When Jimi Hendrix was asked what it was like to be the best guitarist in the world, he replied, "I don't know, why don't you go and ask Rory Gallagher." Despite the indelible mark left by the Irish blues-rocker, Gallagher tends to be unfairly cast aside. UMe have done their part with acclaimed collections like last year's Blues and the 2020 live set Check Shirt Wizard - Live In '77. This Friday, October 9, the label will release a new career-spanning collection: The Best Of Rory
Wild Mountain Honey: Ace's "76 in the Shade" Features Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Starship, Smokey Robinson, Gilbert O'Sullivan, More
Producer-compiler Bob Stanley's last couple of compilations for Ace have placed him squarely within the 1970s. Earlier this year, Saint Etienne Present Songs for the Fountain Coffee Room (compiled by Stanley, Sarah Cracknell, and Pete Wiggs) conjured "the soundtrack for a bar in mid-'70s Los Angeles," or a St. Etienne-style spin on "yacht rock" with Stephen Bishop, Ned Doheny, Boz Scaggs, and Seals and Crofts among those featured. Stanley has followed Fountain Coffee Room up with a trip to a
Digital Round-Up: Bob Dylan Collects Rarities on "Best of The Bootleg Series," Releases New Episode of "Theme Time Radio Hour"
Since 1991, Bob Dylan and his team have combed the archives for new and interesting rarities from the vault to create The Bootleg Series. Once a tightly curated affair, the series has since expanded to take on a kitchen sink, "warts-and-all" approach. Fans have savored new archival Dylan releases every fall for several years and have been speculating what would arrive this year. While it appears likely that a new volume won't hit shelves until next year, the Dylan team have chosen to take a
Marshmallow World: Legacy Reissues Christmas Classics from Andy, Perry, Dean, Elvis, Johnny, Kenny and Dolly, and More
October is upon us, and while 2020 hasn't given us much to rejoice about, the holiday season is almost here. Before the month is out, radio stations will begin switching to seasonal formats, and television will begin showing yuletide movies. With a never-ending barrage of bad news, "we need a little Christmas right this very minute" has hardly seemed more apt. Sony's Legacy Recordings is getting a head start on Christmas this year with the release on vinyl of 10 favorite albums from the
Are You Ready to Rock: Esoteric Reissues, Expands Two from Roy Wood and Wizzard
One of Birmingham's most renowned musical exports, Roy Wood trained listeners to expect the unexpected. The founder or co-founder of The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard, Wood hasn't been among the most prolific artists of the rock era - with just four proper solo albums to his name - but he's surely one of the most inventive. Late last year, Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint reissued Wood's second solo LP, Mustard, as an expanded edition. Now, the label has returned to the
In The Shuffling Madness: Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" Receives Audiophile Treatment from Analogue Productions
In the world of audiophile music, Analogue Productions is known for top-drawer reissues on both SACD and high-quality vinyl. In recent years, they have developed a new formula for their special pressings and pressed classic titles under the banner UHQR, or Ultra High Quality Record. Analogue recently announced the latest in its UHQR series: Jethro Tull's Aqualung, due October 16. The 1971 album is one of the progressive rock group's most beloved albums and also their best-selling. With FM
Still Afraid of Americans: New Bowie Live Series Collects '90s Tour Dates
Brilliant Live Adventures. That's how Parlophone is describing the latest catalogue initiative for the late David Bowie. This series will encompass six live albums from the 1990s which will be released in limited edition, one-time pressings on both vinyl and CD. The first three albums will all be released before Christmas, with the remaining three early in 2021. The first Brilliant Live Adventure, coming on October 28 on single-CD and double-vinyl formats from Bowie's official webstore, is
Play Tetris Til My Eyes Fall Out: The Second Disc's Bandcamp Friday Picks, October 2020
The month's best new release day is back! Since March, indie music retailer Bandcamp has waived their share of revenue for indie artists and labels using their platform to give "the little guys" a leg up in the face of the pandemic. The result was more music bought by more fans than any day on the site, a record broken on the first Friday of May. Bandcamp Fridays have since taken place in June, July, August, and September - plus the first of an annual occurrence when the service will donate its
What's So Funny: Elvis Costello Announces "Armed Forces" Box Set Coming in November
Elvis Costello is hardly resting on his laurels this fall. He's prepping for the October 30 release of his latest studio album, Hey Clockface, and is in the middle of a 50 Songs for 50 Days online campaign in which he showcases a different - and often politically relevant - song each day until the U.S. election. Now, he's announced his biggest project yet for 2020: a deluxe 9-disc vinyl Super Deluxe Edition of Armed Forces with three 12-inch LPs, three 10-inch LPs, and three 7-inch singles
Release Round-Up: Week of October 2
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Herb Alpert, Herb Alpert Is... (Herb Alpert Presents) 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Herb Alpert Is...a trumpeter, songwriter, producer, artist, entrepreneur, philanthropist. The list goes on. To tie in with director John Scheinfeld's documentary of that name premiering this fall, Alpert's own Herb Alpert Presents label is releasing a 3-CD or 5-LP deluxe box set tracing his
Short Takes: Grateful Dead Offer "American Beauty: The Angel's Share," Paul McCartney Celebrates Rupert Bear's 100th with Single Reissue
Back in July, the Grateful Dead released a collection of never-before-heard outtakes and session material from the band's 1970 classic Workingman's Dead. The digital release was entitled The Angel's Share, after a whiskey distillation term, and offered the most comprehensive glimpse yet into the Dead's creative process. Today, Rhino announced that there's more of The Angel's Share - this time, a digital release with over two hours of never-before-heard outtakes, demos, and alternate takes from
Review: Thelonious Monk, "Palo Alto"
"[Palo Alto is] one of the best live recordings I've ever heard by Thelonious...I wasn't even aware of my dad playing a high school gig, but he and the band were on it." So says T.S. Monk, son of groundbreaking jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. "When I first heard the tape, from the first measure, I knew my father was feeling really good." The younger Monk is talking about a newly unearthed concert recorded October 27, 1968 which was recently released after a brief delay by Impulse! on CD and vinyl
Your Sweet Voice: Matthew Sweet's Power-Pop Classic 'Girlfriend' Arriving on SACD, Signed Edition Also Available
If you've been reading The Second Disc for any amount of time, you probably know we're big fans of Intervention Records. Back in 2018, we profiled the label's ongoing Matthew Sweet artist-approved reissue series and reviewed the excellent vinyl edition of 100% Fun. Now we can share the exciting news that Sweet's breakthrough 1992 album Girlfriend is set to arrive on SACD through Intervention Records. The disc hits shops on October 16. What sets this one apart from the vinyl counterpart
In Memoriam: Mac Davis (1942-2020)
On one of his most famous compositions, Scott "Mac" Davis sang, "I could just sit around making music all day long/As long as I'm making my music, ain't gonna do nobody no harm/And who knows, maybe I'll come up with a song..." The singer-songwriter-actor never had difficulty coming up with a song, including that memorable one. Davis, who died yesterday at the age of 78, recorded "I Believe in Music" on his second Columbia album in 1970, and the group Gallery took it up the charts in 1972.
Jump to It! Rhino Collects Aretha Franklin's Hits, Rarities, Never-Before-Released Tracks on New Box Set
It was late in 2015 when audiences across the country watched Aretha Franklin take the stage at The Kennedy Center Honors to salute honoree Carole King. The undisputed Queen of Soul tore into King, Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Wexler's "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman" with blazing intensity and thrilling authenticity. She had not just sung these lyrics but lived them. Nearing the song's finale, she simply but defiantly dropped her fur coat to the floor, creating an instant viral moment
Pieces of Her: Jewel's Debut Album Gets the Box Set Treatment
Folk singer Jewel will revisit her debut album with a expanded box set edition on Craft Recordings in November. The 25th anniversary edition of Pieces of You, due November 20, will be available in three formats. A 4CD super deluxe box set in a hardback portfolio book package combines the original album with three bonus discs: a set of demos (19 of 20 previously unreleased), a collection of B-sides and rarities (including seven unreleased outtakes), and a fully unreleased collection of live
De-Rezzed to Re-Rezzed: Mondo Reissues Daft Punk's 'TRON: Legacy' Soundtrack
Daft Punk's scintillating electronic score to TRON: Legacy is coming back to vinyl for its 10th anniversary with a lavish edition courtesy of the Mondo label. The label lists this release as one of their "holy grails," and they've spared no expense in celebrating it. This 2LP, 180-gram release, pressed on blue/white and red/black vinyl, features the original soundtrack program along with seven bonus cuts that didn't make the original CD release. (As was standard a decade ago, they were
Be The Rain: Neil Young Invites Fans To "Return To Greendale" With Multi-Format Box Set
Neil Young fans have a lot to look forward to. Over at his official website, Neil has written about an upcoming bootleg series, Archives Vol. 2, and at least 20 other projects in various states of gestation. Today, Neil officially announced a new title in his Performance Series, Return To Greendale. This audiovisual document of a Toronto stop on his 2003 tour will arrive in 2-CD, 2-LP, and deluxe box set configurations on November 6. Greendale remains one of Neil Young's most ambitious
In Memoriam: Helen Reddy (1941-2020)
Helen Reddy shocked audiences in 1973 as she accepted her Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Pop Performance and thanked God "because She makes everything possible." The trophy, of course, was for "I Am Woman," and it was the acceptance speech heard 'round the world. Helen Reddy had roared. News broke last evening that the Australian-born singer died at the age of 78, but not before she witnessed her classic anthem take on renewed meaning in modern-day America and around the
2 Win U Back: The Jones Girls' Hits and Rarities Collected on "We're A Melody: The Essential Jones Girls"
On November 6, Real Gone Music will release what's sure to be the most definitive collection of The Jones Girls' most beloved hits. remixes, and sought-after rarities. We're A Melody: The Essential Jones Girls brings together all of the sisters' most successful singles for Philadelphia International Records and RCA. Though these weren't the trio's first recordings - they'd cut sides for GM, Music Merchant, Paramount, and Curtom dating back to 1970 - the songs from this period saw Brenda,
The Walrus and Me: "Looking Through a Glass Onion" Collects Pop-Psych Beatles Covers
Let me take you down... The Beatles' songs were so sturdy and well-crafted that artists such as Matt Monro and Ella Fitzgerald became early adopters. But from the start, John, Paul, George, and Ringo's contemporaries had been just as likely as the older generation to mine their songbook. As the sixties continued and the Beatles ushered in the shift from pop to rock (minus the "and roll"), similarly youthful artists brought their own increasingly adventurous spins to the lads' material.
Illusions: Kim David Smith Channels Dietrich, Lenya, Minogue, and More on "Live at Joe's Pub"
The decadent culture of Weimar Germany - itself inspired by the American Jazz Age - has long proved a fertile source of inspiration for artists everywhere. David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Klaus Nomi, Ute Lemper, and Alan Cumming are just a few of the performers that have mined and reinvented the Weimar era in their music. Based on his new release Live at Joe's Pub, cabaret vocalist Kim David Smith deserves to be added to that esteemed list. Captured in March 2019 at a midnight show in that intimate
Nobody Does It Better: 'The Best of Bond...James Bond' Gets Update and Vinyl Release
With a new James Bond film set to shake (not stir) audiences in November, a longtime compilation of the super-spy's famed film themes is getting a new iteration on November 20. The Best of Bond...James Bond offers a stellar 25-track overview of the pop themes that scored nearly all of the films based on Ian Fleming's famed British secret agent. There are 14 U.K. Top 10 hits and two Academy Award winners herein - altogether, a formidable, half-century-plus musical portrait of one of cinema's
Short Takes: Bowie Box, Covering '90s and Early '00s, Planned for 2021
David Bowie's official website has announced plans for a fifth epoch-covering box set to release next year, after delaying an alternate version of said collection for a 2020 release. In a brief post, the late singer's website confirms that the follow-up to the four career-spanning album boxes - 2015's Five Years (1969-1973), 2016's Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), 2017's A New Career in a New Town (1977-1982) and 2018's Loving The Alien (1983-1988) - will cover the widest span of time yet: 1993
The Second Disc's Guide To Record Store Day Drop 2, September 26!
2020 has been a bit of a rollercoaster and Record Store Day 2020 is no exception: once scheduled in April, it moved forward a few months, and is now spread out across three Saturdays in the summer and fall. The Record Store Day Drop in August proved a success and round two, set for tomorrow, September 26, is sure to please fans of all genres and eras. It's a diverse list full of exciting releases that you can only find through your local brick-and-mortar record store (or through their online
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