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)

350:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva sedan länge.)

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

Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends - S/T (2CD) (US 1968)

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260:- (2CD, SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition. Utgången utgåva med bonusomslag. Mycket svår att hitta nu.)

A true sleeper in the context of California pop. As a songwriter, Roger Nichols wrote with such luminaries as Paul Williams and Tony Asher (fresh from his collaboration with Brian Wilson on Pet Sounds, who co-wrote several of the selections here). The album is a lot of things at once. Soft pop, a smattering of rock, and a heavy dose of easy listening. The group itself has a great vocal blend. Nichols is joined by Murray MacLeod and his sister, Melinda. The three voices combined create a wonderful, soft sheen, equally effective on the ballads (Bacharach's "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart") and uptempo numbers ("Don't Take Your Time"). There is an extremely gorgeous version of the Goffen & King song "Snow Queen," which is a graceful waltz, underpinned by the groups' superb vocals. The credits on the album are a virtual who's who of California pop at the time. 

Among those who helped out on the project on one way or another are Lenny Waronker, Van Dyke Parks, Bruce Botnick, and Randy Newman. Superbly produced by Tommy LaPuma, the album unfortunately didn't do very well at the time of its release, which is an incredible injustice. The music, though, holds up extremely well today, and is an authentic slice of California pop. Delicious.

Born in Missoula, MT, Roger Nichols and his parents moved to Santa Monica, CA, when he was a one-year-old. His household brimmed with music when he was growing up. His dad was a journalism graduate and a professional photographer who played sax in local jazz bands. His mother was a music major and a classical pianist. When Nichols started grade school, he picked up the violin, continuing his violin and classical studies throughout grammar and high school. His attention turned to basketball and Nichols forsook violin for the hoops but played guitar on the side.

Recruited to U.C.L.A. on a basketball scholarship, Nichols played on the team for a year or two. Confronted to make a choice between music or basketball by his coach John Wooden, Nichols chose music. While in college, he majored in music and cinematography while still playing the guitar and adding the piano. After a brief hiatus, he returned to U.C.L.A. and began taking songwriting courses. After he left college, Nichols took a variety of jobs, working in a bank for two years, a liquor store for a year and a half, and serving six months in the navy. On weekends, he worked in clubs with his group, Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends, that performed original songs written by Nichols.

Around 1965, the group was signed to a recording contract by Liberty Records. While at the label, the group briefly had the opportunity to work with Tommy Li Puma. Li Puma thought the group had some potential, but left Liberty shortly thereafter. With the label for eight months without having a record released, Nichols called A&M Records expressing interest in playing some demos for label co-owner Herb Alpert. He was switched to Li Puma who had been hired as the A&R man for the new label. Li Puma was still enamored of the group. Nichols then asked for and received a release from Liberty Records.

Bonus CD med omslag

While Nichols waited for Li Puma to finish producing the Sandpipers and Claudine Longet, he wrote an instrumental for Alpert that he promptly recorded a week after hearing it. Though Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends wasn't a big seller, Alpert urged A&M publishing company head Chuck Kaye to sign Nichols as a songwriter to their company.

During his second year with the company, Kaye introduced Nichols to lyricist Paul Williams. The first song that wrote was recorded by Claudine Longet, "It's Hard to Say Goodbye." The duo wrote together for four years, resulting in lots of album cuts, B-sides, even A-sides, but no hits.

An advertising executive approached a friend of Nichols asking for help with an under-budget commercial project for Crocker Bank. Nichols' friend gave him a copy of the Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends album. The ad exec called A&M and made an appointment with Nichols and Williams to discuss the project. The exec said that he only had 300 dollars to make a demo and the rest of the project had to be done on speculation that the project would pan out and become a successful ad campaign, in which case this would lead to more money. 

Hoping to capture the youth market by softening the bank's image, Nichols and Williams were given the slogan, "You've got a long way to and go and we'd like to help you get there." They had just ten days to create a song, essentially a jingle. Waiting until the last day, after they've completed other projects, Nichols started noodling around on the piano and wrote the basic verse melody in a half hour. Williams joined him later and come up with some lyric lines. On the demo, Nichols overdubbed piano, bass, and guitar while Williams sang. It was approved by the bank who requested that they complete the song, which at that time included two verses and a bridge.

Bonus CD med omslag

Crocker Bank had the advertising rights to the song, but the duo, along with A&M, retained the recording and publishing rights.

Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters heard the jingle on a TV commercial, and although signed to A&M, didn't know who wrote the track. He found out and the Carpenters recorded the song. "We've Only Just Begun" was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year, was included on BMI's million performances list, and received an award for selling a million copies of sheet music. Another Nichols-Williams song, "Out in the Country" by Three Dog Night, landed in the Top Ten. Six months later, "Rainy Days and Mondays" was another gold record by the Carpenters and Nichols' third gold record in a single year. Other hits were the Carpenters' "I Won't Last a Day Without You," "Travelin' Boy," and "I Never Had It So Good," covered by Barbara Streisand.

In 1972, the Nichols-Williams team parted ways. Somewhat disgruntled, Nichols returned to his native Montana, bought a house, and relaxed. A few years later, he returned to composing and primarily background scoring. In later years, Nichols' hits were more associated with the TV shows that he scored like "Love Theme From Hart to Hart."


(DISC.1 STEREO)
1. Don't Take Your Time
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
4. I Can See Only You
5. Snow Queen
6. Love So Fine
7. Kinda Wasted Without You
8. Just Beyond Your Smile
9. I'll Be Back
10. Cocoanut Grove 
11. Didn't Want To Have To Do It
12. Can I Go

(BONUS TRACKS)
13. Let's Ride
14. The Drifter
15. Trust

(DISC.2 MONO + SINGLES)
1. Don't Take Your Time
2. With A Little Help From My Friends
3. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
4. I Can See Only You
5. Snow Queen
6. Love So Fine
7. Kinda Wasted Without You
8. Just Beyond Your Smile
9. I'll Be Back
10. Cocoanut Grove 
11. Didn't Want To Have To Do It
12. Can I Go

(BONUS TRACKS)
13. Don't Go Breaking My Heart (Mono Single Version)
14. Our Day Will Come (Mono Single Version)
15. Love Song, Love Song (Mono Single Version)
16. Snow Queen (Mono Single Version)
17. Just Beyond Your Smile (Mono Single Version)
18. I'll Be Back (Mono Single Version)
19. Let's Ride (Mono Single Version)
20. The Drifter (Mono Single Version)
21. Trust (Mono Single Version)
.

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

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

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

250:- (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

Mae McKenna - S/T (Bra Folk UK 1975)

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

Mae McKenna doesn't just sing songs, she inhabits them. Her voice is a powerful and passionate instrument equally at home with Celtic traditional songs as much as original country/bluegrass flavoured compositions. Hers is a voice both ancient and modern, attractive and beguiling yet full of soul and sensuality.

Mae McKenna's roots are strongly Irish and Scottish. She grew up in Coatbridge near Glosgow, the youngest of three children with her brothers Hugh and John. Mae was raised in a house filled with music. Her parents and grandparents played music and songs from the variety theatre and the art songs of John McCormack to the classics of Frank Sinatra. At an early age she was exposed to jazz and classical music. At 14 she joined the Lanarkshire youth orchestra where she played viola. The sounds she heard at home included Art Tatum, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and the Tamta Motown classics on the radio all embedded in her teenage brain.

Mae joined her first group -- "Day" -- in high shool where she played viola with this gothic folk band. Playing in a local festival, her musical talents were noticed by another young band called Contraband. Some meetings later and a night visit to a friend's house in search of this elusive and talented young woman led to Contraband asking Mae to join them as lead singer. A Scottish folk rock legend was born.

Contraband featured Mae McKenna, George and Billy Jakcon, John Martin, Peter Cairney and Alec Baird. Their music was an exciting mixture of Irish and Scots traditional tunes, dramatic folk rock arrangements of classical ballads and contemporary songs. They attacked their mkusic with youthful vigour end energy. "We loved playing together," Mae recallse, "we alsyways used to play and sing on the way to gigs and coming back from them. Looking back I couldn't have wanted a better band to begin touring with." Life on the road was an adventure and Contraband toured all over Scotland and England.

Contraband signed with Transatlantic Records in 1973. They recorded their debut album Contraband in Chipping Norton studios in Oxfordshire. Released in May 1974, the album caught the young band in the cusp of their useful musical prowess and joi de vivre. Mae sung and played violin, viola and piano and joined with George and Billy's multi-instrumental talents, Peter's country tinged guitars, John's expert traditional fiddling and Alex's solod drumming to create a fresh new Celtic Rock sound. Contraband disbanded in 1975.

Mae McKenna began her solo career in 1975. She recorded three solo albums for Transatlantic Records: Mae McKenna (1975), Everything That Touches Me (1976) and Walk On Water (1977). She also appeared on radio and TV both as a guest and featured performer.

Her debut solo album Mae McKenna focused on dramatic ballads with lavish orchestrations and was a promising if pensive debut. Everything That Touches Me was a tasteful, melodic soft rock album with strong American West Coast country/rock leanings. Mae's exquisite voice wrapped itself round songs by Andrew Gold, Richard Thompson, Jackson Browne and Anne McGarrigle. The single "Crying in the Rain" received extensive radio airplay. Walk On Water continued the Transatlantic soft rock sound with songs by Kim Carnes, David Paich (Tot writer of the 1970s hit "Hold The Line") and the Motown standard "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted."

01. Dying to Live Winter 3:51
02. Once in the Morning Webb 3:33
03. All in Love Is Fair Wonder 3:47
04. Other Side of Me Greenfield, Sedaka 3:12
05. Song for Simon Rafferty 3:03
06. Together We Get By Brook 3:50
07. Elderberry Wine John, Taupin 3:43
08. How Could We Dare to Be Wrong Blunstone, Dennys 3:45
09. Imagine Lennon 3:24
10. Black-Eyed Susan Brown Traditional 3:58
11. Said the Major Brook 2:54
12. Old Man Newman 4:00

Kiss - Dressed to Kill (US 1975)

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

Dressed to Kill is a 1975 album from American hard rock group Kiss. It is the band's third studio album and is unique for having been produced by the president of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart. "C'mon and Love Me", and "Rock and Roll All Nite" were released as singles. Both failed to rise high on the charts until "Rock and Roll All Nite" was released in its live format as a single later that year off their double live album Alive! and reached number 12 on the singles charts. The album was re-released in 1997 (along with most of Kiss' earlier albums) in a remastered version.

It peaked at number 32 on the charts and was certified Gold on February 28, 1977, when it sold 500,000 copies. While the album cover depicts KISS in business suits, no member of the band actually owned a suit. The suits they wore in the cover were owned by manager Bill Aucoin. While "Rock and Roll All Nite" remains a permanent staple in the band's concerts (often played to close out a show), much of the album is rarely played live.

01. "Room Service"
02. "Two Timer"
03. "Ladies in Waiting"
04. "Getaway"
05. "Rock Bottom"
06. "C'mon and Love Me"
07. "Anything for My Baby"
08. "She"
09. "Love Her All I Can"
10. "Rock and Roll All Nite"

Pink Fairies - Chinese Cowboys (Live UK 1987)

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

A limited edition release of 1,000 copies, Chinese Cowboys is an archive, unreleased live CD title that was recorded at two 1987 gigs the band had played in support of their ' 87 comeback album, Kill 'Em and Eat 'Em. These two shows took place at Leeds and at the Long Marston Speedway. Good sound quality. On a ten scale I give it a 9 / 9+. Not perfect but awfully darn nice to listen to as well as fully take in. Glad to see the Fairies decided to play material from their first three albums, like '71's Neverneverland. There's drummer Twink stepping out for a rousing performance of "Do It". Then off ' 72's What A Bunch Of Sweeties there are the band's two drummers, Twink and Russell Hunter totally cutting loose on the ten minute "Walk Don't Run". Also, you get from ' 73's Kings Of Oblivion the stunning instrumental "Raceway", "Street Urchin" and "City Kids".

One lesser known track here that I was surprised to hear was off the Previously Unreleased EP, the rocking "Waiting For The Lightning To Strike". From the afore mentioned Kill 'Em and Eat 'Em album (never thought I'd hear live versions of these tunes) the guys serve up "Takin' LSD", "White Girls On Amphetamine", "Seeing Double" and the jamming "Waiting For The Ice Cream To Melt". Whew! What a trip. My only regret is I wasn't there. Simply a fun CD to listen to. This will stay in my 'current listening stack for quite some time. I also dug "The Snake", with its wicked lyrics, but I wasn't able to find out where this tune originally came from. Not completely sure but I think it might've been a 45 single when it first came out. If you're a Pink Fairies fan you need to get yourself a copy of this CD. Try Bomp Records. I saw in their weekly listings they have it for $13. Revived old school British psychedelia with a punk edge to it. Line-up: Larry Wallis - guitar&vocals, Twink - drums&vocals, Andy Colquhoun - guitar&vocals, Duncan Sanderson - bass&vocals and Russel Hunter - drums. An absolute must-have.

01. Raceway - Instrumental
02. Street Urchin
03. Waiting For The Lightnin' To Strike
04. When's The Fun Begin
05. The Snake
06. Do It
07. Takin' L.S.D.
08. White Girls On Amphetamine
09. Seeing Double
10. As Long As The Price Is Right
11. Waiting For The Ice Cream To Melt
12. Police Car
13. City Kids
14. Walk Don't Run - Instrumental

Stonefield Tramp - Dreaming Again (Privatpressad Folk UK 1974)

260:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Legal Koreapress. Mycket fin utgåva.)

In 1974, former member of the band Terry Friend & Rob Van Spyk met Brian Ballister. And as a trio, they released the album ''Follow The Sun'' for the studio label, Acorn. This was swiftly followed by "Dreaming Again", an album issued on their own Tramp label. For this album, the trio were enhanced by additional musicians Chris Sutoris (Bass) and Dave Lloyd (electric guitar). To reflect their new sound, the band adopted a new name and Stonefield Tramp were born. Some tracks show a strong Bob Dylan influence while others lean strongly towards the style we have now come to know as acid folk.

But long before then the real start of it all was a wooden floored school room in a British Army Primary school in Hohne, Germany in the early fifties. I couldn't have been more than seven years old, and during music lessons, we kids would group ourselves around the piano where our very attractive, and rather young lady music teacher, would lead us in Singing folk songs. I loved every minute of it and it was an early introduction for me to a form of song writing that I found fascinating! Songs like 'Clemantine' and 'Camptown Races' I can Recall.

Most of my childhood was spent in Germany, and when the family moved to England in 1961, I felt lost and didn't feel that I belonged. It left me with a burning ambition to leave home at the first available opportunity and go abroad. Being a rather simple fellow I went for the easiest option that I could think of...I joined the army.

And was it fate or fortune that directed me towards my first posting at Tonfanau in North Wales? I ended up in Alamein Platoon, C Company, The All Arms Junior Leaders Regiment. This was where I was to befriend a blonde haired, guitar playing kid called Rob Van Spyk. It was April 1964 and we were both 16 years old. We shared a room for about eighteen months, and then went our seperate ways to our own respective units for the next six years, but did manage to keep in touch by letter and also enjoyed a couple of shared leaves together. But not once did our Regiments ever serve in the same place together, and between us we went to Germany, Malta, Libya, Malaya, Singapore and Northern Ireland.

When I had just turned twenty, and very much to my shock and surprise, I began to write poems or, more accurately, song lyrics! It would be a major turning point in my life. I think Bob Dylan has to share some of the blame for this! For I had latched onto him in a very big way, and played his recordings over and over again at every chance that I could get. My finale two years in uniform were spent in the tropics, in Singapore and Malaya, with 3 Commando Brigade. It was during this period where the lyrics just simply poured out of me. I fully realised that on their own they would be nothing and that they were crying out for tunes! As I didn't play a guitar I contacted Rob, and the Van Spyk-Friend song writing partnership was born. At the end of 1970, and after a tour of active service in Ulster, I left the Army and joined Rob, who by now was also a civilian, in Letchworth and we began to plan our first recording session.

We recorded ten songs at Easter 1971 and pressed four acetates. (which have long since been bootlegged all around the world!) Three fruitless years of rejection by every record label we approached would follow, so we took the decision to record our own albums independantly of the system. In Easter 1974 we recorded our first commercial album 'Follow the Sun' by 'R.J.Van Spyk and Friends.' Joining us in the studio was, our good friend from Tewkesbury, Brian Balster. He and Rob did most of the work, but I did join them to record my first self penned composition 'Come the Day', for I was now teaching myself to play the guitar! This was the acoustic version, of what would in a mere matter of weeks, become the Folk band 'Stonefield Tramp.' Our first album was recorded in only four hours with 'straight takes' and at £4 an hour, cost us a mere £16. Unbelievable by today's standards!

Things developed at a hectic pace and the album sold so well we returned to the studio and recorded another one. This time our sound was enhanced by Dave Lloyd on electric guitar and Chris Sutoris on Bass. It was September 1974 and Stonefield Tramp were now an official band. We also chose this moment to launch our own label 'Tramp Records.' Once again Brian joined us, but this time I took no part in the recording. The album was 'Dreaming Again.'

Very rare Stonefield Tramp album with a beautiful dreamy quality. In 1974, member of the band Terry Friend & Rob Van Spyk met Brian Ballister. And as a trio, they released the album ''Follow The Sun'' for the studio label, Acorn. After they'd failed to interest any major record company in their recordings, the group issued one LP, 'Dreaming Again', on their own label. This was swiftly followed by "Dreaming Again", an album issued on their own Tramp label. For this album, the trio were enhanced by additional musicians Chris Sutoris (Bass) and Dave Lloyd (electric guitar). To reflect their new sound, the band adopted a new name and Stonefield Tramp were born. Some tracks show a strong Bob Dylan influence while others lean strongly towards the style we have now come to know as acid folk. The 1974 album “Dreaming Again” is very eagerly sought after by vinyl record collectors world wide. A must for British folk fans.

01. Dreaming Again
02. Bitter World
03. Oh Mothers Tell Your Children
04. Jaded Jane
05. Social State Blues
06. Factory
07. Theme From Follow The Sun
08. Doing Things Naturally

Roy Orbison - Orbisongs (US 1965)

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

Orbisongs is the last album recorded by Roy Orbison for the Monument label before he signed with MGM Records. The album was released in 1965.

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter and musician, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records in the early to mid 1960s when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", "In Dreams", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". 

His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of one in a film by David Lynch revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and two of his children in separate accidents.

Orbison was a natural baritone, but music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. The combination of Orbison's powerful, impassioned voice and complex musical arrangements led many critics to refer to his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet "the Caruso of Rock". Performers as disparate as Elvis Presley and Bono stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and most distinctive they had ever heard. 

While most men in rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. He was known for performing while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona.

Orbison was initiated into the second class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen. The same year he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone placed Orbison at number 37 in their list of The Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists. Rolling Stone rated Orbison number 13 in their list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008.

01."Oh, Pretty Woman" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
02."Dance" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
03."(Say) You're My Girl" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
04."Goodnight" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
05."Nitelife" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
06."Let The Good Times Roll" - (Leonard Lee)
07."(I Get So) Sentimental" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
08."Yo Te Amo Maria" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
09."Wedding Day" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
10."Sleepy Hollow" - (Bill Dees)
11."22 Days" - (Gene Pitney)
12."I'd Be A Legend In My Time" - (Don Gibson)
+ 9 Bonus Tracks

These Trails - S/T (Superb (UK) Folkrock Hawaii 1973)

270:- (Korea 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Mycket bra (UK) folkrock från Hawaii.)

"These Trails was an Honolulu, Hawaii group that was privately pressed on Sinergia Records in 1973. Their eponymous debut is an album that skillfully combines a keen sense of melody with otherworldly vocals from the enigmatic, late 'Margaret Morgan' and innovative sonic experimentation that over 30 years later has stood the test of time. What's more, the band furnished each of its tracks with the colours, scents and atmospheres of the botanical treasure of the volcanic Pacific island paradise that birthed them."

These Trails was an acid folk group who released a very rare record in 1973. The lp was released by Sinergia and is probably one of the best Hawaiian lps along with Mu.

Prominent members of the group were Margaret Morgan (vocals, guitar and dulcimer), Patrick Cockett (guitar, slide guitar and vocals) and Dave Choy (arp synthesizer, recorder, arrangements and final mix). Margaret Morgan handles most of the lead vocals with Patrick Cockett occasionally chiming in. Morgan’s vocals are dreamy and ideally suited for this kind of organic music (acid folk). Comparisons that come to mind are Linda Perhacs, though Morgan’s vocals are more innocent and angelic and the music on this lp clearly betrays a Hawaiian influence. Many of the songs are relatively pop friendly; this isn’t difficult, challenging music that has to be listened to closely – ie folk guitar virtuousos spinning off long, complex guitar solos or intricate passages with finely tuned arrangements – it’s not that kind of record. The synthesizers give tracks like Of Broken Links an otherworldly sound, unlike anything you’ve ever heard. El Rey Pescador is graced by some light sitar touches and close harmony singing.

Each track stands out on its own but Psyche I & Share Your Water is a tremendous favorite. This 5 minute track begins with a calm, soothing folk feel highlighted by some fine acoustic guitar work. Eventually it descends into bad trip territory with ghastly vocals and spooky electronics – an outstanding track, very trippy and worth the price of admission alone. Garden Botanum is another strong hightlight that hits like a ray of Hawaiian sunshine, the arrangements are free and green with lots of interesting twists, the vocals are beautifully exotic. This lp is one of the most relaxing listening experiences I’ve ever come across, an album to savour. The songs are full of simple beauty and the power of the performances will never diminish over time.

If you’re looking for something different, These Trails could be the right tonic. It’s one of the hidden gems from the early 70s and has been reissued on cd but is somewhat hard to come by these days.

01.These Trails 1:24
02.Our House In Hanalei 1:51
03.Of Broken Links 1:40
04.El Rey Pescador 3:07
05.Psyche I & Share Your Water 5:22
06.Hello Lou 3:47
07.Rusty's House & Los In Space 5:49
08.Psyche II 2:30
09.Sowed A Seed 2:17
10.Rapt Attention 2:15
11.Waipoo 2:36
12.Garden Botanum 3:31

Mainhorse - Selftitled (Mycket Bra Album UK 1971)

220:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Rekommenderas varmt.)

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

The history of MAINHORSE started in '68 but unfortunately, it's not very well documented. The prime mover was Patrick MORAZ, a very talented, Swiss born keyboardplayer. Other members of MAINHORSE were Peter Lockett (lead guitar, violin and vocals), Jean Ristori (bass, cello and vocals) and Bryson Graham (drums and percussion). In 1970 the band signed a contract with Polydor, a year later their eponymous debut-album was released. It remained unnoticed and when success failed MAINHORSE disbanded soon. Drummer Bryson Graham went to play with GARY WRIGHT and SPOOKY TOOTH. In '74 Patrick MORAZ founded REFUGEE and replaced RICK WAKEMAN in YES and in The Eighties he joined THE MOODY BLUES.

The album "Mainhorse" opens with (how original) the song "Introduction": fluent 'heavy progressive' with floods of Hammond organ and fiery electric guitarplay, the sound has echoes from ATOMIC ROOSTER, THE NICE and early DEEP PURPLE. The following "Passing Years" is a slow, bluesy like song with mellow organ and a bit melancholic vocals. Then again 'heavy prog' with swirling organ and biting electric guitar in "Such a beautiful day", the climate evokes THE NICE and QUATERMASS. In "Pale sky" a wailing violin and howling electric guitar colour a bluesy atmosphere, topped by strong Hammond play and dynamic drums. This song features halfway a jam with violin, guitars, electric piano, experimental sounds and a hypnotizing rhythm-section, to end with a sensitive electric guitarsolo and loads of Hammond. Next is "Basia", an up-tempo and catchy song with strong organ - and electric guitarplay, a pumping bass and cheerful vocals, halfway MAINHORSE surprises with a swinging electric pianosolo. 

The track "More tea vicar" contains subtle changes of rhythm, from soft jazzy to fluent heavy prog with a classical sounding organ (like EKSEPTION), assorted percussion like glockenspiel and fiery electric guitar. The final composition "God" (almost 10 minutes) is the most alternating and dynamic one with many changes of climate with Patrick MORAZ on organ and the 'Klavio-synthesizer' and strong electric guitarwork, it sounds like a blend of THE NICE and ATOMIC ROOSTER. In my opinion this album deserves a second change, it's not very original but sounds powerful and exciting with good compositions. And, most important, this album contains the first impressive steps from Patrick MORAZ as a keyboard-wizard.

01. Introduction
02. Passing Years
03. Such a Beautiful Day
04. Pale Sky
05. Basia
06. More Tea Vicar
07. God