The Velvet Underground of the Los Angeles music scene, Arthur Lee and Love made some of the more different styles of albums that was part of that long ago and far away 60s. The first album was a Byrds tribute all the way through, but with Lee's oddball lyrics this side of Bob Dylan. Before the CD era happened, only Forever Changes remained in print whereas everything else came and went, you could get them via imports. They were originally The Grassroots but since a certain band had that name and was making AM pop hits, a name change was in order and Lee settled for Love.
The first Love album was, as mentioned before a Byrds tribute album all the way down to the chimey 12 string guitar work but they had a minor garage rock hit with a cover of My Little Red Book. Bryan MacLean would write one song or two and covered a classic garage rock song like Hey Joe, which was better than The Byrds version to these ears but pales next to the Leaves version. The album would sound pretty good after the likes of Turn Turn Turn or Mr. Tambourine Man.
Arthur and company would make a great 2nd album, with side A the best songs but side B gave us the overlong jam that was Revelation, a lotta people hated it, I can listen to it from time to time but it was Side 1 with Stephanie Knows Who, with a prog like break in the middle of the song and who thought of playing a harpsichord through the song (Genius!). TJ Canterrelli adds horns and gives more music personality on Orange Skies and She Comes In Colors but the standouts remain a blistering 7 + 7 = ? and the moody The Castle.
Lee topped himself with Forever Changes, an album that was much more different than the Byrds tribute first album and the experiments of Da Capo and going with a more acoustic guitar sound and David Angel's arrangements. New drummer Mike Stuart (who was on Da Capo) added a steady beat to the odd time changes of The Daily Planet or House Is Not A Home. Forever Changes is that perfect album, from start to finish every song is worthy of a place on the record concluding You Set The Scene to which the finale may have been Lee's way of saying that this OTT ending would be the end of the original Love.
MacLean left, and Arthur Lee would dismiss the rest of the band in favor of a more striped down and more rock and funk version of Love and Four Sail and Out There was the end result. In some ways, Lee was turning Love more into what Jimi Hendrix was doing with his band and what fan based he got with Forever Changes, he lost on Four Sail and Out There. For me, Four Sail was their least interesting, it may have been the poor mix or recording although Singing Cowboy is the best example of what Lee was trying to achieve. Out There, was issued through the new Blue Thumb label and has some of the better songs (I Still Wonder, Doggone before the 11 minute drum solo put everybody to sleep, Stand Out (a song that Lee liked so much he remade it on False Start), Better Late Than Never which goes into a 10 minute Gary Rowles guitar freakout). But as a 2 record set it's all over the map. False Start, has Gary Rowles taking over for Jay and best known song The Everlasting First has Jimi Hendrix playing guitar although the song itself isn't that great. The rest of the album is so so.
Lee would disband that version of Love (except to revive it in 1982 for a spell), made a solo album that I never heard but made one more go around with a new version of Love, to which became more of a R and B band, somewhat in the Sly and Family Stone Vibe. While reviews of Real To Reel was blah, I liked it better than False Start with a good cover of Be Thankful Of What You Got, a soulful Singing Cowboy but the track I remembered most was Everybody's Gotta Live, which got some airplay on the radio for a time. Out of all the Love albums, this has yet to see the light of day on CD, but hardly anybody knows about it except for the hardcore. Even the Rhino/Elektra best ofs simply have ignored it.
In 1982, MCA put out a cheapo comp Studio/Live to which one side was live and the other side were selected songs off Out There (with a edited version of Doggone without drum solo, and Better Late Than Never without guitar solo, edits done by Leon Tsilis-who says the live part came from the 1970 Fillmore concert).
In the 1990s Elektra did reissue the first three albums on CD, but the first generation Forever Changes CD suffered from a bad mastering job (Alone Again Or and the Daily Planet suffered from this) but later Rhino reissued the whole album and the sound was much better. An extensive 2 CD set Love Story combines most of the hits as well as side 1 of Da Capo and all of Forever Changes plus selected stuff from the Blue Thumb albums. The Best Of Love is a good introduction but really the first three albums are worth getting on their own. Later in life, Arthur Lee would reform Love and go on tour before he passed away, but John Echols continues with his own tribute band Love Revisited, Michael Stuart-Ware did perform on some 2009 dates. But even after the passings of Lee and MacLean, the Love legacy continues. They were ahead of the times but after Four Sail, Lee either fell behind or just contented to do simple rock and funk. But no denying the fact, that Love was blazing their own trail in the 60s.
Albums
Love (Elektra 1966) A-
Da Capo (Elektra 1967) A
Forever Changes (Elektra 1968) A+
Four Sail (Elektra 1969) B-
Out There (Blue Thumb 1969) B+
False Start (Blue Thumb 1970) B
Best Of Love (Elektra 1981) B+
Studio/Live (MCA 1982) C+
Love Story (Elektra/Rhino 1995) A-
Love Lost (Sundazed 2009) B
Black Beauty (Buffalo 1972, reissued Blue Moon Records 2012) NR
Reel To Real (RSO 1974) B+ (The only LP not on released on CD)
Reference:
http://love.torbenskott.dk/default.asp
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Blues Project
For a band that has been so widely praised back in their heyday, The Blues Project didn't leave many albums behind and their reputation became more than the sum of their parts. Not exactly a blues band they also took their inspiration from jazz, and folk rock along with their Chuck Berry numbers. And every album always featured a different lineup it seems, Tommy Flanders was on for the Live at Cafe Au Go Go and would disappear till their forgotten Capitol S/T. Even their so called classic album Projections is hampered by a slow moving Two Trains Running that you're about ready to give up on them. But at their best Al Kooper would lead them to many different styles of music from the garage rock of No Time Like The Right Time or I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes, to the jammy Wake Me Shake Me and to the jazz flirtations of Flute Thing or covering the Donovan folk Catch The Wind, Projections will forever remain their claim to fame and one of the essential albums of the 1960s. Live At Cafe Au Go Go is a curio first album which shows them running through the Chess catalog with their versions of You Can't Catch Me, Going To Lousiana and a few others. Not needed in your collection but it's not bad either
Projections is everything Blues Project, the combination of Kooper, Steve Katz, Roy Blumenthal, Andy Kulberg and especially Danny Kalb on a wicked Caress Me Baby is their finest hour although I'm surprised that Fly Away didn't make the pop charts (They would try it again with another single in 1973). The recording is not exactly all that great, it sounds distorted but Sundazed reissued it with better sound. With Al Kooper and Steve Katz leaving to form Blood Sweat And Tears, Verve scraped the bottom of the barrel for Live At Town Hall which adds No Time Like The Right Time (with canned applause) and Electric Flute Thing adding more shock value to the LP (zzzzzz). Pressing on, Planned Obsolescence starts out with a nice cover of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody but the majority of songs were boring. Only decent thing about the album was the cover picture Andy Kulberg would form the minor all star band Seatrain with Peter Rowan and made three uneven albums for Capitol and Warner Brothers which had a underground classic with 13 Questions (Produced by George Martin of The Beatles fame). The Blues Project would solder on with the heavier Lazarus and Tommy Flanders returned for the S/T album which was so so.
For some reason Al Kooper decided to reunite the original Blues Project for one last show in Central Park in 1973 and it turned out to be a fine end to a band who never really got off the ground. Actually better than Cafe Au Go Go, Reunion In Central Park at least made a fine final statement that when the Blues Project put aside their egos and conflicts of interest, they were a damn good band.
Albums:
Live At Cafe Au Go Go-Verve Folkways 1966 B
Projections-Verve Forecast 1967 A-
Live At Town Hall-Verve Forecast 1968 B
Planned Obsolescence-Verve Forecast 1969 C
Lazarus-Capitol 1971 C+
Blues Project-Capitol 1972 C+
Reunion Live At Central Park-MCA 1973 B+
Projections is everything Blues Project, the combination of Kooper, Steve Katz, Roy Blumenthal, Andy Kulberg and especially Danny Kalb on a wicked Caress Me Baby is their finest hour although I'm surprised that Fly Away didn't make the pop charts (They would try it again with another single in 1973). The recording is not exactly all that great, it sounds distorted but Sundazed reissued it with better sound. With Al Kooper and Steve Katz leaving to form Blood Sweat And Tears, Verve scraped the bottom of the barrel for Live At Town Hall which adds No Time Like The Right Time (with canned applause) and Electric Flute Thing adding more shock value to the LP (zzzzzz). Pressing on, Planned Obsolescence starts out with a nice cover of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody but the majority of songs were boring. Only decent thing about the album was the cover picture Andy Kulberg would form the minor all star band Seatrain with Peter Rowan and made three uneven albums for Capitol and Warner Brothers which had a underground classic with 13 Questions (Produced by George Martin of The Beatles fame). The Blues Project would solder on with the heavier Lazarus and Tommy Flanders returned for the S/T album which was so so.
For some reason Al Kooper decided to reunite the original Blues Project for one last show in Central Park in 1973 and it turned out to be a fine end to a band who never really got off the ground. Actually better than Cafe Au Go Go, Reunion In Central Park at least made a fine final statement that when the Blues Project put aside their egos and conflicts of interest, they were a damn good band.
Albums:
Live At Cafe Au Go Go-Verve Folkways 1966 B
Projections-Verve Forecast 1967 A-
Live At Town Hall-Verve Forecast 1968 B
Planned Obsolescence-Verve Forecast 1969 C
Lazarus-Capitol 1971 C+
Blues Project-Capitol 1972 C+
Reunion Live At Central Park-MCA 1973 B+
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Blackfoot
Blackfoot was the hardest rocking band ever to come roaring from the Southern rock world of Lynyrd Skynyrd and led by the pounding drums of the late Jakson (Boomerfoot) Spires and the banshee shout vocals of Rickey Medlocke set upon a world of a Island debut that was way ahead of it's time, even in 1975 No Reservations with the metallic riff leading off side 2, the song Take A Train even with the female singers couldn't hide the fact that Blackfoot was much different than Skynyrd even though bass player Greg Walker and Medlocke played from time to time in the early years. That was my first hearing of Blackfoot, and it took years to find that album since Island had it out of print in 1977 (although they reissued it via the Antilles offshoot, don't ask why). Although uneven, No Reservations was a in your face train going 90 miles an hour and get out of the way if you can't take the music. Only other band that was this hard rocking would be Molly Hatchet.
Island couldn't figure out how to market a southern rock band so they let them go and Blackfoot signed with the other big independent label at that time Virgin Records (Via Epic) for the equally blistering Flyin' High but again the album met with indifference and they were let go. It wasn't until 1979 that they latched on to Atco Records with Strikes which kinda balances out the hard rock of Road Fever with the Skynyrd like answer to Free Bird Highway Song. Choice covers in Blues Image's Pay My Dues, I Got A Line On You (Spirit) and Wishing Well (Free) it also has Train Train (featuring the late great Cub Koda on Harmonica), it would eventually go gold.
Tomcattin' (1980) return to much harder attack in tuned with the early albums but despite classic songs such as Every Man Should Know (Little Queenie) and On The Run, the LP sales were disappointing. Marauder (1981) attempted a return to Strikes and that too didn't do very well despite having a decent single with Fly Away and rocking cuts such as Good Morning and Dry Country. Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) joined up for the even less appealing Siogo but the bottom fell out on the lackluster Vertical Smiles which only made it to 176 on the charts. The dated keyboard sounds and half assed songwriter and one of the worst album covers ever didn't help either. And with that Blackfoot called it a day.
Or so it seemed. Rickey Medlocke returned with an all new Blackfoot lineup and managed to get that released on Atlantic rather than Atco and featured Wizzard from Mother's Finest as a member but that record was even worse than Vertical Smiles. Later albums featured Medlocke as the only original member although in the 2000's the other members of Blackfoot did reunite with Bobby Barth (Axe) being the main vocals and continuing till Jakson Spires death in 2005. They are now known as Fired Guns after Rickey Medlocke reclaimed the Blackfoot name and added new members in 2012, but for the most part Rickey spends time going from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot and sometimes appearing on as an actor on TV, most notably on a 2001 Nash Bridges show.
Their best albums remains the first five plus the live 1982 Highway Song which didn't see US release till Wounded Bird issued it. It's better than the King Biscuit 1983 live album. The last true Blackfoot album is Vertical Smiles and this is where the story ends for me. The 1987 Atlantic album is a waste of time although Medlocke kinda returned to a more rocking sound on Medicine Man and After The Reign but by then I really wasn't that interested anyway.
Blackfoot when they were on, were just about the best Southern Hard Rock band but when they were off, they came across more like a second rated Skynyrd or by Vertical Smiles, a third rate 38 Special. But put on Take A Train or Train Train or Every Man Should Know, they'll stop you in your tracks and make you rock out. They were more celebrated in the UK than USA it seemed.
Albums:
No Reservations (Island 1975) B+
Flyin' High (Epic 1976-later reissued on Collectibles) B+
Strikes (Atco 1979) A-
Tomcattin' (Atco 1980) B+
Marauder (Atco 1981) B
Highway Song Live (Wounded Bird 1982) B+
King Biscuit Live (EMI 1983) C+
Siogo (Atco 1983) B
Vertical Smiles (Atco 1985) C
Rickey Medlocke And Blackfoot (Atlantic 1986) C-
Medicine Man (Nalli 1990) C+
After The Reign (Wildcat 1994) C+
Rattlesnake Rock And Roll-Best Of Blackfoot (Rhino 1995) B+
Island couldn't figure out how to market a southern rock band so they let them go and Blackfoot signed with the other big independent label at that time Virgin Records (Via Epic) for the equally blistering Flyin' High but again the album met with indifference and they were let go. It wasn't until 1979 that they latched on to Atco Records with Strikes which kinda balances out the hard rock of Road Fever with the Skynyrd like answer to Free Bird Highway Song. Choice covers in Blues Image's Pay My Dues, I Got A Line On You (Spirit) and Wishing Well (Free) it also has Train Train (featuring the late great Cub Koda on Harmonica), it would eventually go gold.
Tomcattin' (1980) return to much harder attack in tuned with the early albums but despite classic songs such as Every Man Should Know (Little Queenie) and On The Run, the LP sales were disappointing. Marauder (1981) attempted a return to Strikes and that too didn't do very well despite having a decent single with Fly Away and rocking cuts such as Good Morning and Dry Country. Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) joined up for the even less appealing Siogo but the bottom fell out on the lackluster Vertical Smiles which only made it to 176 on the charts. The dated keyboard sounds and half assed songwriter and one of the worst album covers ever didn't help either. And with that Blackfoot called it a day.
Or so it seemed. Rickey Medlocke returned with an all new Blackfoot lineup and managed to get that released on Atlantic rather than Atco and featured Wizzard from Mother's Finest as a member but that record was even worse than Vertical Smiles. Later albums featured Medlocke as the only original member although in the 2000's the other members of Blackfoot did reunite with Bobby Barth (Axe) being the main vocals and continuing till Jakson Spires death in 2005. They are now known as Fired Guns after Rickey Medlocke reclaimed the Blackfoot name and added new members in 2012, but for the most part Rickey spends time going from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot and sometimes appearing on as an actor on TV, most notably on a 2001 Nash Bridges show.
Their best albums remains the first five plus the live 1982 Highway Song which didn't see US release till Wounded Bird issued it. It's better than the King Biscuit 1983 live album. The last true Blackfoot album is Vertical Smiles and this is where the story ends for me. The 1987 Atlantic album is a waste of time although Medlocke kinda returned to a more rocking sound on Medicine Man and After The Reign but by then I really wasn't that interested anyway.
Blackfoot when they were on, were just about the best Southern Hard Rock band but when they were off, they came across more like a second rated Skynyrd or by Vertical Smiles, a third rate 38 Special. But put on Take A Train or Train Train or Every Man Should Know, they'll stop you in your tracks and make you rock out. They were more celebrated in the UK than USA it seemed.
Albums:
No Reservations (Island 1975) B+
Flyin' High (Epic 1976-later reissued on Collectibles) B+
Strikes (Atco 1979) A-
Tomcattin' (Atco 1980) B+
Marauder (Atco 1981) B
Highway Song Live (Wounded Bird 1982) B+
King Biscuit Live (EMI 1983) C+
Siogo (Atco 1983) B
Vertical Smiles (Atco 1985) C
Rickey Medlocke And Blackfoot (Atlantic 1986) C-
Medicine Man (Nalli 1990) C+
After The Reign (Wildcat 1994) C+
Rattlesnake Rock And Roll-Best Of Blackfoot (Rhino 1995) B+
Friday, July 5, 2013
Jim Croce
In the archives that is music, there are artists that die way ahead before their time and sad to say a few of them died in airplane crashes. Who knows what would have happened had Buddy Holly or Richie Valens never chose to take a plane to get out of a bad winter in Iowa. Or where Ronnie Van Zant would have taken Skynyrd after Street Survivors. Jim Croce was on his way to big stardom when a plane crash took him away from us in 1973.
There are 10 times many more best ofs from Jim Croce than actual albums but he did record a couple albums that didn't sell with his wife Ingrid, Pickwick issued a truncated version of his album which whoever heard it compared Jim and Ingrid to Ian And Sylvia, pleasant folk rock but nothing more.
Croce was the ultimate blue collar working man, working for many jobs while trying to make it in the music business and a chance contract with ABC gave him a top ten hit with You Don't Mess Around With Jim, a interesting account of pool hustlers and Willie McCoy aka Slim declaring revenge on Big Jim Walker, pool shooting sun of a gun. In some ways an East Coast answer to Tom Waits, Croce's songs were a bit more accessible and better sung than the gravel pit voice of Waits but Croce could be as melancholy as Waits. The single Operator (that's not the way it feels) to me tells a story of a guy trying to reconnect with an old ex girlfriend and enlists a operator to help him place a call and then saying the hell with it. That too hit the top ten here but Croce would top the charts with another bar hustler tune set to a barrellhouse piano boogie woogie tune called Bad Bad Leroy Brown to which the storyline is kinda like You Don't Mess Around With Jim but this time out it's shooting dice. And maybe he didn't intended it, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way is heard a lot more often during Christmas Time.
A posthumous release I Got A Name issued late 1973 ends the story there. Beginning with the title track which he didn't write himself, the album is perhaps his most introspective. I Have To Say I Love You In A Song is one of my favorite love songs ever but also Croce could write an anti love song, Lover's Cross comes to mind. Even though it was left off the best ofs, the revisiting of Age can touch the heart as well. The record kinda drags at the end of side two (The ho hum Salon And Saloon and Thursday both on the best ofs) but since Croce wasn't around to finish the album I'm sure ABC was looking for outtakes that they could use.
Outside of The Doors, record labels have continue to put out Best ofs after best ofs and perhaps the best overview was Rhino finally putting both Time In A Bottle and Photographs And Memories into the Classic Hits in 2004. Lifesong scraped the bottom of the barrel for the uneven The Places I've Been in 1976 and a 45 of Chain Gang Medley was released and made it to number 63 on the Billboard chart. But it seems that every major label has had a hand in putting out Croce's best ofs. ABC had the original best of, then Lifesong got distribution from CBS/Sony and Croce's albums came out on Lifesong/CBS in the 70s. Later on 21 Records (later Saja) via Atlantic put out the 2 best ofs at that time and even EMI managed to put out a couple of their own (and Croce didn't live to see that). Which you cannot go wrong but The CEMA/EMI best of has more filler songs and less hits but it does have Age on it. And Sanctuary (now part of Universal) has put out best ofs as imports abroad, so basically Croce get credit for recording all of the major labels, post death that is.
In 2006 thereabouts, Shout Factory reissued the early Jim And Ingrid Croce albums but also a live album Have You Heard Jim Croce Live which Croce with his right hand man Maury Muehelisen in tow and they give a intimate performance. Worth seeking out on either DVD or CD. But there wasn't much live TV stuff from Croce outside seeing him on one show (I think it was The Midnight Special but not too sure). Americana, is Jim and a tape recorder playing old cover songs. Not bad but not essential either.
Nevertheless had he lived Jim Croce could have had a career something like Gordon Lightfoot since both were basically folk rock artists. Or a less pretentious Bruce Springsteen, since Bruce kinda wrote along the same lines. He made classic singles and very good albums in his year stint with ABC and his tragic passing elevates him to the stature of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, cut down before their prime. Any best of will do for you but somewhere in oldies and classic rock land Bad Bad Leroy Brown is playing and soft rock Time In A Bottle. To which the words ring truthfully that there's never enough time whatever you do.
And he was right.
The Albums:
Facets (Shout Factory 1966) B+
Croce (Capitol/One Way Records 1969) B
You Don't Mess Around With Jim (ABC 1973) A-
Life And Times (ABC 1973) B+
I Got A Name (ABC 1974) B+
The Places I've Been (Lifesong 1976) B-
Photographs And Memories (Lifesong 1978) B+
Time In A Bottle-Greatest Ballads (Saja/Atlantic 1985) B+
Home Recordings-Americana (Shout Factory 2004) B
Classic Hits (Rhino 2004) A-
Have You Heard Jim Croce Live (Shout Factory 2006) A-
Certainly there's more Jim Croce Best of's there's are the notables.
Down The Highway (Saja/Atlantic)
The 50th Anniversary Collection (Saja 1992)
Bad Bad Leroy Brown And Other Favorites (Cema 1994)
VH1 Behind The Music Collection (Rhino 2001)
Live The Final Tour (Saja/Edsel 2012)
The Way We Used To Be: The Anthology (Sanctuary)
There are 10 times many more best ofs from Jim Croce than actual albums but he did record a couple albums that didn't sell with his wife Ingrid, Pickwick issued a truncated version of his album which whoever heard it compared Jim and Ingrid to Ian And Sylvia, pleasant folk rock but nothing more.
Croce was the ultimate blue collar working man, working for many jobs while trying to make it in the music business and a chance contract with ABC gave him a top ten hit with You Don't Mess Around With Jim, a interesting account of pool hustlers and Willie McCoy aka Slim declaring revenge on Big Jim Walker, pool shooting sun of a gun. In some ways an East Coast answer to Tom Waits, Croce's songs were a bit more accessible and better sung than the gravel pit voice of Waits but Croce could be as melancholy as Waits. The single Operator (that's not the way it feels) to me tells a story of a guy trying to reconnect with an old ex girlfriend and enlists a operator to help him place a call and then saying the hell with it. That too hit the top ten here but Croce would top the charts with another bar hustler tune set to a barrellhouse piano boogie woogie tune called Bad Bad Leroy Brown to which the storyline is kinda like You Don't Mess Around With Jim but this time out it's shooting dice. And maybe he didn't intended it, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way is heard a lot more often during Christmas Time.
A posthumous release I Got A Name issued late 1973 ends the story there. Beginning with the title track which he didn't write himself, the album is perhaps his most introspective. I Have To Say I Love You In A Song is one of my favorite love songs ever but also Croce could write an anti love song, Lover's Cross comes to mind. Even though it was left off the best ofs, the revisiting of Age can touch the heart as well. The record kinda drags at the end of side two (The ho hum Salon And Saloon and Thursday both on the best ofs) but since Croce wasn't around to finish the album I'm sure ABC was looking for outtakes that they could use.
Outside of The Doors, record labels have continue to put out Best ofs after best ofs and perhaps the best overview was Rhino finally putting both Time In A Bottle and Photographs And Memories into the Classic Hits in 2004. Lifesong scraped the bottom of the barrel for the uneven The Places I've Been in 1976 and a 45 of Chain Gang Medley was released and made it to number 63 on the Billboard chart. But it seems that every major label has had a hand in putting out Croce's best ofs. ABC had the original best of, then Lifesong got distribution from CBS/Sony and Croce's albums came out on Lifesong/CBS in the 70s. Later on 21 Records (later Saja) via Atlantic put out the 2 best ofs at that time and even EMI managed to put out a couple of their own (and Croce didn't live to see that). Which you cannot go wrong but The CEMA/EMI best of has more filler songs and less hits but it does have Age on it. And Sanctuary (now part of Universal) has put out best ofs as imports abroad, so basically Croce get credit for recording all of the major labels, post death that is.
In 2006 thereabouts, Shout Factory reissued the early Jim And Ingrid Croce albums but also a live album Have You Heard Jim Croce Live which Croce with his right hand man Maury Muehelisen in tow and they give a intimate performance. Worth seeking out on either DVD or CD. But there wasn't much live TV stuff from Croce outside seeing him on one show (I think it was The Midnight Special but not too sure). Americana, is Jim and a tape recorder playing old cover songs. Not bad but not essential either.
Nevertheless had he lived Jim Croce could have had a career something like Gordon Lightfoot since both were basically folk rock artists. Or a less pretentious Bruce Springsteen, since Bruce kinda wrote along the same lines. He made classic singles and very good albums in his year stint with ABC and his tragic passing elevates him to the stature of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, cut down before their prime. Any best of will do for you but somewhere in oldies and classic rock land Bad Bad Leroy Brown is playing and soft rock Time In A Bottle. To which the words ring truthfully that there's never enough time whatever you do.
And he was right.
The Albums:
Facets (Shout Factory 1966) B+
Croce (Capitol/One Way Records 1969) B
You Don't Mess Around With Jim (ABC 1973) A-
Life And Times (ABC 1973) B+
I Got A Name (ABC 1974) B+
The Places I've Been (Lifesong 1976) B-
Photographs And Memories (Lifesong 1978) B+
Time In A Bottle-Greatest Ballads (Saja/Atlantic 1985) B+
Home Recordings-Americana (Shout Factory 2004) B
Classic Hits (Rhino 2004) A-
Have You Heard Jim Croce Live (Shout Factory 2006) A-
Certainly there's more Jim Croce Best of's there's are the notables.
Down The Highway (Saja/Atlantic)
The 50th Anniversary Collection (Saja 1992)
Bad Bad Leroy Brown And Other Favorites (Cema 1994)
VH1 Behind The Music Collection (Rhino 2001)
Live The Final Tour (Saja/Edsel 2012)
The Way We Used To Be: The Anthology (Sanctuary)
Friday, June 21, 2013
Gretchen Wilson
For a female, country music is such a small window of opportunity, then if Tammy Wynette or Loretta Lynn came along in the late 90s and even the 00's they would be here for about a minute and then off into the bargain bins. The staying power has been limited although Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert have been the two exceptions in a male dominated genre.
But before American Idol cheapened the music and country became the monthly pin up girl, there wasn't much for pure singers. Warner Brothers couldn't figure out how to market a pure country singer like Elizabeth Cook who basically came over from a Atlantic Records fire sale. Jennifer Hanson made a decent Capitol debut and then fell victim to piss poor A and R direction, her album didn't get released till a good six months after Beautiful Goodbye. And whatever did happen to Jessica Andrews or Lila McCann?
About ten years ago, a spunky beer drinking, cigarette smoking queen from Pocahontas Illinois took country music by the storm by doing Redneck Woman, a hard charging ode the woman who shops at Wal Mart, goes out mud racing pick up trucks and if you dare her enough, outfart you, although she says she's country she's more of a Southern Rock woman that name checks Hank Jr, Charlie Daniels and Tanya Tucker. Perhaps the finest discovery by John Rich from Big & Rich fame, Redneck Woman was Gretchen's first single but it also topped the country chart, a first for a woman in many a year. And Here For The Party sold 3 million copies to boot. And you would have thought that Gretchen Wilson was here to stay.
Amazingly the shelf life was limited and although All Jacked Up and One Of The Boys sold decent, Sony Music gave up the ghost and probably that she was an older woman continued to hinder Gretchen's development into what could have been a career just like Miranda Lamberts but Sony Music rejected what would be I Got Your Country Right Here and cut their losses with a brief Greatest Hits that covered all the basics. Gretchen Wilson was more rock and roll than Sony Music would have liked, she's almost note for note perfect on the cover of Barracuda from Heart. If you don't think she's rock and roll then you haven't heard her Under The Covers collection to which she covers the likes of Bad Company, Hot Blooded and even Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. Without being limited to Sony Music's antics, Gretchen's albums under her own Redneck imprint, Wilson could double as the second coming as a Pat Benetar or even Bonnie Raitt (vocal wise).
The Playlist series from Epic/Legacy, gives us three more songs not available on Greatest Hits but includes the rockers (All Jacked Up, Here For The Party), Trailer anthems (California Girls, Redneck Woman) and southern rock (Homewrecker which borrows a riff from Sweet Home Alabama) but her weakness remains the ballads, Come To Bed or When I Think About Cheating although if she doesn't oversing, she can be convincing as well (Most of Sunday Morning Coming Down to which she needlessly goes into vocal overkill on the last chorus where she tries for American Idol oversing and the subduded I don't Feel Like Loving You Today). Playlist also gives two lesser known singles a spin, the rocker Don't Do Me No Good and the overblown If I Could Do It All Over Again to which I don't think I've ever heard on the radio.
With I Got Your Country Right Here, Wilson was no longer a country star but rather a Southern Rocker with a bit country on the side but her later albums the country is left further and further behind which explains why Sony Music couldn't deal with her. A woman who doesn't cut corners and does it her own way and if you like it fine, if not you're left behind. A no bullshit woman that does it her way. Her latest album Right On Time does acknowledge the present with a song co written by Kacey Musgraves but also borrows a bit too much from Bekka Bramlett (3 songs). Wilson's strengths remains songs that Vicky McGehee has her name on and maybe somewhere down the line Gretchen can write a complete album with Vicky in tow.
The Redneck Woman may be gone from country radio with the exception of that song but we all know that Gretchen has always been a Southern rock and roller from the get go. If you don't agree check out Under The Covers, not a single country song in there.
But before American Idol cheapened the music and country became the monthly pin up girl, there wasn't much for pure singers. Warner Brothers couldn't figure out how to market a pure country singer like Elizabeth Cook who basically came over from a Atlantic Records fire sale. Jennifer Hanson made a decent Capitol debut and then fell victim to piss poor A and R direction, her album didn't get released till a good six months after Beautiful Goodbye. And whatever did happen to Jessica Andrews or Lila McCann?
About ten years ago, a spunky beer drinking, cigarette smoking queen from Pocahontas Illinois took country music by the storm by doing Redneck Woman, a hard charging ode the woman who shops at Wal Mart, goes out mud racing pick up trucks and if you dare her enough, outfart you, although she says she's country she's more of a Southern Rock woman that name checks Hank Jr, Charlie Daniels and Tanya Tucker. Perhaps the finest discovery by John Rich from Big & Rich fame, Redneck Woman was Gretchen's first single but it also topped the country chart, a first for a woman in many a year. And Here For The Party sold 3 million copies to boot. And you would have thought that Gretchen Wilson was here to stay.
Amazingly the shelf life was limited and although All Jacked Up and One Of The Boys sold decent, Sony Music gave up the ghost and probably that she was an older woman continued to hinder Gretchen's development into what could have been a career just like Miranda Lamberts but Sony Music rejected what would be I Got Your Country Right Here and cut their losses with a brief Greatest Hits that covered all the basics. Gretchen Wilson was more rock and roll than Sony Music would have liked, she's almost note for note perfect on the cover of Barracuda from Heart. If you don't think she's rock and roll then you haven't heard her Under The Covers collection to which she covers the likes of Bad Company, Hot Blooded and even Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. Without being limited to Sony Music's antics, Gretchen's albums under her own Redneck imprint, Wilson could double as the second coming as a Pat Benetar or even Bonnie Raitt (vocal wise).
The Playlist series from Epic/Legacy, gives us three more songs not available on Greatest Hits but includes the rockers (All Jacked Up, Here For The Party), Trailer anthems (California Girls, Redneck Woman) and southern rock (Homewrecker which borrows a riff from Sweet Home Alabama) but her weakness remains the ballads, Come To Bed or When I Think About Cheating although if she doesn't oversing, she can be convincing as well (Most of Sunday Morning Coming Down to which she needlessly goes into vocal overkill on the last chorus where she tries for American Idol oversing and the subduded I don't Feel Like Loving You Today). Playlist also gives two lesser known singles a spin, the rocker Don't Do Me No Good and the overblown If I Could Do It All Over Again to which I don't think I've ever heard on the radio.
With I Got Your Country Right Here, Wilson was no longer a country star but rather a Southern Rocker with a bit country on the side but her later albums the country is left further and further behind which explains why Sony Music couldn't deal with her. A woman who doesn't cut corners and does it her own way and if you like it fine, if not you're left behind. A no bullshit woman that does it her way. Her latest album Right On Time does acknowledge the present with a song co written by Kacey Musgraves but also borrows a bit too much from Bekka Bramlett (3 songs). Wilson's strengths remains songs that Vicky McGehee has her name on and maybe somewhere down the line Gretchen can write a complete album with Vicky in tow.
The Redneck Woman may be gone from country radio with the exception of that song but we all know that Gretchen has always been a Southern rock and roller from the get go. If you don't agree check out Under The Covers, not a single country song in there.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Alan O'Day
Needless to say I don't have any of Alan O'Day's albums in my collection but I do have some certain songs that he wrote for other people. Alan, best known as a one hit wonder artist with Undercover Angel passed away from cancer at age 72.
O'Day wrote for a lot of major bands that recorded for ABC Dunhill, John Kay and later Three Dog Night covered Easy Evil to which was a minor hit for Kay in 1973, Angie Baby done by Helen Reddy and I'm sure he had a hand in writing Are You Old Enough to which Mark Lindsay did as a flop single. Three Dog Night also covered a bizarre number called Heavy Church on the Naturally album and both Cher and Steppenwolf did Train Of Thought, Cher had the hit version, Steppenwolf's version can be found on the 1976 Skullduggery LP. The Righteous Brothers took his Rock And Roll Heaven up the charts in 1974.
Appetizers, his 1977 LP contains Undercover Angel and Angie Baby. Later O'Day would help write songs for the Muppet Babies TV show and co writing with Janis Liebhart on that and other assorted projects for National Geographic and Disney. In 2008 O'Day did a new album called I Hear Voices and it's a good listen.
O'Day is now in the Rock And Roll Heaven that he wrote years ago. He will be missed.
http://alanoday.com/
O'Day wrote for a lot of major bands that recorded for ABC Dunhill, John Kay and later Three Dog Night covered Easy Evil to which was a minor hit for Kay in 1973, Angie Baby done by Helen Reddy and I'm sure he had a hand in writing Are You Old Enough to which Mark Lindsay did as a flop single. Three Dog Night also covered a bizarre number called Heavy Church on the Naturally album and both Cher and Steppenwolf did Train Of Thought, Cher had the hit version, Steppenwolf's version can be found on the 1976 Skullduggery LP. The Righteous Brothers took his Rock And Roll Heaven up the charts in 1974.
Appetizers, his 1977 LP contains Undercover Angel and Angie Baby. Later O'Day would help write songs for the Muppet Babies TV show and co writing with Janis Liebhart on that and other assorted projects for National Geographic and Disney. In 2008 O'Day did a new album called I Hear Voices and it's a good listen.
O'Day is now in the Rock And Roll Heaven that he wrote years ago. He will be missed.
http://alanoday.com/
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Foreigner
If you ever wanted to know what is wrong with classic rock radio or oldies turn on any of those selective radio stations and chances are you'll come across a Foreigner song at any given time. This band is perhaps the most problematic band of the classic rock era or rock and roll for that matter. First and foremost a corporate band that played safe corporate rock to the masses. And made a few albums before cashing in on the oldies circuit and rehashing the hits in different live versions and lineups whenever Mick Jones needed a bit more money from the buying public.
The original members came from such diverse bands like Spooky Tooth and King Crimson although this Mick Jones isn't the one that started up The Clash on his spare time from Foreigner (Duh) but had a career in Spooky Tooth and The Leslie West Band. Lou Gramm was the vocalist somewhat in the Robert Plant mode. The first album fired the first shot into Corporate Rock with the top ten overplayed Feels Like The First Time and the hideous Cold As Ice, a song I could tolerate but never loved. My favorites remain Long Way From Home, the Bad Company like Headknocker and Fool For You Anyway.
Double Vision, they worked with Keith Olsen in getting a more radio friendly sound and got another couple big hits with another Bad Company soundalike in Hot Blooded and like minded Title track although Ian McDonald added bits of King Crimson to that song. Both songs ended up promoting Burger King a few years ago and that pretty much has stuck in my mind ever since. The rest of the record is quite mellow then the first, with some rocking here (Blue Morning Blue Day) an odd one there (Tramontrane) and mostly ballads (You're All I Am). Hasn't aged very well for my taste.
Maybe Mick Jones thought that Double Vision was too mellow so he decided to rock out more on the next album Head Games, taps Roy Thomas Baker to help produce and it roars out of the gate with Dirty White Boy, and although I did like Women and Seventeen as a teen, I find the lyrics to be a bit creepy, even more so in this day and age if Mick Jones is getting Kelly Hansen to sing this. Some prog rock is noticed on Head Games but I came to find that side 2 didn't have any more good songs after the title track. And the less said the better.
A major chance in the band happened when Ian McDonald either got booted of left and a couple other guys went on to form the forgettable SPYS that made I think 2 albums for EMI and Rick Willis came on board as new bass player. Working with wonder producer Robert John Lange, Foreigner finally made a classic album in 4. If Robert John Lange knows anything, he knows how to make a decent record and radio ready songs and 4 gave us 5 singles of varying degree. Urgent, with the late great Jr Walker playing sax, the moody Waiting For A Girl Like You, the bombastic Juke Box Hero which all three songs get KKRQ loving all day, but my favorites were the failed ones Break It Up which is basically Cold As Ice rewritten but more Crabb friendly and poptastic LuAnne. The albums starts out with a fine Night Life (which was a B side but could have made a dent on the charts) and lesser known songs were worthwhile as well (Girl On The Moon). 4 is the high water mark for Foreigner although they continued to make albums of less interesting degree.
Agent Provocateur was basically 4 revisited but with more keyboards and got a major hit with I Want To Know What Love Is (or Waiting For A Girl Like You part 2 with a gospel choir), and That Was Yesterday came close. Strangely this band was beginning to sound like a Loverboy clone, especially on side 2. Still rocks hard with Reaction To Action.
Inside Information the last Jones/Gramm Atlantic platter (they would reunite for Mr. Moonlight a few years later) and ended up being a poor seller but it's not all that bad, especially on the rehashing of 4 once again and getting a modern rock hit with Say You Will and soft rock ballad I Don't Want To Live Without You. I think in some ways the lineup that gave us 4 and the two albums were better than the overplayed S/T, Double Vision and Head Games although the 4 era had more of an eye on radio domination (which failed). Given poor sales of Inside Information, the band took a break, Lou Gramm made two listenable albums (Ready Or Not-1987 and the better Long Hard Look although the dated 80s production and whammy bar guitars hinder the songs), and a short stint with Shadow King (a minor super band featuring Bruce Turgeon and the underrated Kevin Valentine (Donnie Iris, The Godz) playing drums. Mick Jones did a solo album which did rocked harder than Foreigner previous two and included appearances from Billy Joel to which Jones co produced Storm Warning for Joel. But solo albums don't pay as well as the band did and Mick Jones reformed the band but with a new singer in Jonathan Edwards (King Kobra). Musically the songs were okay, but the lyrics were cliched bad.
But Lou Gramm would return for one more album, Mr Moonlight (1995) which did get good reviews and had good songs but this would be the last Jones/Gramm album. Problem was also that they weren't on Atlantic anymore and although Rhythm Safari did their best promote it, the grunge era pretty much rendered the classic rock bands to the oldies circuit. It's a shame really, this record does hold up very well.
Anything after that became a rehash of greatest hits packages, a million live albums featuring the same old songs although the 2005 Live Extended Versions that Sony Music put out is the best since it features Jason Bonham fresh from leaving UFO on drums and and new vocalist Kelly Hansen (Hurricane) and Jeff Pilson (Dio, Dokken) playing bass. And did I mention an endless supply of best ofs and greatest hits (including the the ironic No End In Sight best of) and even signing with Razor And Tie take another swipe at the original hits with the budget bin Juke Box Heroes CD that can be found in the cheap section. But then again you are better off with the original versions or Complete Greatest Hits.
Did I mention that the best overall Foreigner album would be Complete Greatest Hits? A perfect example of Corporate rock from the overplayed (guess which ones) to the lesser known and includes perhaps their finest hard rocking song ever in Soul Doctor, to which Lou Gramm and Mick Jones have no choice but to turn it up and rock out. Records served a purpose back in the 80s but is outdated and Greatest Hits And Beyond adds a few more ballads. But Complete Greatest Hits is their most definite and essential product, unless you just want to hear them on the radio instead. Chances are that you will.
The Albums (incomplete)
Foreigner (Atlantic 1977) B-
Double Vision (Atlantic 1978) B-
Head Games (Atlantic 1979) C
4 (Atlantic 1981) A-
Agent Provocateur (Atlantic 1983) B
Records (Atlantic 1984) B
Inside Information (Atlantic 1987) B-
Unusual Heat (Atlantic 1990) C-
The Very Best And Beyond (Atlantic 1992) B
The Best Of Foreigner (Atlantic 1993) B
Mr. Moonlight (Rhythm Safari 1995) B+
Complete Greatest Hits (Rhino 2002) A-
Extended Versions Live (CMG 2005) B
No End In Sight (Rhino 2008) C
Can't Slow Down (Rhino 2010) C-
Extended Versions 2 (CMG 2011) C-
Juke Box Heroes (Razor And Tie 2013) C
Lou Gramm Solo
Ready Or Not (Atlantic 1986) C+
Long Hard Look (Atlantic 1988) B
Shadow King (Atlantic 1991) C
Mick Jones (Atlantic 1989) B+
The original members came from such diverse bands like Spooky Tooth and King Crimson although this Mick Jones isn't the one that started up The Clash on his spare time from Foreigner (Duh) but had a career in Spooky Tooth and The Leslie West Band. Lou Gramm was the vocalist somewhat in the Robert Plant mode. The first album fired the first shot into Corporate Rock with the top ten overplayed Feels Like The First Time and the hideous Cold As Ice, a song I could tolerate but never loved. My favorites remain Long Way From Home, the Bad Company like Headknocker and Fool For You Anyway.
Double Vision, they worked with Keith Olsen in getting a more radio friendly sound and got another couple big hits with another Bad Company soundalike in Hot Blooded and like minded Title track although Ian McDonald added bits of King Crimson to that song. Both songs ended up promoting Burger King a few years ago and that pretty much has stuck in my mind ever since. The rest of the record is quite mellow then the first, with some rocking here (Blue Morning Blue Day) an odd one there (Tramontrane) and mostly ballads (You're All I Am). Hasn't aged very well for my taste.
Maybe Mick Jones thought that Double Vision was too mellow so he decided to rock out more on the next album Head Games, taps Roy Thomas Baker to help produce and it roars out of the gate with Dirty White Boy, and although I did like Women and Seventeen as a teen, I find the lyrics to be a bit creepy, even more so in this day and age if Mick Jones is getting Kelly Hansen to sing this. Some prog rock is noticed on Head Games but I came to find that side 2 didn't have any more good songs after the title track. And the less said the better.
A major chance in the band happened when Ian McDonald either got booted of left and a couple other guys went on to form the forgettable SPYS that made I think 2 albums for EMI and Rick Willis came on board as new bass player. Working with wonder producer Robert John Lange, Foreigner finally made a classic album in 4. If Robert John Lange knows anything, he knows how to make a decent record and radio ready songs and 4 gave us 5 singles of varying degree. Urgent, with the late great Jr Walker playing sax, the moody Waiting For A Girl Like You, the bombastic Juke Box Hero which all three songs get KKRQ loving all day, but my favorites were the failed ones Break It Up which is basically Cold As Ice rewritten but more Crabb friendly and poptastic LuAnne. The albums starts out with a fine Night Life (which was a B side but could have made a dent on the charts) and lesser known songs were worthwhile as well (Girl On The Moon). 4 is the high water mark for Foreigner although they continued to make albums of less interesting degree.
Agent Provocateur was basically 4 revisited but with more keyboards and got a major hit with I Want To Know What Love Is (or Waiting For A Girl Like You part 2 with a gospel choir), and That Was Yesterday came close. Strangely this band was beginning to sound like a Loverboy clone, especially on side 2. Still rocks hard with Reaction To Action.
Inside Information the last Jones/Gramm Atlantic platter (they would reunite for Mr. Moonlight a few years later) and ended up being a poor seller but it's not all that bad, especially on the rehashing of 4 once again and getting a modern rock hit with Say You Will and soft rock ballad I Don't Want To Live Without You. I think in some ways the lineup that gave us 4 and the two albums were better than the overplayed S/T, Double Vision and Head Games although the 4 era had more of an eye on radio domination (which failed). Given poor sales of Inside Information, the band took a break, Lou Gramm made two listenable albums (Ready Or Not-1987 and the better Long Hard Look although the dated 80s production and whammy bar guitars hinder the songs), and a short stint with Shadow King (a minor super band featuring Bruce Turgeon and the underrated Kevin Valentine (Donnie Iris, The Godz) playing drums. Mick Jones did a solo album which did rocked harder than Foreigner previous two and included appearances from Billy Joel to which Jones co produced Storm Warning for Joel. But solo albums don't pay as well as the band did and Mick Jones reformed the band but with a new singer in Jonathan Edwards (King Kobra). Musically the songs were okay, but the lyrics were cliched bad.
But Lou Gramm would return for one more album, Mr Moonlight (1995) which did get good reviews and had good songs but this would be the last Jones/Gramm album. Problem was also that they weren't on Atlantic anymore and although Rhythm Safari did their best promote it, the grunge era pretty much rendered the classic rock bands to the oldies circuit. It's a shame really, this record does hold up very well.
Anything after that became a rehash of greatest hits packages, a million live albums featuring the same old songs although the 2005 Live Extended Versions that Sony Music put out is the best since it features Jason Bonham fresh from leaving UFO on drums and and new vocalist Kelly Hansen (Hurricane) and Jeff Pilson (Dio, Dokken) playing bass. And did I mention an endless supply of best ofs and greatest hits (including the the ironic No End In Sight best of) and even signing with Razor And Tie take another swipe at the original hits with the budget bin Juke Box Heroes CD that can be found in the cheap section. But then again you are better off with the original versions or Complete Greatest Hits.
Did I mention that the best overall Foreigner album would be Complete Greatest Hits? A perfect example of Corporate rock from the overplayed (guess which ones) to the lesser known and includes perhaps their finest hard rocking song ever in Soul Doctor, to which Lou Gramm and Mick Jones have no choice but to turn it up and rock out. Records served a purpose back in the 80s but is outdated and Greatest Hits And Beyond adds a few more ballads. But Complete Greatest Hits is their most definite and essential product, unless you just want to hear them on the radio instead. Chances are that you will.
The Albums (incomplete)
Foreigner (Atlantic 1977) B-
Double Vision (Atlantic 1978) B-
Head Games (Atlantic 1979) C
4 (Atlantic 1981) A-
Agent Provocateur (Atlantic 1983) B
Records (Atlantic 1984) B
Inside Information (Atlantic 1987) B-
Unusual Heat (Atlantic 1990) C-
The Very Best And Beyond (Atlantic 1992) B
The Best Of Foreigner (Atlantic 1993) B
Mr. Moonlight (Rhythm Safari 1995) B+
Complete Greatest Hits (Rhino 2002) A-
Extended Versions Live (CMG 2005) B
No End In Sight (Rhino 2008) C
Can't Slow Down (Rhino 2010) C-
Extended Versions 2 (CMG 2011) C-
Juke Box Heroes (Razor And Tie 2013) C
Lou Gramm Solo
Ready Or Not (Atlantic 1986) C+
Long Hard Look (Atlantic 1988) B
Shadow King (Atlantic 1991) C
Mick Jones (Atlantic 1989) B+
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