Paul McCartney might have taken the bull by the horns for his aggressively homemade solo debut McCartney in 1970, defying practically all expectations, but he literally took the ram by the horns on the cover photo of its 1971 follow-up, Ram. By the time of Ram's release, George Harrison had declared that All Things (including Beatles) Must Pass and John Lennon had exorcised many of his demons with the confessional Plastic Ono Band, wife Yoko at his side. With Linda McCartney co-billed as
Review: The Knack, "Havin' a Rave-Up! Live in Los Angeles, 1978"
Not every album lives up to its title, but The Knack’s Havin’ a Rave-Up! certainly does! The group - Doug Fieger on vocals and rhythm guitar, Berton Averre on lead guitar, keyboards and vocals, Prescott Niles on bass, and Bruce Gary on drums – had quite a number of rave-ups on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip in 1978, and made quite a big noise. The quartet was suddenly being deemed the American answer to The Beatles. Musicians the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Ray Manzarek were
Review: A Quartet From BBR - The Pointer Sisters, Buddy Miles, Pharoah Sanders, Greg Phillinganes
Among the most recent reissues from Big Break Records is a 1974 album from Electric Flag founder and Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles entitled All the Faces of Buddy Miles. But one could easily title any given batch of music from the Cherry Red-affiliated label as All the Faces of BBR, so reliably diverse is each group of the label's releases. Today's capsule reviews look at four of the latest from the Big Break team! Buddy Miles, All the Faces of Buddy Miles (Columbia KC-33089, 1974 -
Review: Diana Ross, "Live in Central Park"
The hair is the first thing you notice when Diana Ross emerges from a troupe of grass skirt-clad dancers on stage at Central Park in New York City on July 21, 1983. Miss Ross, as she's gotten older, is easily distinguished for that dark, curly mane, like a proud lioness. But while her hair was as resplendent as usual on this night, it was...askew. Musicologists and hardcore Diana fans know why without any explanation: Ross' Central Park concert had the unfortunate circumstance of being schedule
Review: Real Gone Goes Country with Eddie Rabbitt, Mel McDaniel, Cowboy Copas
What defines country music? The answer isn’t an easy one. Dolly Parton is undoubtedly singing a country-and-western song when she reminisces about “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” but how about when she’s warbling “Here You Come Again” by the Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil? Are Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift country artists as pop stars, or pop stars as country artists? Billboard recently described none other than Bruce Springsteen as “a symbolic fencepost
Review: The Ad Libs, "The Complete Blue Cat Recordings"
Ooh-wah, ooh-wah, cool, cool kitty! Tell us about the boy from New York City… And indeed, much of America listened to the Ad Libs tell of that kinda tall, really fine guy in his mohair suit. The Top 10 hit turned radio’s attention from Swinging London back to New York City for a brief moment, but the group was never able to repeat the song’s success. It wasn’t for lack of trying, though, as Real Gone Music’s The Complete Blue Cat Recordings (Real Gone RGM-0500, 2012) proves. Though the Ad
Review: Shorty Long, "The Complete Motown Stereo Masters"
Frederick Long's nickname "Shorty" was ironic considering his surname, but the diminutive pianist, songwriter and vocalist was indeed a mere 5'1". Yet Shorty was Long on talent. Harvey Fuqua brought Long to Motown with him from Tri-Phi, and Long was eventually selected by Berry Gordy to inaugurate the new Soul label, designed to showcase the funkier side of the Sound of Young America. That single arrived in 1964, but Gordy didn't release a Long solo album until 1968, just one year before the
Review: Iron Butterfly, "Fillmore East 1968"
Where were you 44 years ago today? If you happened to be passing by 105 Second Avenue in New York City’s East Village, you would likely have seen a fantastic group of names displayed on the marquee at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East. On Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27, 1968, Iron Butterfly shared an explosive bill with Traffic and Blue Cheer. The Fillmore East itself is now just a memory, of course. Its exterior and entrance now welcomes you to a bank, and the storied auditorium has been
Review: Carole King, "The Legendary Demos" and "Something Good from the Goffin and King Songbook"
Though there's no one formula for creating a great song, there's no denying the success of the method that flourished first in New York's Tin Pan Alley (28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, for those wondering) and later a bit uptown in and around the Brill Building (1619 Broadway near 49th Street). A couple of blocks away at 1650 Broadway at 51st Street, during the halcyon days of the 1960s, you would have found the home of Aldon Music, and the team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King.
Review: Sam & Dave and Philip Bailey, Expanded Editions from Edsel
Mention “Hold On, I’m Comin’” and chances are you can hear that confident, swaggering horn riff that insistently opens the Sam and Dave classic. Indeed, all you really need to know is in that riff! All four albums recorded by Sam and Dave for Stax/Atlantic have been collected by Edsel on two new releases, and these expanded editions (including various single sides) add up to true cornerstones for any R&B or soul music library. But the label hasn’t stopped there. A very different kind of
Review: Janis Joplin, "The Pearl Sessions"
One dictionary defines "pearl" as an object both "hard" and "lustrous," synonymous with "gem" or "jewel." Couldn't all of those words also describe Janis Joplin? Pearl was, of course, the name bestowed upon the singer by her final group, The Kozmic Blues Band, and the title of her final, posthumously released album from 1971. Pearl has arrived on CD once more from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings under the title The Pearl Sessions (88697 84224 2), expanding the original 10-track album
Review: Donovan, "The Essential Donovan"
Dear Donovan: what's it been like being you? The enigmatic Scotsman born Donovan Philips Leitch has worn many colours since bursting onto the music scene in 1965: the guitar-slinging Woody Guthrie disciple of "Catch the Wind," the mystical folkie of "Season of the Witch," the lysergic hippie of "Sunshine Superman," the sinister rock narrator of "Hurdy Gurdy Man." Though he's never retired, the poet/troubadour has maintained a low profile in recent years. He's only sporadically emerged with
Review: Johnny Cash, "Bootleg IV: The Soul of Truth"
“John, let’s do a shot for the warden,” photographer Jim Marshall reportedly implored Johnny Cash during the singer’s 1969 performance at San Quentin Prison. Cash’s snarling response, with his middle finger in air, made for one of the most famous music photographs of all time. Cropping up on T-shirts, posters and the like, Marshall captured the outlaw side of Johnny Cash like no photographer before or since. Though it might have, indeed, been worth a thousand words, the image still only
Review: Tom Northcott, "Sunny Goodge Street: The Warner Bros. Recordings"
Extra! Extra! Lost Folk Singer Found! His name is Tom Northcott, and had things turned out a little differently, he might be remembered in the same breath as Joni Mitchell or Gordon Lightfoot, fellow Canadian troubadours. After founding the Tom Northcott Trio, he headed for California during perhaps the most fertile period ever for creative, boundary-breaking musical exploration, the mid-1960s. Northcott opened for The Who, The Doors and Jefferson Airplane, and was signed to Warner Bros.
Review: John Williams, "Hook: Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack"
After more than three years of planning, preparing and waiting, audiences finally have a chance to enjoy an expanded edition of John Williams' score to Steven Spielberg's 1991 cult classic Hook (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1211). The world had been "getting by," so to speak, with the Epic label's original 75-minute CD presentation - a generous offering, to be sure, but one that only sort of did the score justice. While critics remain divided to indifferent on the celluloid continuation of James M.
Review: Frankie Avalon, "Muscle Beach Party: The United Artists Sessions"
By the time of 1964’s Muscle Beach Party, Philadelphia-born Frankie Avalon had already racked up some 31 hits on the U.S. Billboard charts, including two at Number One, “Why” and “Venus.” On the urging of his Chancellor Records mentor Bob Marcucci, Avalon had welcomed the 1960s by diversifying his talents into film, appearing opposite John Wayne in The Alamo and Walter Pidgeon in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. 1963’s Beach Party, however, was something else altogether. Directed by William
Review: Randy Vanwarmer, "Warmer/Terraform" and "Beat of Love/The Things That You Dream"
Bespectacled singer/songwriter Randy Vanwarmer became one of the unlikeliest radio heroes of the late 1970s when his gentle ballad “Just When I Needed You Most” began its ascent up the Billboard chart amidst an onslaught of disco (“I Will Survive,” “Hot Stuff”) and New Wave (“Heart of Glass”). Vanwarmer’s bittersweet memory of a long-gone lover hit a nerve with listeners looking for an escape from the dance floor. Although the song would qualify him as a one-hit wonder, Vanwarmer continued to
Review: John Cale, "Conflict and Catalysis: Productions and Arrangements 1966-2006"
Catalysis (ca-tal-y-sis): The action of a catalyst, especially an increase in the rate of a chemical reaction. With his induction into Ace Records’ Producers series, John Cale joins an esteemed group including Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Sly Stone, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach. If Cale isn’t always thought of in the same breath as those giants, it’s simply because his career has been so diverse, encompassing writing, performing and arranging for artists ranging from The Stooges to
Guitars A Go-Go: "Fender: The Golden Age" and Jerry Cole's "Psychedelic Guitars" Celebrated by Ace
If you've got guitars on the mind, look no further than a pair of new releases from those compilation experts at the Ace label! Fender: The Golden Age 1950-1970 (Ace CDCHD 1315) is a new 28-track anthology that manages to be both comprehensive and the tip of the iceberg, where the famous guitar is concerned! A new companion to the 2010 book of almost the same name (Fender: The Golden Age 1946-1970 by Martin Kelly), this set offers a rare chance to appreciate both the talent on the record label
Review: Big Brother and the Holding Company Featuring Janis Joplin, "Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968"
Journey back with me to 1968, will you? Your time machine is courtesy Owsley “Bear” Stanley, visionary sound engineer and renowned LSD chemist. But you don’t need any lysergic acid to enjoy the music contained on the little silver disc known as Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 (Columbia/Legacy 88697 96409 2, 2012), billed as the first release from Bear’s Sonic Journals. That said, a little Southern Comfort probably wouldn’t hurt. (Or a toke or two, as per the suggestion of Stanley’s son
Review: Mark Lindsay, "The Complete Columbia Singles"
There'll be joy and there'll be laughter/Something big is what I'm after now... As frontman, songwriter and saxophonist of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Mark Lindsay had experienced his fair share of joy and laughter, but as 1969 rolled around, the band behind such garage-pop anthems as "Kicks," "Just like Me" and "Hungry" was beginning to fracture. Jack Gold, head of A&R at Columbia Records, however, saw something big in Mark Lindsay's future. According to the singer, Gold had stumbled on
Review: Pink Floyd, "The Wall: Immersion Box Set"
By the way, which one’s Pink? A record executive poses that wry musical question of Pink Floyd in “Have a Cigar,” a brief, humorous respite on the band’s elegiac 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The ever-ambitious group would actually answer that wry question with The Wall, 1979’s sprawling double album. The psychedelic Dark Side of the Moon and reflective Wish You Were Here both invited listeners to create their own stories in service of the albums’ impressionistic concepts, largely dealing
Review: Carole King, "The Carole King Collection: Simple Things, Welcome Home, Touch the Sky, and Pearls"
Carole King was ready for a fresh start in 1977. She had recently split from manager/producer Lou Adler’s Ode Records, the label with which she had signed back in 1968 as the lead singer of The City. It was, of course, at Ode where King triumphed with Tapestry, and over the years introduced a parade of memorable songs like “It’s Too Late,” “So Far Away,” You’ve Got a Friend,” “Sweet Seasons,” “Been to Canaan” and “Jazzman.” Yet the four albums recorded by King at Capitol between 1977 and 1980
Review: Tony Bennett, "Isn't It Romantic?"
Isn’t it romantic? The titular phrase from a song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart could apply to much of Tony Bennett’s musical career, now in roughly its 65th year. It’s also the title of a new compilation aimed at the casual Bennett fan from Concord Music Group. Isn’t It Romantic? (CRE-33463-02) repackages 15 prime cuts from the singer’s work at his own short-lived Improv label, with a smattering of tracks from a Fantasy Records LP thrown in for good measure. Though Bennett’s artistic
From Motown to the Bay Area! The Apollas' "Absolutely Right!" and Eddie Holland's "It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964" Available Now
Are you thinking you should take a chance on Ace Records’ supremely soulful duo of releases from The Apollas and Eddie Holland? If so…you’re absolutely right! For The Apollas’ Absolutely Right: The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings (Kent CDKEND 365, 2012) and Holland’s It Moves Me: The Complete Recordings 1958-1964 (Ace CDTOP2 1331, 2012) both belong on the shelf of any serious fan of classic soul and R&B. If you haven’t heard of The Apollas, you’re forgiven. This Bay Area
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