doesn't really sound too much like either of those songs — rather, the other ten tracks each constitute a close-up look at some individual component of the types of music that goes into brewing up the Chuck Berry sound. Thus, the slow instrumental "Blue Feeling" is a look at the blues sound that Berry initially proposed to bring to Chess Records; "How You've Changed" presents him in a slow ballad, singing in a manner closer to Nat "King" Cole than to any rock & roller of the era; and "Lajaunda" shows off his love of Latin music. "Rocking at the Philharmonic" is a rippling guitar/piano workout, a compendium of the sounds that lay beneath those hit singles, and a killer showcase not only for Berry, but also for Lafayette Leake at the ivories, and also a decent showcase for Willie Dixon's bass playing. "Oh Baby Doll" is a return to the beat of "Maybellene," this time carrying a lyric that's more sensual (in a bluesy sense) than rollicking fun, though it comes out that way amid the pounding beat and Berry's crunchy, angular guitar solo. "Guitar Boogie" is yet another guitar instrumental, one of four on this album, leading one to wonder if he was running short of first-rate lyrics in mid-1957, amid his frantic pace of recording and touring — no matter, for the piece is a killer track, a pumping, soaring working out for Berry's guitar that had some of the most impressive pyrotechnics that one was likely to hear in 1957; what's more, the track was good enough to form the template for Jeff Beck's more ornate adaptation, "Jeff's Boogie," from the 1966 album Roger the Engineer (aka The Yardbirds aka Over Under Sideways Down). The best of the album's tracks is easily "Reelin' & Rockin'," which is also just about the dirtiest song that Berry released in all of the 1950s (and for many years after that), essentially a blues-boogie recasting, on a more overt level, of the extended feats of sexual intercourse alluded to in Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock." The one totally weird track here is "Low Feeling," which is nothing but "Blue Feeling" doctored in the studio by Leonard and Phil Chess, slowed down to half speed and edited to create a 12th track — doing that to the original was bad enough, but sticking it on the same LP with the original was downright bizarre. And the album's closer, "It Don't Take But a Few Minutes," is a reminder of just how much Berry owed to country music for his sound, and explains, to anyone coming in late, how he could have been mistaken for a white hillbilly in those early days, based on the sound of this song and "Maybelline."

01. Sweet Little Sixteen Berry
02. Blue Feeling. Berry
03. La Jaunda (Espanola)
04. Rockin' at the Philharmonic. Berry
05. Oh Baby Doll. Berry
06. Guitar Boogie. Berry
07. Reelin' and Rockin'. Berry
08. In-Go
09. Rock & Roll Music. Berry
10. How You've Changed. Berry
11. Low Feeling Berry.
12. It Don't Take But a Few Minutes. Berry

+ 14 Bonus

Muddy Waters - The Best Of (Rare 1st Album US 1955)

2011-10-21T15:46:00.003+02:00

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Editionom. Hans 1:a album men man kan tro att det är det sista. Myvket svårt album att hitta nu. PASSA PÅ)

The Best of Muddy Waters is a 1958 greatest hits album by Muddy Waters released by Chess Records in April 1958. With gaining popularity for 33 & 1/3 rpms (commonly called LPs) Chess Records started releasing its first LPs in 1958. The Best of Muddy Waters (released sometime in April 1958 according to Billboard magazine) was the third LP that Chess released. The album was re-released in CD format in 1997 by Chess and MCA Records.

A postwar Chicago blues scene without the magnificent contributions of Muddy Waters is absolutely unimaginable. From the late '40s on, he eloquently defined the city's aggressive, swaggering, Delta-rooted sound with his declamatory vocals and piercing slide guitar attack. When he passed away in 1983, the Windy City would never quite recover.

Like many of his contemporaries on the Chicago circuit, Waters was a product of the fertile Mississippi Delta. Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, he grew up in nearby Clarksdale on Stovall's Plantation. His idol was the powerful Son House, a Delta patriarch whose flailing slide work and intimidating intensity Waters would emulate in his own fashion.

Musicologist Alan Lomax traveled through Stovall's in August of 1941 under the auspices of the Library of Congress, in search of new talent for purposes of field recording. With the discovery of Morganfield, Lomax must have immediately known he'd stumbled across someone very special.

Setting up his portable recording rig in the Delta bluesman's house, Lomax captured for Library of Congress posterity Waters' mesmerizing rendition of "I Be's Troubled," which became his first big seller when he recut it a few years later for the Chess brothers' Aristocrat logo as "I Can't Be Satisfied." Lomax returned the next summer to record his bottleneck-wielding find more extensively, also cutting sides by the Son Simms Four (a string band that Waters belonged to).

Waters was renowned for his blues-playing prowess across the Delta, but that was about it until 1943, when he left for the bright lights of Chicago. A tiff with "the bossman" apparently also had a little something to do with his relocation plans. By the mid-'40s, Waters' slide skills were becoming a recognized entity on Chicago's south side, where he shared a stage or two with pianists Sunnyland Slim and Eddie Boyd and guitarist Blue Smitty. Producer Lester Melrose, who still had the local recording scene pretty much sewn up in 1946, accompanied Waters into the studio to wax a date for Columbia, but the urban nature of the sides didn't electrify anyone in the label's hierarchy and remained unissued for decades.

Sunnyland Slim played a large role in launching the career of Muddy Waters. The pianist invitedhim to provide accompaniment for his 1947 Aristocrat session that would produce "Johnson Machine Gun." One obstacle remained beforehand: Waters had a day gig delivering Venetian blinds. But he wasn't about to let such a golden opportunity slip through his talented fingers. He informed his boss that a fictitious cousin had been murdered in an alley, so he needed a little time off to take care of business.

When Sunnyland had finished that auspicious day, Waters sang a pair of numbers, "Little Anna Mae" and "Gypsy Woman," that would become his own Aristocrat debut 78. They were rawer than the Columbia stuff, but not as inexorably down-home as "I Can't Be Satisfied" and its flip, "I Feel Like Going Home" (the latter was his first national R&B hit in 1948). With Big Crawford slapping the bass behind Waters' gruff growl and slashing slide, "I Can't Be Satisfied" was such a local sensation that even Muddy Waters himself had a hard time buying a copy down on Maxwell Street.

He assembled a band that was so tight and vicious on-stage that they were informally known as "the Headhunters"; they'd come into a bar where a band was playing, ask to sit in, and then "cut the heads" of their competitors with their superior musicianship. Little Walter, of course, would single-handily revolutionize the role of the harmonica within the Chicago blues hierarchy; Jimmy Rogers was an utterly dependable second guitarist; and Baby Face Leroy Foster could play both drums and guitar. On top of their instrumental skills, all four men could sing powerfully.

1951 found Waters climbing the R&B charts no less than four times, beginning with "Louisiana Blues," and continuing through "Long Distance Call," "Honey Bee," and "Still a Fool." Although it didn't chart, his 1950 classic "Rollin' Stone" provided a certain young British combo with a rather enduring name. Leonard Chess himself provided the incredibly unsubtle bass-drum bombs on Waters' 1952 smash "She Moves Me."

"Mad Love," his only chart bow in 1953, is noteworthy as the first hit to feature the rolling piano of Otis Spann, who would anchor the Waters aggregation for the next 16 years. By this time, Foster was long gone from the band, but Rogers remained, and Chess insisted that Walter -- by then a popular act in his own right -- make nearly every Waters session into 1958 (why break up a winning combination?). There was one downside to having such a peerless band; as the ensemble work got tighter and more urbanized, Waters' trademark slide guitar was largely absent on many of his Chess waxings. Willie Dixon was playing an increasingly important role in Muddy Waters' success. In addition to slapping his upright bass on Waters' platters, the burly Dixon was writing one future bedrock standard after another for him: "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," "Just Make Love to Me," and "I'm Ready," seminal performances all, and each blasted to the uppermost reaches of the R&B lists in 1954.

When labelmate Bo Diddley borrowed Waters' swaggering beat for his strutting "I'm a Man" in 1955, Waters turned around and did him tit for tat by reworking the tune ever so slightly as "Mannish Boy" and enjoying his own hit. "Sugar Sweet," a pile-driving rocker with Spann's 88s anchoring the proceedings, also did well that year. 1956 brought three more R&B smashes: "Trouble No More," "Forty Days & Forty Nights," and "Don't Go No Farther." But rock & roll was quickly blunting the momentum of veteran blues aces like Waters; Chess was growing more attuned to the modern sounds of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, the Moonglows, and the Flamingos. Ironically, it was Muddy Waters who had sent Berry to Chess in the first place.

After that, there was only one more chart item, 1958's typically uncompromising (and metaphorically loaded) "Close to You." But Waters' Chess output was still of uniformly stellar quality, boasting gems like "Walking Thru the Park" (as close as he was likely to come to mining a rock & roll groove) and "She's Nineteen Years Old," among the first sides to feature James Cotton's harp instead of Walter's, in 1958. That was also the year that Muddy Waters and Spann made their first sojourn to England, where his electrified guitar horrified sedate Britishers accustomed to the folksy homilies of Big Bill Broonzy. Perhaps chagrined by the response, Waters paid tribute to Broonzy with a solid LP of his material in 1959.

Cotton was apparently the bandmember who first turned Muddy on to "Got My Mojo Working," originally cut by Ann Cole in New York. Waters' 1956 cover was pleasing enough but went nowhere on the charts. But when the band launched into a supercharged version of the same tune at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, Cotton and Spann put an entirely new groove to it, making it an instant classic (fortuitously, Chess was on hand to capture the festivities on tape).

As the 1960s dawned, Muddy Waters' Chess sides were sounding a trifle tired. Oh, the novelty thumper "Tiger in Your Tank" packed a reasonably high-octane wallop, but his adaptation of Junior Wells' "Messin' with the Kid" (as "Messin' with the Man") and a less-than-timely "Muddy Waters Twist" were a long way removed indeed from the mesmerizing Delta sizzle that Waters had purveyed a decade earlier.

Overdubbing his vocal over an instrumental track by guitarist Earl Hooker, Waters laid down an uncompromising "You Shook Me" in 1962 that was a step in the right direction. Drummer Casey Jones supplied some intriguing percussive effects on another 1962 workout, "You Need Love," which Led Zeppelin liked so much that they purloined it as their own creation later on.
In the wake of the folk-blues boom, Waters reverted to an acoustic format for a fine 1964 LP, Folk Singer, that found him receiving superb backing from guitarist Buddy Guy, Dixon on bass, and drummer Clifton James. In October, he ventured overseas again as part of the Lippmann- and Rau-promoted American Folk Blues Festival, sharing the bill with Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim, Big Joe Williams, and Lonnie Johnson. The personnel of the Waters band was much more fluid during the 1960s, but he always whipped them into first-rate shape. Guitarists Pee Wee Madison, Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson, and Sammy Lawhorn; harpists Mojo Buford and George Smith; bassists Jimmy Lee Morris and Calvin "Fuzz" Jones; and drummers Francis Clay and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (along with Spann, of course) all passed through the ranks.

In 1964, Waters cut a two-sided gem for Chess, "The Same Thing"/"You Can't Lose What You Never Had," that boasted a distinct 1950s feel in its sparse, reflexive approach. Most of his subsequent Chess catalog, though, is fairly forgettable. Worst of all were two horrific attempts to make him a psychedelic icon. 1968's Electric Mud forced Waters to ape his pupils via an unintentionally hilarious cover of the Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together." After the Rain was no improvement the following year.

Partially salvaging this barren period in his discography was the Fathers and Sons project, also done in 1969 for Chess, which paired Muddy Waters and Spann with local youngbloods Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield in a multi-generational celebration of legitimate Chicago blues.

After a period of steady touring worldwide but little standout recording activity, Waters' studio fortunes were resuscitated by another of his legion of disciples, guitarist Johnny Winter. Signed to Blue Sky, a Columbia subsidiary, Waters found himself during the making of the first LP, Hard Again; backed by pianist Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie Smith, and guitarist Bob Margolin from his touring band, Cotton on harp, and Winter's slam-bang guitar, Waters roared like a lion who had just awoken from a long nap.

Three subsequent Blue Sky albums continued the heartwarming back-to-the-basics campaign. In 1980, his entire combo split to form the Legendary Blues Band; needless to note, he didn't have much trouble assembling another one (new members included pianist Lovie Lee, guitarist John Primer, and harpist Mojo Buford).

By the time of his death in 1983, Waters' exalted place in the history of blues (and 20th century popular music, for that matter) was eternally assured. The Chicago blues genre that he turned upside down during the years following World War II would never recover.

01. "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Willie Dixon) Chess #1571 2:49
02. "Long Distance Call" Chess #1452 2:38
03. "Louisiana Blues" Chess #1441 2:49
04. "Honey Bee" Chess #1468 3:20
05. "Rollin' Stone" Chess #1426 3:05
06. "I'm Ready" (Dixon) Chess #1579 3:01
07. "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" (Dixon) Chess #1560 2:49
08. "She Moves Me" Chess #1490 2:54
09. "I Want You to Love Me" unknown 3:01
10. "Standin' Around Cryin'" Chess #1526 3:19
11. "Still a Fool" unknown 3:14
12. "I Can't Be Satisfied" Aristocrat #1305 2:41
+ Alot of Bonus Tracks

Sonny Boy Williamson - Bummer Road (Singles US 1957-64)

2011-10-21T14:31:00.017+02:00

310:- (24-Bit Limited Edition. Mycket svår att finna nu.)

Retaining photographer Don Bronstein's cover shot of a disheveled bum lying on the sidewalk (some former Chess artist, perhaps?) Sonny Boy Williamson's original 1959 album made it to digital reissue but has now been supplanted by MCA's exhaustive The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson. Still, for a budget price, there are a dozen unforgettable tracks: "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," and his Checker debut; "All My Love in Vain," "Wake Up Baby," "99," "Cross My Heart," "Let Me Explain," and "The Key (To Your Door)."

Sonny Boy Williamson (this being version 2.0, Rice Miller) was one of the great characters in blues, and his 1959 debut album absolutely overflows with personality. The Arkansas native was 60 years old by this time, but the years, if anything, made him an even more headstrong, commanding artist than he was by nature. Williamson was a truly gifted songwriter capable of penning vivid lyrics that ranked with the best in the genre. Indeed, Down and Out Blues is rife with Sonny Boy songs that have become blues staples, including "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," "Fattening Frogs for Snakes," and "Your Funeral and My Trial."

Chess Records' crack regulars, spearheaded by guitarists Muddy Waters and Robert Jr. Lockwood, provide suitably gritty support, helping to make this 12-song set one of the touchstones of electric blues. Retaining photographer Don Bronstein's cover shot of a disheveled bum lying on the sidewalk (some former Chess artist, perhaps?) Sonny Boy Williamson's original 1959 album

Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey, hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim and simply wrote, played and sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into black phonograph records. His delivery was sly, evil and world-weary, while his harp-playing was full of short, rhythmic bursts one minute and powerful, impassioned blowing the next. His songs were chock-full of mordant wit, with largely autobiographical lyrics that hold up to the scrutiny of the printed page. Though he took his namesake from another well-known harmonica player, no one really sounded like him.

A moody, bitter, and suspicious man, no one wove such a confusing web of misinformation as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Even his birth date (stated as December 5, 1899 in most reference books, but some sources claim his birth may have been in either 1897 or 1909) and real name (Aleck or Alex or Willie "Rice" — which may or may not be a nickname — Miller or Ford) cannot be verified with absolute certainty. Of his childhood days in Mississippi, absolutely nothing is known. What is known is that by the mid-'30s, he was traveling the Delta working under the alias of Little Boy Blue. With blues legends like Robert Johnson, Robert Nighthawk, Robert Jr. Lockwood, and Elmore James as interchangeable playing partners, he worked the juke joints, fish fries, country suppers and ballgames of the era. By the early '40s, he was the star of KFFA's King Biscuit Time, the first live blues radio show to hit the American airwaves. As one of the major ruses to occur in blues history, his sponsor — the Interstate Grocery Company — felt they could push more sacks of their King Biscuit Flour with Miller posing as Chicago harmonica star John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In today's everybody-knows-everything video age, it's hard to think that such an idea would work, much less prosper. After all, the real Sonny Boy was a national recording star, and Miller's vocal and harmonica style was in no way derivative of him. But Williamson had no desire to tour in the South, so prosper it did, and when John Lee was murdered in Chicago, Miller became — in his own words — "the original Sonny Boy." Among his fellow musicians, he was usually still referred to as Rice Miller, but to the rest of the world he did, indeed, become the Sonny Boy Williamson.

The show was an immediate hit, prompting IGC to introduce Sonny Boy Corn Meal, complete with a likeness of Williamson on the front of the package. With all this local success, however, Sonny Boy was not particularly anxious to record. Though he often claimed in his twilight years that he had recorded in the '30s, no evidence of that appears to have existed. Lillian McMurray, the owner of Trumpet Records in Jackson, MS, had literally tracked him down to a boarding house in nearby Belzoni and enticed him to record for her. The music Sonny Boy made for her between 1951 to 1954 show him in peak form, his vocal, instrumental, and songwriting skills honed to perfection. Williamson struck paydirt on his first Trumpet release, "Eyesight to the Blind" and though the later production on his Chess records would make the Trumpet sides seem woefully under-recorded by comparison, they nonetheless stand today as classic performances, capturing juke joint blues in one of its finest hours.

Another major contribution to the history of the blues occurred when Sonny Boy brought King Biscuit Time guest star Elmore James into the studio for a session. With Williamson blowing harp, a drummer keeping time, and the tape machine running surreptitiously, Elmore recorded the first version of what would become his signature tune, Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom." By this time Sonny Boy had divorced his first wife (who also happened to be Howlin' Wolf's sister) and married Mattie Gordon. This would prove to be the longest and most enduring relationship of his life outside of music, with Mattie putting up with the man's rambling ways, and living a life of general rootlessness in the bargain. On two different occasions Sonny Boy moved to Detroit, taking up residence in the Baby Boy Warren band for brief periods, and contributed earth-shattering solos on Warren sides for Blue Lake and Excello in 1954.

By early 1955, after leasing a single to Johnny Vincent's Ace label, McMurray had sold Williamson's contract to Buster Williams in Memphis, who in turn sold it to Leonard Chess in Chicago. All the pieces were finally tumbling into place, and Sonny Boy finally had a reason to take up permanent residence north of the Mason-Dixon line; he now was officially a Chess recording artist. His first session for Chess took place on August 12, 1955, and the single pulled from it, "Don't Start Me to Talkin'," started doing brisk business on the R&B charts. By his second session for the label, he was reunited with longtime musical partner Robert Jr. Lockwood. Lockwood — who had been one of the original King Biscuit Boys — had become de facto house guitarist for Chess, as well as moonlighting for other Chicago labels. With Lockwood's combination of Robert Johnson rhythms and jazz chord embellishments, Williamson's harp and parched vocals sounded fresher than ever and Lockwood's contributions to the success of Sonny Boy's Chess recordings cannot be overestimated.

For a national recording artist, Williamson had a remarkable penchant for pulling a disappearing act for months at a time. Sometimes, when Chicago bookings got too lean, he would head back to Arkansas, fronting the King Biscuit radio show for brief periods. But in 1963 he was headed to Europe for the first time, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival. The folk music boom was in full swing and Europeans were bringing over blues artists, both in and past their prime, to face wildly appreciative white audiences for the first time. Sonny Boy unleashed his bag of tricks and stole the show every night. He loved Europe and stayed behind in Britain when the tour headed home. He started working the teenage beat club circuit, touring and recording with the Yardbirds and Eric Burdon's band, whom he always referred to as "de Mammimals." On the folk-blues tours, Sonny Boy would be very dignified and laid-back. But in the beat club setting, with young, white bands playing on eleven behind him, he'd pull out every juke joint trick he used with the King Biscuit Boys and drive the kids nuts. "Help Me" became a surprise hit in Britain and across Europe. Then in his mid-'60s (or possibly older), Williamson was truly appreciative of all the attention, and contemplated moving to Europe permanently. But after getting a harlequin, two-tone, city gentleman's suit (complete with bowler hat, rolled umbrella and attaché case full of harmonicas) made up for himself, he headed back to the States — and the Chess studios — for some final sessions. When he returned to England in 1964, it was as a conquering hero. One of his final recordings, with Jimmy Page on guitar, was entitled "I'm Trying to Make London My In 1965, he headed home, back to Mississippi one last time, and took over the King Biscuit show again. Still wearing his custom-made suit, he regaled the locals with stories of his travels across Europe. Some were impressed, others who had known him for years felt he could have just as well substituted the name "Mars" for Europe in explaining his exploits, so used were they to Sonny Boy's tall tales. But after hoboing his way around the United States for thirty-odd years, and playing to appreciative audiences throughout Europe, Sonny Boy had a perfectly good reason for returning to the Delta; he had come home to die. He would enlist the help of old friends like Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis to take him around to all the back-road spots he had seen as a boy, sometimes paying his respects to old friends, other days just whiling away an afternoon on the banks of a river fishing.

hen Ronnie Hawkins' ex-bandmates, the Hawks, were playing in the area, they made a special point of seeking out Sonny Boy and spent an entire evening backing him up in a juke joint. All through the night, Williamson kept spitting into a coffee can beside him. When Robbie Robertson got up to leave the bandstand during a break, he noticed the can was filled with blood. On May 25, 1965, Curtis and Stackhouse were waiting at the KFFA studios for Sonny Boy to do the daily King Biscuit broadcast. When Williamson didn't show, Curtis left the station and headed to the rooming house where Sonny Boy was staying, only to find him lying in bed, dead of an apparent heart attack. He was buried in the Whitfield Cemetery in Tutwiler, MS, and his funeral was well-attended. As Houston Stackhouse said, "He was well thought of through that country." He was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in

01. Don't Start Me To Talkin
02. I Don't Know
03. All My Love In Vain
04. Key
05. Keep It To Yourself
06. Dissatisfied
07. Fattening Frogs For Snakes
08. Wake Up Baby
09. Your Funeral & My Trial
10. 99 - (studio)
11. Cross My Heart
12. Let Me Explain
13. I Don't Know (bonus track)
14. Fattening Frogs For Snakes (Outtake) (bonus track)
15. Your Imagination (bonus track)
16. Let Your Consciousness Be Your Guide (bonus track)
17. Trust Me Baby (bonus track)
18. Bye Bye Bird (bonus track)

The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday (US 1967)

2011-10-20T16:45:00.001+02:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. För länge sedan utgången utgåva.

Younger Than Yesterday is the fourth album from the folk-rock group The Byrds, released in February of 1967 on Columbia Records, catalogue item CL 2642 in mono, CS 9442 in stereo. It peaked at #24 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart during a stay of 24 weeks, and made it to #37 in the United Kingdom. As per previous history, the band released a lead single ahead of the album, "So You Want to Be A Rock and Roll Star" on January 9, its highest chart position being #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two additional singles were taken from the album, "My Back Pages" and "Have You Seen Her Face," making it to #30 and #74 respectively, "My Back Pages" the final time the band broke the Top 40 in the United States.

Settling into their new existence as a quartet, Roger McGuinn and David Crosby continued to hone their songwriting skills, and Michael Clarke, initially hired for his looks, had matured into a competent and at times impressive drummer. Probably the most surprising development was the emergence of Chris Hillman as the band's third writer, jumping from a shared credit for an instrumental on the previous LP to four full credits on this album, as well as a co-write of the lead single. That single, an acerbic but good-natured swipe at the success of manufactured rock bands like The Monkees, suggested certain ironies due to the pre-fabricated elements of the Byrds' own career, leading some fans to mistake it as autobiographical. Hillman's bass playing is on full display as he constructs a series of variations on the main riff, the production rounded out by the sound of screaming teenage girls, taped at a Byrds show in Bournemouth, England during the band's 1965 UK tour. South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela contributed the clarion trumpet solo on "Rock and Roll Star;" both he and the Byrds would appear in late spring at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival.

Sessions for this album marked the beginning of a successful relationship with past Brian Wilson foil Gary Usher, who would go on to produce the band's next two albums as well. Hillman's country-rock flavored songs, "Time Between" and "The Girl with No Name," the latter about a young lady actually named Girl Freiberg, featured the sterling country chops of Clarence White. Both songs anticipated the future direction of the band in both style and personnel, as White would be the constant in the band opposite McGuinn during its latter-day country-influenced line-up.

Crosby's skills had improved rapidly, his moody jazz-influenced "Everybody's Been Burned" the first holistic example of his artistic voice seen in later work, notably his unique debut solo album. His ambitions expanded equally, however, beginning turmoil that would eventually lead to Crosby's dismissal from the group. McGuinn had fashioned a brilliant Dylan cover, and at the behest of manager Jim Dickson the band placed their version of Dylan's disavowal of topical folk-protest "My Back Pages" on Yesterday over Crosby's objections. The fourth time the band dipped into the well of his fourth album, the track is often cited as one of their strongest Dylan interpretations. By contrast, Crosby had insisted upon the inclusion of two tracks, one the band detested, "Mind Gardens" derided by McGuinn as having no "rhythm, meter, or rhyme." The album closed with Crosby's second resolution, an alternate recording of "Why" cut during Fifth Dimension sessions; a lesser attempt than the great b-side to "Eight Miles High," Crosby pushed for its inclusion despite the availability of other new material. Related to these disagreements or not, the band obstructed another song composed by Crosby, "Lady Friend," from appearing on Yesterday, eventually recorded and issued instead as a single on July 13, four weeks after Crosby's guest appearance with Buffalo Springfield at Monterey Pop. During the Byrds' set at that event, in between numbers Crosby digressed on the fallacies of the Warren Commission Report, and on the benefits of LSD, which infuriated McGuinn.

Friction between Crosby and his bandmatespite the album's moderate chart performance, its critical stature has grown substantially over the years. In 2003, the album was ranked number 124 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Younger Than Yesterday was remixed and remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series, reissued in an expanded form on April 30, 1996. The six bonus tracks included both sides of the "Lady Friend" single, another exemplary Crosby track puzzlingly left off the album "It Happens Each Day," a throwaway written for a Tony Curtis/Claudia Cardinale film vehicle of the same name, "Don't Make Waves," and an instrumental "Mind Gardens" as a hidden track.

01. "So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star" (McGuinn/Hillman) – 2:05
02. "Have You Seen Her Face" (Hillman) – 2:40
03. "C.T.A.-102" (McGuinn/R.J. Hippard) – 2:28
04. "Renaissance Fair" (Crosby/McGuinn) – 1:51
05. "Time Between" (Hillman) – 1:53
06. "Everybody's Been Burned" (Crosby) – 3:05
07. "Thoughts and Words" (Hillman) – 2:56
08. "Mind Gardens" (Crosby) – 3:46
09. "My Back Pages" (Dylan) – 3:08
10. "The Girl with No Name" (Hillman) – 1:50
11. "Why" (McGuinn/Crosby) – 2:45

Bonus Tracks
12. "It Happens Each Day" (Crosby) – 2:44
13. "Don’t Make Waves" (McGuinn/Hillman) – 1:36
14. "My Back Pages" (Dylan) – 2:42 (alternate version)
15. "Mind Gardens" (Crosby) – 3:17 (alternate version)
16. "Lady Friend" (Crosby) – 2:30 (A-side single)
17. "Old John Robertson (Hillman/McGuinn) – 5:06 (B-side single) / "Mind Gardens" (Crosby) (instrumental - take 1)

The Byrds - Sweetheart of The Rodeo (US 1968)

2011-10-20T16:19:00.001+02:00

320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.

Utgången utgåva sedan länge.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds, released on July 29, 1968 (see 1968 in music). Along with Bradley's Barn by The Beau Brummels, John Stewart's California Bloodlines, the Everly Brothers' Roots, Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding and Safe at Home by The Internå´¨ational Submarine Band, Sweetheart of the Rodeo would serve as one of the seminal recordings of country-rock and remains influential to this day despite being the most commercially unsuccessful album recorded by the group at the time of its release.

In January 1968, after the release of The Notorious Byrd Brothers and the departures of both David Crosby and Michael Clarke, the remaining two members, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman decided to push forward. As de facto leader of the band, McGuinn wanted the group to expand upon the genre-bending approach of the previous album, recording an ambitious double-album overview of American musical forms that began with Bluegrass, wove through Jazz-oriented material, and culminated with a side of electronica featuring the Moog modular synthesizer that he had acquired during the Notorious sessions. To this end, McGuinn sought out a pianist with a jazz background to join the group.

On the other hand, Hillman (who came from a musical background firmly rooted in bluegrass) clearly sought the opportunity as a way to expand the country influence within the group. Several Hillman-composed songs on Younger Than Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers had a pronounced twangy feel to them and featured Clarence White (a guitar pioneer in bluegrass) on lead guitar rather than McGuinn.

By the end of the winter of 1968, McGuinn had hired Kevin Kelley (Hillman's cousin) as drummer and 21-year-old Gram Parsons to play rhythm guitar and piano. Parsons, a marginal figure in the L.A. music scene, and Hillman had been acquainted with one another since 1967, while his faux-jazz piano playing and genial personality had fooled McGuinn at audition. It soon became apparent that Parsons and Hillman wanted to record a blend of what the former had termed "cosmic American music", a compendium of various roots forms that primarily was oriented towards honky tonk country music but also included American folk, soul, 1950s R&B, early rock and roll and contemporary rock. Following the path of Bob Dylan on John Wesley Harding, Parsons desired to record the group's new album in the country music capital of Nashville.
While McGuinn felt that the new developments were conspicuous and had reservations, he decided that such a move could theoretically expand the already declining audience of the group after much prodding from other band members and longtime producer Gary Usher. Decamping to Music Row with Clarence White in tow, the band — accompanied by several prominent session musicians — recorded versions of fifteen songs, although some of these tracks were recorded or completed in L.A. after the Nashville sessions. These included two country-influenced Dylan covers from his then-unreleased Basement Tapes ("You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Nothing Was Delivered"), some covers of classic country songs ("I Am A Pilgrim", "The Christian Life", "Blue Canadian Rockies"), other covers of contemporary country songs ("Life in Prison", "You're Still On My Mind"), a Stax hit ("You Don't Miss Your Water"), three Parsons originals ("Hickory Wind", "Lazy Days", "One Hundred Years From Now"), a Kelley original ("All I Have Are Memories"), Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd", the folk chestnut "Pretty Polly" and folk singer-songwriter Tim Hardin's "You Got A Reputation".

During the recording of the album, the band (introduced by future "outlaw" country star Tompall Glaser) appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. Greeted initially with derision by the conservative audience, their version of Merle Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home" was received warmly. Any hope of salvaging the opportunity however was immediately annihilated when Parsons, rather than singing Haggard's "Life In Prison" as announced by Glaser, launched into a rendition of "Hickory Wind" dedicated to his grandmother. The deviation from protocol stunned Opry regulars like Roy Acuff, and an embarrassed Glaser reportedly attempted to assault several Byrds backstage.

Nearly as disastrous was the group's appearance on the WSM program of legendary Nashville DJ Ralph Emery, who continually mocked his guests throughout the interview and initially refused to play an acetate of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." Eventually playing the record, he shockingly dismissed it over the air and in the presence of the band as being mediocre. Clearly upset by their treatment, upon returning to Los Angeles, Parsons and McGuinn would make Emery the intended subject of their oft-covered "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" ("He's a drug store truck drivin' man/He's the leader of the Ku Klux Klan", although it should be noted that Emery was not a Klansman).

Post-production of the album was tumultuous. Parsons' appearance was contested by Lee Hazlewood, who contended that the singer was still technically under contract to his record company. While the problem was resolved — Parsons sings lead on "Hickory Wind" and "You're Still on My Mind" — McGuinn ended up replacing three of the new member's lead vocals with his own singing, a move that still infuriated Parsons as late as 1973, when he told an interviewer that "he [McGuinn] erased it and did the vocals himself and fucked it up". According to Usher:

“ McGuinn was a little bit edgy that Parsons was getting a little bit too much out of this whole thing.... He didn't want the album to turn into a Gram Parsons album. We wanted to keep Gram's voice in there, but we also wanted the recognition to come from Hillman and McGuinn, obviously. You just don't take a hit group and interject a new singer for no reason.... There were legal problems but they were resolved and the album had just the exact amount of Gram Parsons that McGuinn, Hillman and I wanted. ”

The line-up for the album was very short lived. After playing a handful of concerts throughout the Los Angeles area, including a party at Ciro's (where the original line-up of The Byrds first gained acclaim) for legendary publicist Derek Taylor, the band embarked on a short European tour. Tapes reveal a very schizophrenic ensemble playing psychedelic-oriented material alongside the Nashville songs. A lipsynched performance on television found Parsons, who, in between concerts, had visited Stonehenge and befriended Keith Richards in what would become one of rock's most infamous associations, sarcastically miming McGuinn's "Eight Miles High" solo on Dobro.

The Byrds were set to follow a reprise English appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in July with a tour of South Africa when Parsons announced he would not be going along in protest at the country's policies of apartheid (a policy that did not cease until 1994), even though McGuinn had been falsely assured by promoters that the audiences would be integrated. Some members of the band doubted the sincerity of Parsons' protest, and ultimately McGuinn and Hillman fired him from the band after their return to the United States (a roadie filled in on rhythm guitar during the tour). Eventually replacing him was none other than longtime Byrd-in-waiting Clarence White. Kevin Kelley soon left as well, leaving McGuinn and Hillman, once again, to decide the future of The Byrds.

Released at a time when The Byrds' surprising immersion into the world of country coincided with declining commercial appeal, Sweetheart of the Rodeo only reached seventy-seven on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, while the single "You Ain't Going Nowhere" reached seventy-four on the Pop Singles chart. After having a hit with The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Sweetheart of the Rodeo missed the UK charts completely.Although an uncommercial proposition at time, Sweetheart of the Rodeo proved to be a major landmark album, and its effects are still felt to this day, serving as a blueprint of sorts for the approach of not only Parsons' and Hillman's Flying Burrito Brothers, but of the nascent 1970s Los Angeles country-rock movement, outlaw country, the New Traditionalists, and the so-called alternative country of the 1990s and 2000s. It is widely considered to be The Byrds' last truly influential album.

01."You Ain't Going Nowhere" (Bob Dylan) – 2:38

02."I Am a Pilgrim" (trad. arr. Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman) – 3:42

03."The Christian Life" (Charles Louvin, Ira Louvin) – 2:33

04."You Don't Miss Your Water" (William Bell) – 3:51

05."You're Still on My Mind" (Luke McDaniel) – 2:26

06."Pretty Boy Floyd" (Woody Guthrie) – 2:37

07."Hickory Wind" (Gram Parsons, Bob Buchanan) – 3:34

08."One Hundred Years from Now" (Parsons) – 2:43

09."Blue Canadian Rockies" (Cindy Walker) – 2:05

10."Life in Prison" (Merle Haggard, J. Sanders) – 2:47

11."Nothing Was Delivered" (Bob Dylan) – 3:34

Bonus Tracks

12."You Got a Reputation" (Tim Hardin) – 3:08

13."Lazy Days" (Parsons) – 3:26

14."Pretty Polly" (trad. arr. Hillman, McGuinn) – 2:53

15."The Christian Life" [Rehearsal – Take #11] (C. Louvin, I. Louvin) – 2:55

16."Life in Prison" [Rehearsal – Take #11] (Haggard, J. Sanders) – 2:58

17."You’re Still on My Mind" [Rehearsal – Take #43] (McDaniel) – 2:29

18."One Hundred Years from Now" [Rehearsal – Take #2] (Parsons) – 2:20

19."All I Have Are Memories" [Instrumental] (E.D. Hewitt, R. J. Ledford) – 4:47