Terry Reid - Bang Bang, You're TERRY REID (1a Albumet US 1968)

280:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. 1a lbumet 1968. Innehåller 7 bonuslåtar.)

Bang, Bang introduced a hard rocker whose eclecticism was both impressive and unnervingly inconsistent. The covers of "Season of the Witch" and "Summertime Blues" are overlong and dated, but the frenetic version of Cher's "Bang, Bang" is inspired, and the rendition of Gene Pitney's "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" shows his poppier roots. 

Over half of the material was penned by Reid, and while these compositions are sometimes generic, late-'60s hard rockers, he also shows a facility for Donavonesque folk-rock "("Sweater"") and impressive soul-rock vocalizing ("When I Get Home"). Originally not released in the U.K., it's ironically only available now as a U.K. import.

A minor but interesting late-'60s British rock singer, Terry Reid could have been a lot more famous if he had been able to accept the slot of lead singer for the New Yardbirds in 1968. That slot, of course, went to Robert Plant, and the New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin. Unlike Plant, Reid was also a guitarist, and the opportunity to head his own group no doubt played a part in his decision to gun for a solo career. Leading a guitar-organ-drums power trio, he recorded a couple of respectable, though erratic, hard rock albums while still a teenager in the late '60s. Some bad breaks and creative stagnation combined to virtually bring his career to a halt, and he never cashed in on the momentum of his promising start.

Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid A teen prodigy of sorts, Reid had turned professional at the age of 15 to join Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers. His first couple of singles as a headliner found him singing in a sort of poppy blue-eyed soul vein. But by the time of his 1968 debut Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid, produced by Mickie Most, he'd switched to more of a hard rock approach. Most was also handling Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group at the time, and similarities to both of those acts can be heard in Terry Reid's first two albums -- proto-hard rock on the louder tunes, sweeter folk-rock on the mellow ones (Reid in fact covered a couple of Donovan compositions, although he wrote most of his own material). Reid's high voice was reminiscent of Robert Plant's, though not nearly as shrill, and his folky numbers especially are reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's most acoustic early cuts.

Reid, oddly, was considerably more well-known in the U.S. than the U.K. His first album, very oddly, was not even issued in Britain, although it made the American Top 200. It's been reported that he at least in part declined Jimmy Page's offer to join Led Zeppelin owing to his contractual commitments to record for Mickie Most as a solo artist, and to perform as an opening solo artist on the Rolling Stones' late-'60s U.S. tour. He did influence Led Zeppelin's history in a big way by recommending Plant and drummer John Bonham as suitable candidates for the group's lineup, after Plant and Bonham's pre-Led Zep outfit (the Band of Joy) played support at one of Reid's early gigs. Reid felt confident enough in his solo prospects to also turn down an offer to join Deep Purple (Ian Gillan was recruited instead).

Seed of a Memory An opening spot on the Rolling Stones' famous 1969 tour of America seemed to augur even brighter prospects for the future, but this is precisely where Reid's career stalled, at the age of 20. First he became embroiled in litigation with Mickey Most, which curtailed his studio activities in the early '70s. After a couple of personnel changes, he disbanded his original trio, leading a group for a while that included David Lindley and ex-King Crimson drummer Michael Giles (this quartet, however, didn't release any records). He moved to California in 1971 and signed to Atlantic, but his long-delayed third album didn't appear until 1973. Reid would release albums for other labels in 1976 and 1979, but none of his '70s recordings were well-received, critically or commercially (though 1976's Seed of Memory did briefly chart). He's barely recorded since, though he did play some sessions, and The Driver appeared in 1991.

Bang, Bang introduced a hard rocker whose eclecticism was both impressive and unnervingly inconsistent. The covers of "Season of the Witch" and "Summertime Blues" are overlong and dated, but the frenetic version of Cher's "Bang, Bang" is inspired, and the rendition of Gene Pitney's "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart" shows his poppier roots. 

Over half of the material was penned by Reid, and while these compositions are sometimes generic, late-'60s hard rockers, he also shows a facility for Donavonesque folk-rock "("Sweater"") and impressive soul-rock vocalizing ("When I Get Home"). Originally not released in the U.K., it's ironically only available now as a U.K. import.

A minor but interesting late-'60s British rock singer, Terry Reid could have been a lot more famous if he had been able to accept the slot of lead singer for the New Yardbirds in 1968. That slot, of course, went to Robert Plant, and the New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin. Unlike Plant, Reid was also a guitarist, and the opportunity to head his own group no doubt played a part in his decision to gun for a solo career. Leading a guitar-organ-drums power trio, he recorded a couple of respectable, though erratic, hard rock albums while still a teenager in the late '60s. Some bad breaks and creative stagnation combined to virtually bring his career to a halt, and he never cashed in on the momentum of his promising start.

Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid A teen prodigy of sorts, Reid had turned professional at the age of 15 to join Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers. His first couple of singles as a headliner found him singing in a sort of poppy blue-eyed soul vein. But by the time of his 1968 debut Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid, produced by Mickie Most, he'd switched to more of a hard rock approach. Most was also handling Donovan and the Jeff Beck Group at the time, and similarities to both of those acts can be heard in Terry Reid's first two albums -- proto-hard rock on the louder tunes, sweeter folk-rock on the mellow ones (Reid in fact covered a couple of Donovan compositions, although he wrote most of his own material). Reid's high voice was reminiscent of Robert Plant's, though not nearly as shrill, and his folky numbers especially are reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's most acoustic early cuts.

Reid, oddly, was considerably more well-known in the U.S. than the U.K. His first album, very oddly, was not even issued in Britain, although it made the American Top 200. It's been reported that he at least in part declined Jimmy Page's offer to join Led Zeppelin owing to his contractual commitments to record for Mickie Most as a solo artist, and to perform as an opening solo artist on the Rolling Stones' late-'60s U.S. tour. He did influence Led Zeppelin's history in a big way by recommending Plant and drummer John Bonham as suitable candidates for the group's lineup, after Plant and Bonham's pre-Led Zep outfit (the Band of Joy) played support at one of Reid's early gigs. Reid felt confident enough in his solo prospects to also turn down an offer to join Deep Purple (Ian Gillan was recruited instead).

Seed of a Memory An opening spot on the Rolling Stones' famous 1969 tour of America seemed to augur even brighter prospects for the future, but this is precisely where Reid's career stalled, at the age of 20. First he became embroiled in litigation with Mickey Most, which curtailed his studio activities in the early '70s. After a couple of personnel changes, he disbanded his original trio, leading a group for a while that included David Lindley and ex-King Crimson drummer Michael Giles (this quartet, however, didn't release any records). He moved to California in 1971 and signed to Atlantic, but his long-delayed third album didn't appear until 1973. Reid would release albums for other labels in 1976 and 1979, but none of his '70s recordings were well-received, critically or commercially (though 1976's Seed of Memory did briefly chart). He's barely recorded since, though he did play some sessions, and The Driver appeared in 1991.

01. Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) 4:12
02. Tinker Taylor 2:53
03. Erica 3:48
04. Without Expression 4:47
05. Sweater 2:03
06. Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart 4:56
07. Season Of The Witch 10:09
08. Writing On The Wall / Summertime Blues 10:14
09. When I Get Home 3:38
10. Loving Time 3:40

+ 7 Bonus Låtar

Rare R&B: Bobby Marchan - There's Something on Your Mind (R&B US 1960) (Recorded 1959-61)

230:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, Bra R&B US 1960. Utgången utgåva och mycket svår att hitta nu.)

Bobby Marchan (born Oscar James Gibson, April 30, 1930 in Youngstown Ohio – December 5, 1999) was a well-respected American rhythm and blues bandleader, MC, singer-performer, recording artist, and female impersonator.

He initially began performing in New Orleans nightclubs, specifically the Dew Drop Inn and the Club Tijuana in the mid-1950s. Marchan also toured with the band of Huey "Piano" Smith, sometimes performing as lead singer / bandleader and substituting vocally for Huey Smith (who reputedly often would stay in New Orleans to write and record while his namesake band "Huey Smith and the Clowns" played clubs and toured on the road). The touring band included James Booker on piano.

One of Marchan's vocal performances with Huey Smith and the Clowns can be heard on the New Orleans R&B recording, "Don't You Just Know It", which was released in 1958. Marchan also had a solo #1 hit on the national R&B charts in 1960 with the tune "There is Something on your Mind," a cover of a song performed by Big Jay McNeely. Marchan recorded for a handful of small soul labels such as Fire Records, Volt, Dial, Cameo, and Gamble as well as Ace Records, which had released the Clowns' records.
Marchan regularly performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

"There's Something on Your Mind (Part 2)" is a 1960 novelty song by Bobby Marchan. The single was Marchan's most successful release on both the R&B and pop singles chart. "There's Something on Your Mind" made it to number one on the R&B charts and number thirty-one on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was originally recorded as "There Is Something on Your Mind" in 1957 by Big Jay McNeely and his band in a small Seattle recording studio, and leased more than a year later to Los Angeles disc jockey Hunter Hancock's Swingin' Records label, where it reached #42 on Billboard's pop chart and number 2 on the R&B chart in early 1959. The lead vocalist on this original recording was Little Sonny Warner. Though McNeely is listed as the song's writer, he has freely admitted that he purchased the song from the Rivingtons' vocalist John "Sonny" Harris, who in turn had lifted much of it from a gospel song, "Something on My Mind," by The Highway QCs.

The song has been recorded many times since then by Big Jay McNeely himself with various collaborators, along with Freddy Fender, B.B. King, Albert King, Etta James, Gene Vincent, Baby Lloyd Stallworth (of The Famous Flames), the Jolly Jacks (who parodied the violence of the Marchan recording), and others.

A larger-than-life performer best remembered for his 1960 R&B chart-topper "There Is Something on Your Mind," singer Bobby Marchan was born Oscar James Gibson in Youngstown, OH, on April 30, 1930. As a child he became fascinated by the female impersonators who appeared on the so-called "chitlin circuit" of black nightclubs, and began singing and performing comedy in drag while in his teens. In 1953 Marchan organized his own drag troupe, the Powder Box Revue; during a booking at New Orleans' Dew Drop Inn, he became enamored with the city, making it his home for the remainder of his life. There he accepted a job as MC at the Club Tijuana, where he was discovered by Aladdin Records president Eddie Meisner. Marchan cut his debut single, "Have Mercy," for producer Cosimo Matassa in 1954, but Aladdin dropped him soon after, and he landed at Dot for the follow-up, "Just a Little Ol' Wine."

He then signed to Ace after label head Johnny Vincent caught his drag show, offering Marchan a contract in the mistaken belief he was a woman; 1955's "Give a Helping Hand" appeared under the alias Bobby Fields, with the Marchan surname restored for his next effort, the regional smash "Chickee Wah-Wah." In 1957 he joined Huey "Piano" Smith as the original lead vocalist with Smith's legendary band the Clowns -- in addition to appearing on classics including "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu," "Don't You Just Know It," "You Don't Know Yockomo," and "Havin' a Good Time" (not to mention popularizing the Smith composition "Sea Cruise," a hit on wax for singer Frankie Ford), Marchan also continued his solo career, issuing "I'll Never Let You Go." He left the Clowns in early 1959, issuing his final Ace single, "Rockin' Behind the Iron Curtain," later that same year. He then returned to the road and resumed his drag career, signing to Fire Records to issue "Snoopin' and Accusin'."

With 1960's reading of the Big Jay McNeely song "There Is Something on Your Mind," Marchan finally scored the solo hit that had for so long eluded him, reaching number one on the R&B charts. A series of Fire singles followed in rapid succession, among them "Booty Green," "All in My Mind," "What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You," and "Yes, It's Written All Over Your Face," but none earned much attention on the national charts. On the recommendation of Otis Redding he was signed to Stax Records in 1963, adopting a more contemporary soul approach and making his label debut with "What Can I Do." Within a year Marchan was recording for yet another label, Dial, cutting "Get Down With It," a hit for British glam icons Slade in 1971. He spent much of the mid-'60s recording for Cameo, debuting in 1966 with "There's Something About You, Baby" and returning to the R&B Top 20 with the follow-up, "Shake Your Tambourine."

US Single 1960

Subsequent efforts, including 1967's "Meet Me in Church" and "You Better Hold On," received scant attention, however, and after 1968's "(Ain't No Reason) For Girls to Be Lonely" -- a one-shot for Gamble -- Marchan spent nearly a decade without a record deal, returning to his drag roots yet again. By 1977 he was installed as the MC at New Orleans' Club Alhambra, resurfacing that same year on Mercury with "I Wanna Bump With the Big Fat Woman," soon followed by another novelty effort, "Disco Rabbit." Around 1983 Marchan founded his own production company, Manicure, to scout and promote up-and-coming hip-hop acts. In 1987 he recorded his final single, an updated version of "There Is Something on Your Mind," and later helped found the Cash Money label. After a long battle with liver cancer, he died December 5, 1999, at the age of 69.

The exciting New Orleans R&B/blues singer revisits the spotlight with this reissue. Bobby Marchan's potent deliveries are glossed over 18 well-baked tracks, including his famous two-part songs "There's Something on My Mind," "You're Still My Baby," "Things I Use to Do," and a previously unreleased take of "Yes It's Written All Your Face." Marchan, a female impersonator, breaks out in an extremely feminine singing and speaking voice on some tracks that sounds like the real deal. He handles up-tempo tunes like "Booty Green," "What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You," and "Snoopin' and Accusin'" as skillfully as he does slow-moaners like "The Things I Used to Do" and "All in My Mind." Bobby Marchan's recordings are blue-plate specials comprised of rock & roll, R&B, blues, soul, and novelty items.

01. There's Something On Your Mind (Pt.1)
02. There's Something On Your Mind (Pt.2)
03. Booty Green
04. It Hurts Me To My Heart
05. Snoopin' And Accusin'
06. All In My Mind
07. The Things I Used To Do (Pt.1)
08. The Things I Used To Do (Pt.2)
09. What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You
10. This Is The Life
11. I Need Someone (I Need You)
12. I Miss You So
13. Yes, It's Written All Over Your Face
14. You're Still My Baby (Pt.2)
15. You're Still My Baby (Pt.1)
16. Look At My Heart
17. Yes, It's Written All Over Your Face (Pt.1): Unreleased
18. Yes, It's Written All Over Your Face (Pt.2): Unreleased

Bandolero - Life is Love, Love is All ! (Puerto Rican Heavy Fuzz Psychedelia 1970)

230:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Legal Utgåva från Korea. (Big Pink Records) Outstanding Heavy Fuzz rock från Puerto Rico med 
sång på engelska. Utgiven på Big Pink Records, Korea. Ett måste 
för dig som gillar Heavy Psychedelic Fuzz.)

"An ultra rare Puerto Rican heavy psychedelic band's only album in 1970. From beginning to end, the album is full of battle between outrageous fuzz guitar and swirling organ. An astonishing Latin psychedelic beast!"

A Puerto Rico outfit whose album, an amalgam of psychedelia, garage, blues and rock, is well worth investigation. Most of its better moments come on Side One. All vocals are in English except for one cut, Tenura. The album's opener I Got It is quite fast-paced with prominent guitar and keyboards. Love Me Tonight, one of the strongest, is notable for good vocals and pleasing melodic guitar work. Don't Hang Me features lots of heavyish guitar work, but is a little disjointed in places. 

I Can Always Think Of You, another of the best cuts, features more good guitar work and some quite dramatic piano parts. The side closes with Salsa Friquea. This commences with a climatic keyboard intro, which gives way to bouncy Latin American style rhythms as the song progresses through different stages. 

Side Two opens with Together, which blends lots of guitar / organ interplay. My Life Is Always Going Through Changes applies a similar format, but is a little disjointed in places. I Want To Get There is more of the same, but weaker. Awake features bouncy Latin rhythms and is similar to Salsa Friquea, but becomes tedious in places. The finale Truth And Understanding is another of the album's finer moments. It blends good vocals and melody and there's a pleasing guitar interlude followed by a rhythmic Latin section. The cut ends with a drum solo. Overall, a recommended album.

01. I Got It - 3.33
02. Temura - 3.30 
03. Love Me Tonight - 3.38
04. Don't Hang Me - 3.51
05. I Can Always Think Of You - 3.50
06. Salsa Friquea - 5.07
07. Together - 2.47
08. My Life Is Always Going Through - 6.11
09. I Want To Get There - 3.42
10. Awake - 3.43
11. Truth and Understanding - 7.49
.

John Morgan - Kaleidoscope (Progressive Rock UK 1971)

240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Formed from the ashes of psychedelic blues legends Spirit Of John Morgan, this talented yet arguably overlooked keyboard player continued his career with the underground indie label Carnaby Records.

However, the arrival of Kaleidoscope in 1971 failed to achieve the applause it deserved at the time leaving Morgan in the midst of progressive rock’s obscured past.

Kaleidoscope makes its long-awaited and welcome return to CD with detailed liners affirming Morgan's deserved place in progressive rock history.

Keyboard player and vocalist John Morgan was a Graham Bond afficianado who turned toward psychedelia as the 1960's wore on. Billed originally as The Spirit of John Morgan, the band was successful enough to get booked into the Marquee and other top clubs, and cut three albums. Their self-titled debut into 1969 was followed by two more LPs in 1970 and 1972 (credited simply to John Morgan) for the Carnaby label. He also cut a single for British RCA in the early 1970's.

Kaleidoscope is an exercise in funky R&B-inspired psychedelic music. Keyboard heavy, it can sometimes fall into the trappings of weird/bad ’70s rock, but the spirit of the ’60s is alive and present in all these tunes. Morgan’s band sounds at times like a heavier Crosby, Stills & Nash, Morgan himself recalls the soulful delivery of Spencer Davis Group-era Steve Winwood.

01. Psych Wheels  05:28
02. Kaleidoscope of Life  07:58
03. Sky Rider  03:08
04. Sandy Mouth Bay  05:50
05. Evil City  06:27
06. Make Ye Merry  04:32
07. Cow Cow Boogie  02:20
08. Anthole Highlander  01:52
09. Entertrainer Rag  02:43
10. 303  04:34

Motherlight - bobak, Jons, Malone (Eftertraktad Psychedelic/Progressive Rock UK 1970)

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva sedan länge och är nu mycket svår att hitta. Rekommenderas.)

Official reissue of this highly sought after psychedelic progressive /folky UK album from 1970. Mixing equal quantities of spidery psychedelia and progressive instrumentalism, the otherworldly feelings grow with each listening, as the use of dissonance is highlighted. Plenty of fuzz guitar too!! 

Known by the name of an album rather than the name of the group, Motherlight produced an album full of spooky psychedelia with progressive leanings, which works really well. Almost all tracks have a slightly unsettling atmosphere, originating in a clever use of dissonance, without being quirky. On A Meadow - Lea has good fuzz guitar paired to pastoral lyrics, while Mona Lose bears overt traces of malice. Burning The Weed sounds quite surprisingly akin to US Kaleidoscope. The Lens is Procol Harum on a bad trip and even foreshadows Joy Division! The lyrics are downright chilling: 

"I view the lens with terror and in my spellbound fear,
brightly dim in, steady shimm'rin, icy eyes see."

A beautiful album. Malone played subsequently for a host of other acts. 

A seemingly random one-off album from England in 1970, Motherlight is one of those odd little delights that, as the 2001 reissue's liner notes freely acknowledge, gains its reputation in large part given what happened to the three people behind it, with later production credits ranging from Paul McCartney to Iron Maiden and Television. A studio creation given a green light by Morgan Blue Town label owner Monty Babson, the trio consisted of recording engineers Mike Bobak and Andy Johns (that actually being the correct spelling of his last name) teaming with Wilson Malone, lead figure of never-quite-stars Orange Bicycle. Without trying to draw an exact parallel, one can say this was the equivalent to something like Curt Boettcher's work with the Millennium or Sagittarius, though on a smaller scale and with slightly different goals. 

With Malone on guitar, keyboards, singing and most songwriting chores while Bobak and Johns handled rhythm and recording duties, the trio created an easygoing and often quite attractive collection of eight songs, generally pitched somewhere between acid folk bliss-out and the kind of heavy riffage starting to coalesce into heavy metal, with sometimes strident piano tying all the songs together.

 A song like "On a Meadow-Lea" shows the various sides well, as Malone's calm repetition of the chorus towards the end offers him a chance to turn in a nicely fried solo over the top. Motherlight isn't deathless, and a couple of songs probably could have been dropped (though the ridiculous pseudo-country "Burning the Weed" is a classic novelty goof), but it's still a nice peek into a time and place. 

01. Motherlight 3'28"
02. On A Meadow Lea 4'38"
03. Mona Lose 3'00"
04. Wanna Make A Star Sam 2'09"
05. House Of Many Windows 3'39"
06. Chant 4'09"
07. Burning The Weed 3'24"
08. The Lens 6'48"

Dionne Warwick - Anyone Who Had A Heart (Mycket Bra R&B US-1964)

290:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgåva i både mono och stereo. Mycket bra R&B från 1964)

Anyone Who Had a Heart is the second album by American singer singer Dionne Warwick, released in 1964 on the Scepter label. It was produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

The album is notable for including the title track, which became Warick's first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Also featured are three tracks which appeared on her first album, Presenting Dionne Warwick issued the year before: "Don't Make Me Over", '"This Empty Place", and "I Cry Alone". These three tracks are exactly identical to the versions on the previous album, and are not different takes or remixes. The album was digitally remastered and reissued on CD on November 29, 2011, by Collectables Records.

This is pop vocalist Dionne Warwick's second long-player, which builds off of her debut LP, Presenting Dionne Warwick (1963). Anyone Who Had a Heart (1964) continues her association with songwriters Hal David and Burt Bacharach. Her rich tonality is perfectly suited to their haunting and slightly noir material, although Warwick's immediate success with "Don't Make Me Over" was nearly stunted, as the tune was initially rejected by Scepter Records co-founder Florence Greenberg. 

Her mind was changed when the song, which had been relegated to a B-side, began to outperform the A-side, "I Smiled Yesterday," on both the pop and R&B charts. Perhaps that is why "Don't Make Me Over" is one of three prominent tunes to have been unceremoniously duplicated from Presenting Dionne Warwick -- the others being "This Empty Place" and "I Cry Alone." More likely than not the label was more eager to release a new platter than to wait for a dozen new recordings. 

In addition to the timeless lead composition, Warwick's version of "Wishin' and Hopin'" not only predates Dusty Springfield's hit, it was admittedly the framework for the Brit's blue-eyed soul rendering. "Make It Easy on Yourself" and the title track to Warwick's second album, Anyone Who Had a Heart, also garnered copious airplay and became concert staples. Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman's Latin-tinged "Shall I Tell Her" and the soulful reading of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" -- which may have been the blueprint for the Jackson 5's cover -- are likewise keepers.

~~ Stereo ~~ 
01. "Anyone Who Had a Heart"  3:11
02. "Shall I Tell Her" (Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman)  2:33
03. "Don't Make Me Over"  2:46
04. "I Cry Alone"  2:37
05. "Getting Ready for the Heartbreak" (Lockie Edwards Jr., Larry Weiss)  2:30
06. "Oh Lord, What Are You Doing to Me" (Luther Dixon, Bert Keyes)  3:14
07. "Any Old Time of Day"  3:08
08. "Mr. Heartbreak" (Barbara English, Al Cleveland)  2:33
09. "Put Yourself in My Place" (Reggie Obrecht, William Drain) 2:20
10. "I Could Make You Mine"  2:25
11. "This Empty Place"   2:55
12. "Please Make Him Love Me"  2:33

~~ Mono ~~
13. "Anyone Who Had a Heart"  3:11
14. "Shall I Tell Her" (Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman) 2:33
15. "Don't Make Me Over"  2:46
16. "I Cry Alone"  2:37
17. "Getting Ready for the Heartbreak" (Lockie Edwards Jr., Larry Weiss)  2:30
18. "Oh Lord, What Are You Doing to Me" (Luther Dixon, Bert Keyes)  3:14
19. "Any Old Time of Day"  3:08
20. "Mr. Heartbreak" (Barbara English, Al Cleveland)  2:33
21. "Put Yourself in My Place" (Reggie Obrecht, William Drain) 2:20
22. "I Could Make You Mine"  2:25
23. "This Empty Place"   2:55
24. "Please Make Him Love Me"  2:33 

Kevin Ayers - Shooting at The Moon (Progressive Rock 1970)

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Med original "flikomslag", utgången utgåva.)

Shooting at the Moon is the second solo album of Kevin Ayers.

In early 1970, Ayers assembled a band he called The Whole World to tour his debut LP Joy of a Toy that included, a young Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mick Fincher, the folk singer Bridget St. John and Robert Wyatt. After a UK tour, Ayers took the Whole World into the studio to cut an LP, produced, like his debut, with Peter Jenner.

The line-up produced a heady mixture of ideas and experimentation with two distinctive styles emerging; carefree ballads like “Clarence In Wonderland” and “May I?” abutted the avant garde experimentation of songs like “Reinhardt and Geraldine” and “Underwater”. The album has since become a best seller in Ayers' catalogue.

Although The Whole World disbanded shortly after the release, the nucleus of the group would contribute to Ayers next LP, Whatevershebringswesing. Ayers released a single of exclusive material at the time "Butterfly Dance" coupled with "Puis Je?" (a French language version of “May I?”)

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, who were big fans of Ayres, referred to 'Shooting At The Moon' as "the best album ever made" in the sleeve notes to their 1994 album 'Tatay'.

01."May I?" (Ayers) (4:01)
02."Rheinhardt & Geraldine" (Ayers) / "Colores Para Delores" (Ayers) (5:41)
03."Lunatics Lament" (Ayers) (4:53)
04."Pisser Dans un Violon" (Ayers) (8:02)
05."The Oyster and the Flying Fish" (Ayers) (2:37)
06."Underwater" (Ayers) (3:54)
07."Clarence in Wonderland" (Ayers) (2:06)
08."Red Green and You Blue" (Ayers) (3:52)
09."Shooting at the Moon" (Ayers) (5:53)
10."Gemini Child" (3.16)
11."Puis Je?" (3.41)
12."Butterfly Dance" (3.45)
13."Jolie Madame" (2.26)
14."Hat" (5.27)

Tetsu Yamauchi - Kikiyou (Japan 1976)

260:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket liten utgåva.)

Tetsu Yamauchi a.k.a. Tetsuo Yamauchi (山内哲夫 Yamauchi Tetsuo, born October 21, 1946) is a Japanese bass guitarist.

Yamauchi was born in Fukuoka. In the late 1960s he played with Mickey Curtis and his band called Samurai. His involvement with Samurai led to him working as a session musician in both Tokyo and London. He became close friends with Ginger Baker and Alan Merrill. 

In 1972 he recorded the album Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit with Free guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke, together with keyboard player John “Rabbit” Bundrick. He subsequently joined Free for their final album. 

He then replaced Ronnie Lane in the Faces as their bass guitarist, but according to Ian McLagan, Yamauchi’s recruitment turned out to be a mistake, because he was not the right type of bassist and had been hired to replace Lane without the rest of the band listening or meeting him beforehand and it was all too hasty; furthermore, McLagan stated that Yamauchi was a party boy who thought it would be all about drinking when McLagan, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones tried to minimize the drinking and be more creative.

Pete Buckland believes that Phil Chen, being more versatile, might have been a better choice of replacement bassist, but McLagan disagreed and believed that it wouldn’t have worked with Chen either, but did concede that Yamauchi wasn’t a good choice and had they been in London, they might have found a decent bassist after Lane quit. 

According to Stewart, Yamauchi was “a sweet Japanese guy who barely spoke English”, but because of his inability to speak the same language as his bandmates, they found it difficult to understand how he was feeling.

After the Faces dissolved, Yamauchi continued working as a session musician after the Faces broke up.

In the late 1970s he returned to Japan, working as a session musician as well as touring and recording with bands and artists such as Tetsu and the Good Times Roll Band. He retired from the music industry in the mid 1990s and moved to the countryside with his family to live a quiet life, refusing to speak to anyone from the press. He considers it juvenile and vain for people his age to still be performing rock and roll, and refused invitations to take part in a Faces reunion…

Solo: Tetsu (1972)
* Kikyou (1976)
*Dare Devil (1992) with Peter Brötzmann, Shoji Hano, Haruhiko GotsuFriends (1998), with Hiroshi Segawa, Ken Narita
*Tetsu & The Good Times Roll Band Live (2009). Recorded in 1976

With Samurai
*Samurai (1970)
* Kappa (1971)

With Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit
*Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit (1972)

With Free
*Heartbreaker (1973)

With The Faces
Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners (1974)
You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (1974)

01. It happens rhino
02. One life
03. Song of the Heart
04. Mash river
05. Seasons
06. Poems from London
07. Sweet Dreamer
08. Traveling alone
09. Dreamland
10. I used to laugh at the end
11. Sunset in Ibiza

The Young Rascals - Groovin' (US 1967)

240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Innehåller en poster.)

Groovin' is the third album by rock band The Young Rascals. The album was released on July 31, 1967 and rose to #5 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and number 7 on the R&B chart. Eight of the songs were released on singles with the title track reaching number 1 on the Pop chart in the U.S.

This was the last album on which the band was billed as "The Young Rascals"; their next album, Once Upon a Dream, would be credited to simply "The Rascals". The album began the Rascals' first forays into the psychedelic genre that they would explore further on Once Upon a Dream.

Eight of Groovin's eleven songs were issued by Atlantic Records as single A- or B-sides. The three songs specific to the album are "Find Somebody", "I Don't Love You Anymore", and the Rascals' cover of "A Place in the Sun". "If You Knew", upon its initial release as the "B" side of the single "(I've Been) Lonely Too Long", was jointly credited to all the Rascals' members; the writing credit was changed upon the album's release. 

Atlantic Records was at first reluctant to release the title song as a single, but its popularity was such that Italian and Spanish versions were released on different sides of a subsequent single.

Flutist Hubert Laws is featured in a sessions role on the album's final track, "It's Love".

Booker T. & the MG's took a cover of "Groovin'" to the charts later in 1967 and the song "You Better Run" was later covered by Pat Benatar and was a hit for her in 1980.

The front cover design was conceived (but not illustrated) by the Young Rascals' drummer Dino Danelli. Affixed to the front cover was one of two stickers indicating: "THIS LP HAS THE BIG HIT", followed by either "How Can I Be Sure" (as shown in the cover photo on the right) or "A Girl Like You" as both tracks climbed into the Top 10.

01."A Girl Like You" – 2:51 - Lead Vocals: Felix
02."Find Somebody" – 3:48 - Lead Vocals: Eddie
03."I'm So Happy Now" (Gene Cornish) – 2:50 - Lead Vocals: Gene
04."Sueño" – 2:48 (Ron Sasiak)- Lead Vocals: Felix
05."How Can I Be Sure" – 2:56 - Lead Vocals: Eddie
06."Groovin'" – 2:33 - Lead Vocals: Felix
07."If You Knew" – 3:04 - Lead Vocals: Eddie & Felix
08."I Don't Love You Anymore" (Cornish) – 3:09 - Lead Vocals: Gene
09."You Better Run" – 2:28 - Lead Vocals: Felix
10."A Place in the Sun" (Ronald Miller, Brian Wells) – 4:52 - Lead Vocals: Eddie
11."It's Love" – 3:15 - Lead Vocals - Felix

Motorhead - Bomber (deras 3:e Album UK 1979)

200:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva.)

Bomber was the third studio album by the British heavy metal band Motörhead. It was recorded in 1979, the same year as Overkill. The album reached number 12 on the UK charts and brought some of Motörhead's most popular songs, like "Bomber", "Dead Men Tell No Tales" and "Stone Dead Forever".

During the recording of this album, the producer Jimmy Miller was increasingly under the influence of heroin, at one point disappearing entirely from the studio, later being found asleep at the wheel of his car. Ironically the album features the band's first anti-heroin song - "Dead Men Tell No Tales".

This album caught Lemmy at his most ferocious, hitting hard at the police in "Lawman", marriage and how his father left him and his mother in "Poison", television in "Talking Head" and show business in "All the Aces". The title track was inspired by Len Deighton's novel Bomber. On one track, "Step Down", "Fast" Eddie Clarke is featured on vocals.

The single "Bomber" was released on November 23, 1979, one month ahead of the album, the single's initial pressing of 20,000 blue vinyls were soon sold out and was replaced by black vinyl.The 'Bomber Tour' followed, for which a forty foot aluminium tube replica of a Heinkel He 111 bomber was made. This lighting rig could fly backwards and forwards, and side to side - the first to be able to do so. The album was released on October 27, 1979 and like the single was pressed in blue vinyl.

One critic suggests that the album is well regarded by the fans, and packed full of essential Motörhead tracks, with "Dead Men Tell No Tales", "Stone Dead Forever" and the album's title track itself being phenomenally good metal songs. Going on to say that with the exception of the bluesy "Step Down", the tracks are full of the characteristic sound of the classic line-up of Lemmy, Clarke and Taylor, with Clarke’s solo in "All the Aces" described as "blistering" and Lemmy spitting out intentions to ‘poison his wife’ in the life-reflecting "Poison" making it a sound of metal-dripping brilliance. Another critic reviewing the two-disc expanded edition of the album stated "Bomber is an often forgotten but is an absolute classic" and it featuring "a slew of classic Motor-boogie tracks".

01."Dead Men Tell No Tales" – 3:07
02."Lawman" – 3:56
03."Sweet Revenge" – 4:10
04."Sharpshooter" – 3:19
05."Poison" – 2:54
06."Stone Dead Forever" – 4:54
07."All the Aces" – 3:24
08."Step Down" – 3:41
09."Talking Head" – 3:40
10."Bomber" – 3:43

Bonus Tracks:
11."Over the Top" - 3:20
12."Stone Dead Forever [Alternative Version]" - 4:34
13."Sharpshooter" [Alternative Version]" - 3:16
14."Bomber [Alternative Version]" - 3:35
15."Step Down [Alternative Version]" - 3:29
16."Leaving Here [Live]" (Dozier, Holland, Holland) - 3:02
17."Stone Dead Forever [Live]" - 5:31
18."Dead Men Tell No Tales [Live]" - 2:44
19."Too Late Too Late [Live]" - 3:20
20."Step Down [Live]" - 3:49

John Lennon - Walls and Bridges (UK 1974)

230:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Original gimmick konvolut. Utgången utgåva sedan 2007.)

Walls and Bridges was recorded during John Lennon's infamous "lost weekend," as he exiled himself in California during a separation from Yoko Ono. Lennon's personal life was scattered, so it isn't surprising that Walls and Bridges is a mess itself, containing equal amounts of brilliance and nonsense. 

Falling between the two extremes was the bouncy Elton John duet "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night," which was Lennon's first solo number one hit. Its bright, sunny surface was replicated throughout the record, particularly on middling rockers like "What You Got" but also on enjoyable pop songs like "Old Dirt Road." 

However, the best moments on Walls and Bridges come when Lennon is more open with his emotions, like on "Going Down on Love," "Steel and Glass," and the beautiful, soaring "No. 9 Dream." Even with such fine moments, the album is decidedly uneven, containing too much mediocre material like "Beef Jerky" and "Ya Ya," which are weighed down by weak melodies and heavy over-production. It wasn't a particularly graceful way to enter retirement. 

01. Going Down On Love  
02. Whatever Gets You Through The Night  
03. Old Dirt Road  
04. What You Got  
05. Bless You  
06. Scared  
07. #9 Dream  
08. Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)  
09. Steele And Glass  
10. Beef Jerky  
11. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)  
12. Ya Ya  

Oregon - Our First Record (Superb laidback Jazzrock US 1970)

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Oregon is a jazz and world music group, with core members Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, synthesizer, trumpet), Paul McCandless (woodwind instruments), Glen Moore (double bass, violin, piano), and Collin Walcott (percussion, sitar, tabla)


Towner, McCandless, Moore, and Walcott met as members of world music pioneer Paul Winter's "Consort" ensemble in the late 1960s. Their contributions were seminal in establishing the Winter Consort "sound" in compositions like Towner's "Icarus."


The four musicians broke away from Winter in 1970 to form their own group, Oregon (Towner and Moore met while students at the University of Oregon). They recorded their first record in 1970, but the label, Increase Records, went out of business before it could be released. (It was released by Vanguard in 1980 as Our First Record.) The group's first release was Music of Another Present Era in 1972. With that debut and its follow-ups Distant Hills and Winter Light (all on Vanguard), Oregon established itself as one of the leading improvisational groups of its day, blending Indian and Western classical music  with jazz, folk, space music and avant-garde elements. The group released numerous albums on Vanguard throughout the 1970s, then made three records for Elektra. After a couple years hiatus devoted to their individual projects, the group resumed recording for ECM in 1983.


During a 1984 concert tour, Walcott was killed in an automobile accident in East Germany. Oregon temporarily disbanded, but reformed by 1985 with new percussionist Trilok Gurtu, Walcott's own choice for his replacement should it become necessary. Gurtu made two further records as a member of the group, but by 1993 he had left; the group recorded two albums as a trio after his departure. With new member Mark Walker on drum kit, Oregon assumed a more conventional jazz orientation beginning with the 1996 album Northwest Passage. In 2001 the ensemble traveled to Moscow, Russia to record with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio. The recording garnered four Grammy nominations.


The group enjoys an avid and eclectic following. Apollo astronauts took a recording of Oregon's music to the moon and named two lunar craters after compositions by the ensemble "Icarus" and "Ghost Beads".


For over three decades OREGON has inspired audiences in renowned concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and Vienna’s Mozartsaal; at international jazz clubs and major festivals such as Montreux, Pori, Berlin, Montreal, and Newport Jazz; and on tours throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America, Eastern and Western Europe, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Algeria, and Australia.


OREGON began in 1960 at the University of Oregon with undergraduate students Ralph Towner and Glen Moore who formed a musical friendship on bass and piano inspired by Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro and later by Brazilian music. Moore earned a degree in history and literature and Towner completed his in composition, taking up guitar in the process. In the mid 60’s, they both traveled to Europe. Towner studied classical guitar in Vienna with Karl Scheit; Moore studied classical bass in Copenhagen and sat in with such greats as Ben Webster and Dexter Gordon. By 1969, both were living in New York City, playing with a community of young musicians who formed the great fusion bands of the ‘70’s including Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.


Performing with folksinger Tim Hardin at the ‘69 Woodstock Festival, Towner and Moore encountered two members of the Paul Winter Consort who introduced them to the music of that group. In the studio with Hardin, Ralph and Glen connected with sitar and tabla player Collin Walcott. He was a graduate of Indiana University under George Gaber, studied ethnomusicology at UCLA and served as road manager for Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha. On a break at that session, Ralph and Collin played their first guitar/sitar duet in the hallways of Columbia Studios.   


By 1970 Ralph, Glen, and Collin had joined the Paul Winter Consort for a 50-concert U.S. tour where they quickly formed an alliance with its oboist, Paul McCandless, who had studied at the Manhattan School of Music under Toscanini’s first oboe player, Robert Bloom. During that initial tour, Ralph began composing a new repertoire of original material including “Icarus”, which has since become a standard. The early development of OREGON took root in motel rooms and college dormitories where in private jam sessions, Towner, Walcott, Moore and McCandless began investigating new musical possibilities after getting a taste of collective improvisation on tour with the Consort. Winter’s group introduced them to the idea of performing concerts with uncommon combinations of instruments in an eclectic variety of musical styles. Incorporating these elements, OREGON emerged with a unique synthesis of European classical instrumentation, American jazz harmony, and ethnic influences from around the globe. The notion of recording their own music first arose at a party, where Towner and Walcott were entertaining friends in their guitar/sitar configuration. The group was offered the use of an 8-track studio in the Hollywood Hills, known as “The Farm.” A short-lived independent label in Los Angeles subsidized six weeks of taping and mixing. The company did not succeed in selling the results to a major label and the tape went into storage for ten years before its Vanguard release on disc called—Our First Record.


In 1971 the band made its debut in New York City, calling themselves Thyme—Music of Another Present Era, a phrase designed to answer the question. “ What kind of music do you play?” McCandless later proposed the name “OREGON” alluding to Ralph and Glen’s nostalgic reminiscences of their home state. The next year, Vanguard signed OREGON, recording a new set of original compositions which became the band’s debut LP, Music of Another Present Era. In that same period, they made Trios and Solos for ECM, a new label in Europe. The Vanguard album introduced them to their American audience and through their association with ECM, they developed their European following with tours beginning in 1974 where they received critical acclaim and growing recognition in the international community.


Six years and nine albums later, OREGON moved to Elektra/Asylum Records. Its first release on that label, Out of the Woods, reached a decidedly wider audience and was included in the 101 Best Jazz Albums list by Len Lyons. As the years spanned and the group’s versatility grew, bass clarinet, soprano and sopranino saxes, ethnic flutes, flugelhorn, French horn, clarinet, dulcimer, electric bass, violin, viola, and a myriad of percussion instruments all found their way into OREGON’s instrumentation which already included Towner’s nylon and 12 string guitars and piano, McCandless’ oboe and English horn, Moore’s 1715 Klotz bass and Walcott’s sitar and tablas.


At the end of OREGON’s contract with Elektra, and with the birth of Collin Walcott’s daughter in 1980, the band members took a year long sabbatical during which they pursued their individual solo careers. When they reassembled, OREGON’s unique fusion gained an electric dimension through Towner’s addition of keyboard synthesizers. The group recorded two more albums for ECM with the original personnel.


They had reached a peak of popularity when in November 1984, Walcott died in an auto accident in the former East Germany, leaving the ECM album Crossing as his final document. This left OREGON with the seemingly impossible task of filling an enormous vacuum. They reunited for the first time in May 1985 at a memorial concert for Walcott in New York where the dazzling Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu joined them to pay tribute. Trilok, who studied tablas and jazz drumming, accepted an invitation to work with OREGON in 1986 which included a State Department tour of the Indian subcontinent. Over a five-year period, he played on three albums with the band: Ecotopia on ECM, 45th Parallel on Epic, and Always, Never, and Forever, the band’s first recording on Intuition. After the departure of Gurtu, the three original members continued their creative development as a trio making two CDs—Troika and Beyond Words.


For the 1996 Intuition recording "Northwest Passage", the group incorporated two masterful percussionists, former Chicagoan Mark Walker and Arto Tuncboyician of Armenia. Walker, who also performs and records with Cuban expatriate Paquito D’Rivera, has become the new fourth member of OREGON and together with Towner, Moore, and McCandless traveled to Moscow in June 1999 to record the double CD for Intuition entitled "Oregon In Moscow." This project is the band’s debut recording of their orchestral repertoire. Developing since the Winter Consort days, this prodigious body of work had been performed with the St. Paul, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Stavanger, Freiburg, and Stuttgart Orchestras, but never documented. Oregon In Moscow, produced by Steve Rodby of the Pat Metheny Group fame, features the band members as composers, orchestrators, and soloists in collaboration with the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 this album garnered four Grammy nominations. OREGON's most recent production, a live CD recorded during a spirited week at Yoshi's, San Francisco Bay Area's premier jazz club, was released in 2002. Not since 1980 has the group's electrifying and poignant performances been captured on tape.


01. Canyon Song - Oregon, Towner, Ralph  
02. Full Circle - Oregon, Towner, Ralph  
03. Japan/Charles St. Melancholy - Oregon, Oregon  
04. Collin's Delite - Oregon, Walcott, Collin  
05. Cry of the Peacock/Coral - Oregon, Towner 
06. Maty's New Bloom - Oregon, Moore, Glen  
07. Aheer - Oregon, Walcott, Collin  
08. Recuerdos - Oregon, Tarrega, Francisco  
09. L' Histoire du Farm Suite - Oregon, Oregon  
10. Jade Visions - Oregon, LaFaro, Scott  
11. Molecular - Oregon, Oregon  
12. Margueritte - Oregon, Walcott, Collin  
13. Entrez Devotée Compagne - Oregon, Traditional