If I Could Only Remember My Name - David Crosby

If I Could Only Remember My Name

David Crosby

Atlantic Records SD 7203

1971

I picked this up in a thrift store many years ago in order to hear how awful it was.  When I gave it a spin however I was pleasantly surprised, astonished even, to find that I enjoyed it.  I am far from a Crosby fan (I've mocked him in the past on this very blog) but I find this album consistently entertaining.  Given how little use I have for his recordings with Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) I suspect the big reason for this is evident in the photos in the gatefold.  I imagine if you or I went into a studio with most of the Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead along with Joni Mitchell and Neil Young and a couple of guys from Santana we would probably come up with a listenable album too.  I may be a little prejudiced against Crosby, but I don't think this is an unfair assessment.  The songs he contributes to the album are mostly slight, lyrically they make "Almost Cut My Hair" sound like poetry in comparison and musically they mostly sound like unfinished demos or jams.  The album opens with "Music Is Love" which is credited to Crosby, Graham Nash and Neil Young which seems like overkill for a song that mostly consists of the phrase "everybody's saying that music is love" sung over and over.  "Cowboy Movie" sounds like an outtake from "Déjà Vu."  It is one of the few fully formed songs on the album and recounts a misogynistic tale of outlaws in the old west.  I find Crosby's vocal overwrought and annoying but since he is backed by the Grateful Dead on the song it still has a lot of power with a hypnotic bass riff from Phil Lesh and very tasty guitar licks from Jerry Garcia.  If I don't pay close attention to Crosby's singing I find it one of the most compelling songs on the album.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" is not about the high school in Mill Valley but rather about a place where Crosby liked to do drugs.  Hard to say for sure since the song has no lyrics consisting instead of Nash and Crosby crooning wordlessly in their inimitable manner.  It sounds very mellow as we used to say although Jorma Kaukonen and Jerry Garcia briefly energize the song with some trippy guitar runs over Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann's rumbling rhythm track.  This is the part of the song that most appeals to me.  "Laughing" is my favorite track on the album.  The lyrics are hippie hogwash with Crosby looking for enlightenment and finding confusion and disappointment instead.  I find Crosby's vocal engaging and subtly emotional and I consider it one of his best post-Byrds performances.  The song was written while Crosby was in CSN&Y but it reminds me of the music he was making during his final year with the Byrds.  It has an ethereal yet slightly country sound to it with psychedelic overtones and I particularly enjoy Garcia's steel guitar licks.  Side two opens with "What Are Their Names" which is credited to Crosby, Garcia, Lesh, Young and Michael Shrieve of Santana.  Given that it is an inane song about Crosby trying to find who is in charge of the world and wanting peace, I'm guessing that the song emerged from a jam with the five songwriters and nobody was too concerned about the lyrics.  The song sounds a lot like Paul Kantner's "Blows Against the Empire" album, perhaps because Kantner, Grace Slick and David Freiberg are singing on it (although half the musicians in San Francisco are apparently singing too along with Young, Nash and Joni Mitchell.)  Obviously with that kind of firepower the vocal is extremely dynamic, arguably far more powerful than this silly song deserves.  For me the best part of the song is listening to Garcia and Lesh do their thing which sounds very much like vintage Grateful Dead.  "Traction in the Rain" is laid back psych-folk with very trippy lyrics from Crosby that sound like he really put some effort into composing for once.  Laura Allan enriches the song with her autoharp strumming and gentle background vocal.  The aptly named "Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)" features Nash and Crosby wordlessly crooning in a lovely manner although the real action in the song comes from Kaukonen and Garcia along with Gregg Rolie on piano who easily blow away Nash and Crosby's contribution.  Crosby is on his own for "Orleans" which is an excerpt from an old French children's song.  Crosby's vocal is multi-tracked to give it a richer sound.  It is very pretty but I'm happy it is also very short.  "I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here" is Crosby's own song but it sounds just as old as "Orleans."  It has no words that I can decipher and is delivered acapella with Crosby multi-tracking his vocal creating a rich polyphonic sound reminiscent of medieval church music.  It gives the record a spiritual conclusion which is not what I would be expecting from Crosby.  This album is pretty much as stupid as I anticipated when I bought it, but it is never boring and rarely annoying which I was definitely not anticipating.  I am not going to say that this is more to Lesh and Garcia's credit than Crosby's although I might be secretly thinking that.  Actually aside from "Cowboy Movie" I find Crosby's singing appealing throughout the album, although not appealing enough for me to keep the record if it didn't feature his heavy friends.  The music may be underdeveloped if not outright lazy, but with Crosby I'm not sure that is a fault.  I prefer most of this to his more fully developed music on "Crosby Stills and Nash" or "Déjà Vu."  It leaves a lot of space for his collaborators and since I generally do not dig his lyric writing, wordless crooning suits me fine.  The album sounds wonderful late at night and I imagine it sounds even better if you are high.  I have to admit that when I first heard this album I had to reassess my opinion of Crosby and it certainly provides some context for his generally admirable recent records.  I'm never going to be a fan, but I do respect him more.  Along with his work with the Byrds, I consider this the highlight of his career although admittedly I have not done a deep dive into his solo work and never will.  I bought this album for all the wrong reasons, but Crosby decisively proved me wrong.  I can't recall ever being so surprised by a record and I'm grateful to him for that.  Recommended to fans of "Workingman's Dead" who wish it had less words and more jams.

Barbra Joan Streisand - Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Columbia PC 30792

1971

I am now much older than my father was when I was living with him and I'm becoming more appreciative of the influence he had on the development of my musical tastes.  As a teenager I felt disdain for his music even though he had the first the Mamas and the Papas, Janis Joplin, Santana, Linda Ronstadt and Creedence Clearwater Revival albums that I ever heard.  Mostly I associated him with easy listening type stuff like Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Al Martino, Vikki Carr, Johnny Mathis and above all Barbra Streisand who was his great favorite.  I loathed this stuff at the time although as I reached middle age I started to dabble with it particularly Sinatra.  Nonetheless I have a very limited appetite for it and to this day if I hear Martino crooning "Spanish Eyes" (which my father played over and over) I cringe.  I was surprised a while back when I found myself wanting to hear this album again.  My father had it on an 8-track tape (yecch) and played it often.  I did not like it much at the time but I preferred it to his other Streisand albums and I was intrigued by the two John Lennon covers, "Mother" and "Love" which I had never heard since I had yet to buy "Plastic Ono Band" where they first appeared.  Somehow this album stuck to me which led me to buy it a few years ago.  Listening to it again after all those years was definitely a little weird, but once I got past the memories and nostalgia it generated in me, I found I enjoyed it as music.  It was Streisand's third album of contemporary music following "What About Today?" and "Stoney End."  The knock on Streisand's forays into contemporary music is that she can't rock.  I won't dispute that but I still find merit in her work in this vein.  Unlike some crooners she is not condescending about the material and sings her heart out.  She is too uptight to rock convincingly but she definitely emotes a lot which I find engaging most of the time.  The album benefits from the presence of the producer Richard Perry who was one of the most successful producers of the era.  He was always excellent at providing a setting for the artist to succeed and compensating for their limitations as his exemplary work on "Ringo" demonstrates.  This album mostly features songs that suit Streisand's style and sensibility and I imagine she had no trouble relating to songwriters like Carole King and Laura Nyro.  The arrangements and supporting musicians are also well chosen for her.  My favorite tracks have always been the two Lennon songs which is probably a minority opinion even from a Beatles fan.  I admit that Lennon's own versions in particular his gut-wrenching performance of "Mother" are superior and more heartfelt but I am still taken with the depth of feeling Streisand brings to the songs.  "Love" in particular is given a spartan but appealing chamber pop arrangement that places all the focus on Streisand's gorgeous vocal.  "Mother" has a more robust arrangement driven by dual organs from Billy Preston and Perry.  I appreciate the majestic and dynamic quality of the performance and at the risk of sounding like a philistine, I'm kind of relieved not to have to experience the pain Lennon brought to the song.  My other favorite track is "I Mean To Shine" written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker prior to the rise of Steely Dan.  They apparently had a low opinion of the song and never bothered to record it themselves, but I think it is a delightfully uplifting and inspired song which gives Streisand an opportunity to shine herself.  She's backed by Fagen on organ along with members of the female rock band Fanny and a whole bunch of studio pros who give Streisand a solid foundation for her exuberant vocal.  I also like her performance of Mathew Moore's "Space Captain" which had been part of Joe Cocker's stage show as documented on the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" album.  Compared to Cocker's throat-shredding histrionics, Streisand sounds tame but it is still one of her most energetic performances and the closest she comes to rocking out on the album.  The song has a punchy arrangement by Fanny and they support her along with Preston and kudos to Perry for pairing his clients Fanny and Streisand.  They work together extremely well.  There are three Carole King songs (all from "Tapestry") on the album which makes sense considering King and Streisand's similar backgrounds.  Streisand sounds comfortable on all of them but I like "Where You Lead" the best.  It has plenty of propulsion courtesy of Streisand's vibrant vocal supported by another spirited arrangement and performance by Fanny.  Preston's organ riffs and the background singers give the song a winning soulful flavor that makes Streisand seem less uptight and it is the one other song on the album besides "Space Captain" that suggests Streisand is capable of rocking out.  Her upbeat performance of "Beautiful" is enjoyable but kind of forced as if she was trying too hard.  I think it would have benefited from the looseness that King brought to her own version of the song and that is also true of "You've Got a Friend" although I greatly prefer Streisand's version to James Taylor's hit version.  The remaining songs are closer in tone to the standards and show tunes that Streisand started her career with rather than actual rock songs.  Laura Nyro's "I Never Meant To Hurt You" is a sensitive song that benefits from Streisand's over-emotional style and gives her plenty of opportunities to show off her pipes.  I think it is the song that fits her best, but it is far from my favorite.  There is a medley of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "One Less Bell To Answer" and "A House Is Not a Home" which is also right in her wheelhouse although I prefer the far more subdued versions by The 5th Dimension for the former and Dionne Warwick for the latter.  Streisand invests so much emotion in them she makes their lyrics seem trivial since they can't match her intensity.  They do sound nice though.  Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell For You" is an old-fashioned romantic ballad that was a hit for Lenny Welch in 1963.  It is basically the sort of the song Streisand could do in her sleep and she easily crushes Welch in emoting and vocal acrobatics but the song hardly fits the contemporary feel of the rest of the album.  This is equally true of "The Summer Knows" from the film "Summer of '42" by Michel Legrand and Marilyn and Alan Bergman.  It may have been a contemporary song but it is a lot closer to "People" or "My Man" than it is to any kind of rock music particularly with Dick Hazard's easy listening arrangement.  Of course it sounds gorgeous but I am not a fan of it.  I am a fan of this album though.  Part of me feels like it is a mistake, that Streisand should stick to the standards and show tunes she excelled at.  On the other hand I relate much more strongly to John Lennon and Carole King than Rodgers and Hammerstein or Kander and Ebb.  I would rather hear her sing contemporary music even if it is not her strength.  It gives me more of an opportunity to appreciate her tremendous gift.  Sure she is too stiff and over-emotes too much, but this album fascinates me.  The dialectical tension between the styles of traditional pop standards and contemporary rock music that drives this record is intriguing and stimulating to me.  This record has been in my life for decades even though for much of that time I did not have a copy of it.  I never forgot it and it was nearly as firmly imprinted in my psyche as my early Beatles albums.  I'm delighted that I finally do have a copy again and although I don't play it as much as my father did, it does spend plenty of time on my turntable.  Recommended to Timi Yuro fans.

How Do You Do? - Mouth and MacNeal

How Do You Do?

Mouth and MacNeal

Philips PHS 700-000

1971

As I get older my memories of my youth are getting fuzzier which I am not happy about although there is plenty of stuff from back then I wish I could forget.  For some reason I still remember 1972 quite well.  That was the year that I consider my first year as a fan of pop music.  I have liked music as long as I can remember but that was the year it became important to me.  It began that summer when my family rented a vacation cabin at Lake Tahoe that had no television.  It did have a radio that was tuned to a top 40 station all day long.  In retrospect the summer of 1972 was not a particularly good year for music, but back then I loved what I heard.  I remember singing along to Sammy Davis Jr.'s "Candy Man,"  Gallery's "Nice to Be with You," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)," Bill Withers' "Lean On Me," and my two favorites "Brandy" by Looking Glass and "How Do You Do?" by this band.  When we came back home I convinced my mom to give me an old clock radio she was not using much and with access to my own radio I was hooked.  My tastes rapidly evolved once I discovered the oldies stations (and later AOR when I got a radio with FM) and soon I did not listen much to top 40 radio at all.  The Beatles obliterated any interest I had in collecting popular music from the 1970s on vinyl although I did eventually come to like and buy Elton John and Bill Withers albums.  I also bought the Looking Glass album many years ago.  This record I bought last year online mostly out of nostalgia.  As usual with childhood memories, "How Do You Do?" is not as good as I remembered but I am not sorry about the album which is better than I expected.  This is the 1972 American release of this Dutch duo's 1971 debut album which features an identical track selection and running order but different cover art.  The duo consisted of a male singer named Willem Duyn who performed under the apt pseudonym Big Mouth shortened to Mouth here.  He has the kind of loud gravelly voice that people seemed to dig back then.  He sounds like a cross between John Fogerty and David Clayton-Thomas.  His partner was Sjoukje van't Spijker who performed under the name Maggie MacNeal.  She has a smoother, sweeter voice that acts as a refined counterpoint to Mouth's growling.  The album opens with "A.B.C" which was written by Andreas Holten and the album's producer Hans van Hemert.  The song has a spoken (or shouted in Mouth's case) intro before it gets down to its pounding riff.  The dynamic between Mouth's bellowing and MacNeal's silky crooning is displayed to impressive effect.  It gives the record a strong start that is largely dissipated by a lumbering and lethargic cover of Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind." "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was lifted from MacNeal's 1971 solo debut single.  It follows the familiar arrangement of the Marvin Gaye classic and MacNeal delivers a robust vocal which with her heavily accented English reminds me of Mariska Veres of Shocking Blue.  This cover is pointless but I enjoy it.  "Hey, You Love" was written by van Hemert and the album's arranger Harry van Hoof.  Much of the tune is stolen from "Rule Britannia" and is largely pedestrian although I like the interplay between MacNeal and Mouth.  "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was taken from the debut Big Mouth single from 1971.  Somehow the song is even more melodramatic than the Shangri-Las' classic original with Mouth's histrionic yowling suggesting he's auditioning for a Joe Cocker cover band.  Side one closes with "Rosianna" which was written by the Manhattan Transfer's Gene Pistilli along with Terry Cashman and Tommy West and was featured on the Transfer's debut album.  It is a rollicking country style song that does not play to the duo's strengths but it is still engaging.  Side two opens with van Hemert's "Why Did You, Why?" which is a slow soulful song beautifully sung by MacNeal supplemented by some subdued roars from Mouth.  "How Do You Do?" was written by van Hemert and van Hoof.  When I bought this album I don't think I had heard the song for at least 40 years.  I remembered it as a boisterous rocker which it definitely is not, although I was so naïve back then maybe it really did sound rocking to me.  Once I got over my initial disappointment that it was not like I remembered, I started to like the song again.  It is charming with a touch of bubblegum and to my great surprise an appealing string arrangement.  I like the shifts in tone and the contrast between the rowdy sections featuring Mouth and the softer sections with MacNeal although she cuts loose in a few places to show off her own ability to bring the noise.  The song is extremely catchy and sticks in my head all day whenever I play it just like it did when I was kid.  "Land of Milk and Honey" is another Holten/van Hemert collaboration.  It sounds very Europop with a bit of a Mediterranean flavor.  Mouth reins in his vocal and listening to him I can easily imagine someone like Tom Jones performing it.  Jones could also cover van Hemert and van Hoof's "Tell Me World" which is more bouncy Europop that reminds me of ABBA.  "It Happened Long Ago" was written by Leo Bennink and Rudy Bennett and was the b-side of the first Big Mouth single.  It has a dramatic arrangement that almost achieves the impossible task of overwhelming Mouth's emoting.  The album ends with John Lennon's "Isolation" which was the b-side of MacNeal's debut single.  It lacks the intensity of Lennon's version but MacNeal sings it with feeling and I am grateful that Mouth is not around to muck it up.  This is definitely a minor record, but I find it mostly entertaining.  Mouth and MacNeal work well together.  On his own I would find Mouth hard to listen to since he is so intense and overbearing and the material is not strong enough to contain him.  MacNeal is more my style and I think she is a good singer, but she isn't good enough to stand out with such ordinary material.  Mouth brings the energy and intensity that she lacks.  This is exemplified by "How Do You Do?" which probably would have been a hit for anyone, but is made more memorable by their chemistry.  I expect some of my fondness for this record is nostalgia and objectively I can't deny that most of the songs are mediocre, so I am hesitant to fully endorse it.  I enjoy it but I know I am not going to play it much.  Nonetheless if you like the music of this era (I have mixed feelings about it) you will likely find stuff on here that will appeal to you.  You could definitely do worse.  Recommended to Sonny and Cher fans who dig ABBA.

John Prine - John Prine

John Prine

John Prine

Atlantic SD 8296

1971

As Covid-19 rages unchecked through the country, I feel fortunate that no one close to me has come down with it or succumbed to it.  For me the Covid gut check came back in April when I heard that John Prine died from it.  It really brought home to me the danger of the virus.  I've admired Prine for many years although I have to admit that when I first heard him back in the 1970s as a teenager I was turned off by his homespun voice.  Eventually as I developed a taste for country and folk music, I came to appreciate his grit and authenticity.  This is my favorite of his albums.  It was his debut album and it is stunningly impressive, one of the great debut albums of that era.  It is loaded with classic songs that reveal Prine's sensitivity and insight into the lives of ordinary people.  Americana doesn't get any better than this.  The album opens with the catchy "Illegal Smile" which I always thought was a drug song although Prine claimed it was more about mental escapism.  I think it works either way.  I assume the reference to being in court with a judge named Hoffman is a reference to the biased judge who presided over the trial of the Chicago 7.  "Spanish Pipedream" is another escapist song with humorous lyrics set to a perky country melody.  "Hello In There" is one of Prine's best songs.  It is a poignant description of an old man's loneliness supported by a very lovely tune.  I think "Sam Stone" is Prine's greatest song.  It is an incredibly bleak and tragic tale of the downward spiral of a drug-addicted veteran.  It is so depressing I would find it unbearable were it not for the brilliance of Prine's unforgettable words.  Even though Prine delivers it in a matter-of-fact laconic style the song is absolutely riveting.  "Paradise" sounds like an old country classic particularly with Prine's brother Dave driving it with his fiddle.  You can easily imagine the Carter Family covering it and I am partial to the covers of it by Jackie DeShannon and the Everly Brothers, but Prine does sing it with more feeling than is typical with him probably because it was a highly personal song for him.  It is about the Kentucky town his parents were born in being ravaged by coal company strip mining.  The side concludes with "Pretty Good" which is about as close as Prine comes to rocking out on the album.  It is slow but noisy and punchy with loud electric guitar and organ runs.  It reminds me of Bob Dylan with the Band or Neil Young when he is leaning country.  That is even true of the lyrics which are slightly surreal and tongue in cheek.  Side two opens with "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" which features humorous and understated criticism of supporters of the Vietnam War.  "Far From Me" is a mournful country song about a disintegrating relationship driven by Leo LeBlanc's sorrowful steel guitar lines.  "Angel From Montgomery" vividly describes the unhappiness of a disillusioned middle-aged woman.  My favorite version of this much-covered song is Bonnie Raitt's performance on "Streetlights" but Prine's version is very affecting, particularly Bobby Emmons melancholy organ accompaniment.  "Quiet Man" is more vague than most of the songs on the album, but it makes up for its lack of focus with a forceful rock sound that reminds me of the Band.  "Donald and Lydia" depicts the love affair between an overweight country girl and a young soldier who though separated in their real lives, meet in their dreams to make love.  It is a beautiful song that shows Prine's gift for evocative language.  "Six O'Clock News" is a grim song about a troubled young man who kills himself.  According to Prine the youth kills himself when he finds out that he was born because of an incestuous relationship between his mother and grandfather.  The song is enigmatic enough that I did not realize this from the lyrics, but listening to it after learning about it I can perceive the clues that indicate this.  The album concludes with "Flashback Blues" which is a jaunty upbeat tune with a western swing sound courtesy of Noel Gilbert's fiddle playing.  In contrast to the cheerful music the lyrics look back on a hard-living past with poetic imagery.  If this had been the only album Prine ever recorded he would still have to be considered one of the greatest songwriters in rock.  His gift for generating powerful emotions with understated evocative lyrics is almost unparalleled and as a rock wordsmith he ranks with the best American songwriters like Dylan, Randy Newman, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen and Dolly Parton.  No song on this album is less than good, many are great and four of them, "Hello In There," "Sam Stone," "Paradise" and "Angel From Montgomery," are immortal classics.  To my mind that makes this album a masterpiece that everyone ought to own.  John Prine was an American treasure and I greatly mourn his passing.  Recommended to Springsteen fans whose favorite album is "Nebraska."

Aretha Live at Fillmore West - Aretha Franklin

Aretha Live at Fillmore West
Aretha Franklin
Atlantic SD 7205
1971

This was the first Aretha Franklin album that I owned.  I bought it as a teenager in the used record store that briefly existed in my suburban home town.  It was a small enough store that I could go through all the records in the pop music bins which is how I noticed it.  My taste in soul back then was more Motown than Atlantic.  I was familiar with Franklin's big hits but I was not yet a fan.  This album totally changed that, but I originally bought it primarily because it was recorded at the Fillmore which I was obsessed with at the time.  It is still my favorite of Franklin's live albums.  It was re-released in a greatly expanded version on CD covering all three of her nights at the auditorium including King Curtis' performances.  I'm sure it is wonderful but I'm happy with this smaller sampling.  It is a flawless album, over forty-five minutes of greatness.  The vinyl version kicks off with her explosive performance of "Respect" taken at a much faster pace than her classic single.  It is an amazingly energetic performance that blows me away every time I hear it.  At the end of the song Franklin promises the audience that they will enjoy her show as much as any they have ever seen.  It is a bold promise but I think she delivered.  She changes pace with Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With" which she slows down and makes it sound like a gospel song.  It is a brilliant interpretation that I greatly prefer to Stills' own version.  She also makes Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" sound like a hymn.  She sings it with such feeling and passion, she absolutely slays me.  I like the original but it sounds stilted and phony in comparison.  The most remarkable cover on the album is her uptempo performance of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby."  Supported by propulsive back up vocals from the Sweethearts of Soul, Franklin utterly transforms the song into an exciting and upbeat workout.  Curiously she sings the song in the first person which makes it seem more personal.  I think the Beatles' melancholy version is more suitable for the lyrics, but Franklin's cover is a lot more fun.  Her biggest challenge on the record is taking on David Gates' sappy "Make It With You."  I've always loathed the original single by Bread.  It is a testament to her genius that she makes this lightweight song seem powerful and meaningful with her heartfelt performance.  Side one concludes with a lively version of "Don't Play That Song" which was a hit for Ben E. King in 1962.  Franklin covered it on her album "Spirit in the Dark" in 1970.  I am a fan of King and like his version, but when Franklin covers a song, it becomes hers.  Side one is devoted to showing the hippies that she can beat them at their own game with her absolute dominance of some of their classics.  Side two showcases her own music.  It opens with her and Ted White's "Dr. Feelgood."  It is a slow, smoldering blues that gradually builds in strength leading to some explosive vocal pyrotechnics that take my breath away.  It is a sensual song but at the end she takes the audience to church with her incredible spirit.  Which is an appropriate segue for her performance of "Spirit in the Dark" which is her spiritual ode to the power of music.  It is an incredibly compelling performance and just when you think it can't get any better than this, she brings out Ray Charles, literally her only peer in soul singing.  What a thrill it must have been for the audience to see the King and Queen of Soul together on that stage.  Charles slows down the tempo for a funky interpretation of the song featuring a dazzling call and response with Franklin.  Then Charles takes Franklin's place at the electric piano and delivers a smoking piano solo that gets me bopping.  Charles resumes singing and rouses the crowd with his mesmerizing gospel style vocal.  At the end of the song Franklin proclaims him to be "the Reverend Righteous Ray" to which I can only reply "Amen!"  When I heard this song as a teenager it instantly converted me into a fan of soul music.  I had never heard anything like it and it still thrills me all these years later.  This album is a must buy just for that song alone.  The record comes back to earth to conclude with her robust vocal on Ashford and Simpson's "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" which had been a hit for Diana Ross the year before and I suspect she picked it just to show Ross who is the boss.  What a show!  The band is excellent and Franklin is inspired.  I wish I could have been there.  This is one of my favorite live albums.  It has so much feeling and atmosphere, it is everything a good live album should be.  I consider it one of her essential recordings.  It fully displays her unparalleled skill as an interpreter and the boundless expressiveness of her voice.  Recommended to fans of Ray Charles, her only rival when it comes to the soulful interpretation of pop music.

Pictures at an Exhibition - Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Pictures at an Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Cotillion  ELP 66666
1972

This is a live recording of ELP's version of Modest Mussorgsky's classical opus recorded at Newcastle City Hall on March 26, 1971.  It was released in England in 1971 but ELP's American record company initially rejected it and its American release was delayed until 1972.  I had been planning a post in honor of Keith Emerson after he committed suicide last year.  I was planning to do an album by his previous band, the Nice, which I like better than ELP, but I changed my mind following the recent passing of his bandmate Greg Lake.  I've made fun of ELP and this album in particular in some previous posts, but I was actually a fan of Emerson as a teenager.  I loved the Nice and liked the first ELP album as well.  This one not so much, but I've never considered getting rid of it in the many years I've owned it.  Reading his obituary I was surprised to find that Emerson was living in my hometown of Santa Monica when he died.  There are loads of British ex-pats here but somehow Emerson seemed so European to me that it was hard for me to imagine living next to him out here in sunny SaMo.  In one of the obits I read, his girlfriend mentioned that he never listened to rock music, only jazz and classical.  That I found easy to believe.  Even back in the Nice I sensed that Emerson felt that rock was beneath him.  Not unlike Frank Zappa, I got the feeling he was pandering to his fans presumably for commercial reasons.  In that regard this album is emblematic of his career.  I'm sure Emerson was skilled enough to have recorded a straight performance of Mussorgsky's original work but that would have sold a tiny fraction of what this "rock" version of it did.  The album begins with "Promenade" which was taken straight out of Mussorgsky's original composition.  It features a distinctive melody that is used throughout the original work to link together some of the movements.  Emerson plays it on the big pipe organ in the hall.  "The Gnome" was also taken from Mussorgsky and adapted by ELP's drummer Carl Palmer.  His main contribution seems to be adding a bombastic drum track to the piece as well as a mercifully brief drum solo.  Like the original piece, it is gloomy and ominous.  The work proves surprisingly suitable for the heavy rock treatment given to it by ELP.  I imagine Mussorgsky would have been appalled, but I like it.  Emerson switched to an electric organ and a synthesizer for this track and I enjoy his frenetic noodling.  Next Emerson plays a subdued version of "Promenade" on his organ and Greg Lake takes to the microphone to gently croon the words he composed for it which are basically quasi-mystical nonsense about life's journey.  Lake expounds further on this theme for his original song "The Sage" which is him and his acoustic guitar. The song sounds a bit like a courtly Renaissance air crossed with a traditional English folk song although the lyrics are pure hippie bullshit reminiscent of the trite philosophizing of the Moody Blues.  Emerson changes the tempo dramatically with his high energy adaptation of "The Old Castle" which was the second movement in Mussorgsky's original work.  The sensitive romantic character of the original piece is completely obliterated by Emerson's intense bludgeoning of assorted electric organs and synthesizers but it is entertaining.  It segues seamlessly into the pompously titled group composition "Blues Variation" which is an Emerson-dominated jam that is easily my favorite track.  It really cooks, which makes it a rarity in ELP's discography.  They frequently rock but they seldom roll.  Side two begins with a reprise of the "Promenade" theme played forcefully by the full band.  They then run through "The Hut of Baba Yaga" at breakneck speed.  This was the ninth movement in Mussorgsky's original work.  This is followed by another group jam entitled "The Curse of Baba Yaga" which features more blistering keyboard runs from Emerson.  It is followed by a brief return to "The Hut of Baba Yaga" before moving into the tenth and final movement of Mussorgsky's opus, "The Great Gates of Kiev."  In the original work this piece is stately and triumphant, but ELP instead go with a full throttle attack featuring Lake bellowing out more of his silly lyrics with Emerson maniacally raising a ruckus in support.  Near the end the band finally slows down and Mussorgsky's majestic music emerges to back up verses like "there's no end to my life, no beginning to my death, death is life."  Ugh!  When the music finally finishes, the audience erupts in thunderous applause and if I had been there perhaps I would have too, it is perversely impressive.  The band returns to encore with a high octane performance of Kim Fowley's ludicrous Tchaikovsky adaptation "Nutrocker" which gives the album a winningly irreverent finish.  I ought to hate this record, it is one of the most pretentious pop albums ever and a vulgar travesty of Mussorgsky's original work.  It goes against all my beliefs of what good rock music should be.  Nonetheless I do find it listenable and even sporadically enjoyable, mostly because Emerson was such a dynamic keyboard player.  He may not have been interested in rock, but he was good at it as a performer.  Also I find some charm in the dialectic collision between the refined art of classical music and the crudity of heavy rock.  The results are often ridiculous (especially when Lake is singing) but there are times when the frisson between the two is engaging to me.  This record never bores me which is more than I can say about Yes, Genesis, or even post-Barrett Pink Floyd.  You could definitely do worse when it comes to prog-rock.  Even if you hate this sort of thing, you ought to hear it at least once, if only to marvel at Keith Emerson's skill and shameless audacity.  I'm going to miss him.  Recommended to classical music fans who dig Jerry Lee Lewis.

Keep On Singin' - Andraé Crouch and the Disciples

Keep On Singin'
Andraé Crouch and the Disciples
Light Records LS-5546-LP 
1971 

I picked this up in a thrift store in Williams, Arizona awhile back.  I had no idea who Andraé Crouch was at the time.  I'm not a big fan of religious music, but I dug the cover and hoped that the music was funky or soulful.  When I got home I gave it a spin and was dismayed to hear that much of it sounded like smooth sunshine pop.  It was so not what I was expecting that I stuck it on my purgatory shelf planning to discard it.  Then last January Crouch died and I came across several lengthy obituaries of him that praised his work and its significance in the history of gospel music.  I remembered that I had one of his records and pulled it out to listen to it again.  It was pretty much as I remembered but this time it didn't bother me.  Without my false expectations to prejudice me, I heard the music differently.  I appreciated its eclecticism and its pop appeal.  You might think I was just swayed by the critical praise of Crouch's work, but I think it is more of a case of me being motivated to listen to it more attentively.  The record opens with "I Don't Know Why Jesus Loved Me" which like all the songs on the record was written by Crouch.  It is sung by one of the Disciples, Perry Morgan.  This song has more of a traditional gospel sound with a prominent organ line and soulful ensemble vocals.  This is my favorite track on the record.  Crouch sings lead on "I'm Gonna Keep On Singin.'"  This is a more upbeat track bolstered by brass and winds and very poppy harmony vocals led by Crouch's twin sister Sandra who was also a member of the Disciples.  It is a slick and accessible production that shows off Crouch's pop smarts.  If it wasn't so religious I could imagine it as a top 40 single.  Disciple Billy Thedford and guest singer Tremaine Davis sing "I'm Coming Home, Dear Lord" with a lot of feeling.  The song is less dynamic than the previous track but shares the same elaborate pop style arrangement.  Crouch takes the mike again for "Along Came Jesus" which is a jumping number with a catchy melody and energetic vocals.  The record slows down for "Jesus (Every Hour He'll Give You Power)" which boasts a stirring vocal from Crouch.  Side two begins with Crouch singing "Take a Little Time" which is another soulful performance with an elaborate pop arrangement.  "What Ya Gonna Do?" is a jaunty number that almost sounds like a show tune.  It is mostly sung as an ensemble with a solo passage sung by Crouch.  It concludes with an odd bit of musical cacophony that sounds almost psychedelic.  "I've Got Confidence" is a rocker that is driven by a stinging guitar line.  It features a dynamic lead vocal from Crouch and it is one of my favorite cuts on the album.  Thedford is the soloist for "My Tribute (To God Be The Glory)" which is a dramatic ballad.  I find it sappy and overblown.  For some reason fake applause is dubbed in at the end of the song.  The album concludes with Crouch singing "I Must Go Away" which is country-flavored.  I find the song appealing, particularly the harmonica work and tasteful piano lines.  I'm not a Christian but I admire Crouch's expression of his spirituality.  He's not preachy or self-righteous and his lyrics have some memorable images and language.  Mostly though it is the music that gets to me.  Crouch and the Disciples were all terrific singers and their vocal interplay is consistently engaging.  Crouch was also a skilled arranger and I appreciate the variety of instruments and styles he employs throughout the record.  Although I was initially turned off by the poppiness of the record, I'm hardly the sort of person who does not like a big juicy hook and Crouch sprinkles them liberally throughout the record.  Crouch wanted to make religious music that would appeal to a broad audience and on this record he succeeded.  Anyone who is a fan of sophisticated 1970s pop-soul or sunshine pop ought to find stuff to like on the album.  Recommended to religious fans of the Fifth Dimension and Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Isle of View - Jimmie Spheeris

Isle of View
Jimmie Spheeris
Columbia  C 30988
1971

I picked this up at a flea market a few years ago for a couple of bucks.  I'd never heard of Spheeris, I was attracted to the album by its striking cover design (my photo does not capture its vibrancy.)  I flipped it over and saw the hippie dude on the back and thought that maybe the record was psych-folk and decided to buy it.  When I gave it a spin and heard the sensitive singer-songwriter music it contained I was disappointed.  That was more a reflection on my false expectations than the quality of the music.  After a few spins the record grew on me and I came to like it.  This was Spheeris' debut album.  He released four albums prior to his premature demise in a traffic accident in 1984.  He was only 34.  None of his albums achieved much commercial success, his biggest claim to fame is that he was the brother of the film director Penelope Spheeris.  That may be unfair but it is understandable.  His music is introspective and subdued compared to his more successful singer-songwriter peers.  It lacks the exuberance of Cat Stevens and Elton John, the pop smarts of Paul Simon and Carole King, the passion of Laura Nyro and Tim Buckley or the poetic intensity of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell.  As befits an album which has a title that sounds the same as "I love you" most of Spheeris' songs are romantic love songs with abundant poetic imagery.  This includes "The Nest," "For Roach," "Seeds of Spring," "I Am the Mercury," "Let It Flow," "Come Back" and "Esmaria."  My favorites are "The Nest" which benefits from a dramatic musical setting and the atmospheric "I Am the Mercury" which features an exhilarating conclusion with Spheeris' vocal soaring into falsetto territory.  Both songs are boosted by tasteful string arrangements by David Campbell.  "Esmaria" is an odd song, most of it is slow and sappy but in the middle it comes to life with a brief country rock rave-up before lapsing back into somnolence.  The other love songs are pleasant, but I don't find them memorable or stimulating.  "Monte Luna" is more abstract and overtly poetic.  It celebrates nature which seems to have been a significant theme for Spheeris.  Even his love songs are permeated with poetic images drawn from the natural world.  It is the prettiest song on the album and another one of my favorites.  "Long Way Down" is the only non-original on the album.  It was written by Lee Calvin Nicoli who plays bass, flute and guitar on the album.  Nicoli's lyrical approach is a lot more direct than Spheeris' style and the song is more dynamic with tempo shifts and a more pronounced beat than most of the other songs on the record, it even has a riff at times.  I wish there were more tunes like it on the album.  "Seven Virgins" is Spheeris' one attempt at a rocker and it is the oldest song on the album featuring a 1969 copyright.  It is a straight ahead hippie boogie type song with relatively hedonistic lyrics for Spheeris.  I don't think it is particularly good and it stands out like a sore thumb among the sensitive love songs on the record, but it is what the record needs more of.  It is vulgar, propulsive and features some stinging guitar licks all of which are more important to me more than nature metaphors and tender romantic crooning.  That is not to say that I don't like this record.  Even though I don't have much of an affinity with this type of music, when I'm in the right mood I enjoy listening to it and I respect its intelligence.  You could do a lot worse with singer-songwriters in the early 1970s.  Recommended to fans of Eric Andersen and Jesse Colin Young.

Ian & Sylvia - Ian and Sylvia

Ian & Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Columbia C 30736
1971 

There are no bad Ian and Sylvia albums.  If you are a fan of the duo, you should buy all of them, but I wouldn't make this one a priority.  It is actually not all that easy to find since it did not sell much when it was originally released.  It was their first album for Columbia Records and the penultimate studio album in their career.  The duo had moved from folk and folk-rock to a more country rock sound that suited them extremely well although they did not abandon their folk roots completely.  The album opens on a positive note with David Wiffen's "More Often Than Not."  Wiffen also wrote one of my favorite Tom Rush songs, "Driving Wheel."  It is a sparkling country-pop tune sung by Ian with vocal sweetening from Sylvia that describes the life of a musician on the road.  It is a terrific song, one of my favorites on the album.  The album takes a nose dive with the sappy love song, "Creators of Rain."  It is credited to Smokey which is a pseudonym for a guy named Larry Mims who had recorded it with his sister back in the 1960s under the name Smokey and his Sister.  Ian and Sylvia sing it beautifully but it is still a crummy song and the corny string arrangement doesn't help it any.  According to John Einarson's book on Ian and Sylvia, Columbia Records executive Clive Davis forced them to record the song against their will which I can easily believe since Ian and Sylvia normally have unfailingly excellent taste in covers.  The album rebounds with Ian's "Summer Wages" which is a remake of a song he recorded back in 1967 in a folk-rock version for "So Much For Dreaming."  I don't know why he chose to record it again, but I have to admit that the country flavored version on this album is more satisfying.  Ian sings it with a lot of feeling and Sylvia's harmony vocal on the chorus is divine.  The song is about bumming around and the transience of love narrated with very evocative imagery.  I think it is one of Ian's best all-time songs and it is my favorite song on the album.  Sylvia sings lead on her composition "Midnight" which is a slow bluesy love song.  Her sensuous vocal really sends me and there is a nice sultry guitar solo from David Wilcox as well.  Ian and Sylvia co-wrote "Barney" which is a gut-wrenching autobiographical account of him shooting his favorite horse to put it out of misery.  It has a stark arrangement, largely driven by Sylvia's piano playing that puts all the focus on Ian's heartbreaking vocal.  It is an incredible song, one of the most moving and powerful songs in their long career.  Side two kicks off with Ian's "Some Kind of Fool" which is a charming country rock love song forcefully sung by Ian.  Ian's "Shark and the Cockroach" is a goofy country-rocker with a swamp rock flavor that features a gritty vocal from Ian embellished with some yodels.  Next is a cover of John Dawson's "Last Lonely Eagle" which appeared in a superior version on the debut album by the New Riders of the Purple Sage.  Ian and Sylvia sing it as a mournful duet with sparse accompaniment with a little instrumental color coming from Weldon Myrick on steel guitar.  Of course Ian and Sylvia sing it great, I'd listen to them sing just about anything but I still find the song kind of boring.  I don't really care much either for "Lincoln Freed Me" which was written by singer/songwriter David Patton.  As you can probably tell from the title it is written from the point of view of a freed slave.  Ian and Sylvia duet on this as well accompanied only by David Wilcox on guitar.  It galls me to write this, but I prefer the version by Joan Baez on "Blessed Are..." not because she sings it better than them (as if!) but because of the more elaborate instrumental arrangement on her version.  Sylvia takes a solo turn on Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death."  It also only features Wilcox on guitar for instrumental support but it is such a strong song that it really doesn't need anything more than that.  Sylvia sings it with a lot of feeling and this is one of my favorite versions of that oft-covered classic.  The album concludes with Sylvia's "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" which is about breaking up.  It is a majestic tune driven by a strong organ line and some tasteful strings.  The heartbreaking lyrics are so strong and vivid I feel like Sylvia must be writing from her heart envisioning the imminent end of her marriage and partnership with Ian.  I've loved Ian and Sylvia since I was a teenager, it really tears me up to listen it, almost as if I were listening to my own parents breaking up.  It provides a beautiful and emotional conclusion to the album.  This album is too spotty to rank with the best Ian and Sylvia albums but it still features some of the best music they ever did.  I would include the remake of "Summer Wages," "Barney" and "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" among their very best songs and the album is worth seeking out just for them.  Aside from "Creators of Rain" even the weaker songs have much merit.  Ian and Sylvia may have been nearing the end of their road together, but this album shows that they still had plenty of vitality and creativity.  It deserved a better fate, it was largely ignored upon its release failing to even crack the top 200 albums chart in sales.  I like it better than a lot of the other albums that came out in 1971 and recommend it to anyone who values emotional honesty in music.

Oh! Pleasant Hope - Blue Cheer

Oh! Pleasant Hope
Blue Cheer
Philips PHS 600-350
1971

This was Blue Cheer's sixth and final album (at least until they reunited in the 1980s.)  Fans of their debut, "Vincebus Eruptum" would hardly recognize this record as being from the same group and in truth, it wasn't really the same group.  The power trio that recorded the primitive and insanely loud hard rock of the debut was replaced by a quartet playing mellow Bay Area hippie rock.  Only bassist Dickie Peterson remained from the original lineup.  Most of the record was written by new members Gary Yoder (guitar and vocals) and Norman Mayell (drums, sitar and guitar).  I greatly prefer the debut record, but having grown up with this sort of hippie nonsense I have more of a taste for it than most people and thus I enjoy some of this record.  My favorite track is the title track by long time associate of the band, Richard Peddicord.  It is a country-flavored paean to marijuana, dreaming of the day when "grass will flow like wine."  It reminds me a bit of the Band and is the only song that sticks with me when the record is over.  Peddicord also contributed "Money Troubles" to the album.  It is a far lesser song only notable for its San Francisco Sound style guitar runs.  I do like Dickie Peterson's sole songwriting contribution to the album, "Heart Full of Soul" which bares no resemblance to the Yardbirds' classic hit.  It is the only song that reminds me of the debut record.  It is a straight ahead rocker driven by Peterson's throbbing bass riff and Ralph Kellogg's organ.  It is kind of generic and could use more guitar noise but it still holds my attention.  "Hiway Man" by Yoder, Mayell and Gary Grelecki is a nice propulsive country rocker but I dislike its lyrics about a Confederate renegade thief.  Yoder and Grelecki are also responsible for the pedestrian rocker "Believer" and the mellow "Traveling Man" both of which bore me.  Norman Mayell doesn't fare much better.  He breaks out his sitar for the religious themed "I'm The Light" (written with Kent Houseman) which goes on for more than 5 seemingly endless minutes of hippie bullshit.  His solo composition "Ecological Blues" is a polemical folk-blues sung by Peterson in an irritating gravelly voice like he's trying to imitate an old blues man.  Ralph Kellogg wrote "Lester The Molester" which is a folk-rock boogie that sounds a bit like the Grateful Dead.  The lyrics are pretty dumb but it is a lot livelier tune than most of the album.  I can't really endorse this album, but I have to admit that I generally enjoy it when I give it a spin as long as I don't pay close attention to it.  It probably sounds better if you are buzzed.  Recommended for fans of the Youngbloods' Warner Bros. albums.

Wadsworth Mansion - Wadsworth Mansion

Wadsworth Mansion
Wadsworth Mansion
Sussex SXBS 7008
1971

When I was a kid I really liked this Rhode Island band's lone hit single "Sweet Mary" which I heard on the radio.  When I stumbled across their album many years later, I bought it, happy to finally have my own copy of the song.  I was disappointed when I actually gave it a spin, the song seemed a lot less vibrant than I remembered.  I chalked that up to the folly of youth until I heard the single again and realized it was different from the album version.  I'm not sure if they used a different take, but the single has instrumental overdubs and the vocals sound like they are higher in the mix.  The single is punchy and exciting, the album version sounds heavy and slow although in truth the songs move at about the same pace.  The ending is different as well, although curiously there are also two different endings for the single version, one fades out and one ends abruptly with a brief instrumental flourish on guitar and piano.  The album ends with a longer and different flourish on guitar followed by an elongated piano flourish and then some light applause.  I don't think there is any question that the single version is superior, but the album version has grown on me a bit, it has a sludgy quality I kind of like.  If you've never heard the song, it is a riff-driven rocker with a swampy groove and elaborate, almost doo-wop style vocal harmonies, sort of like Creedence Clearwater Revival crossed with the post-Capitol Beach Boys.  It is a simple song about a guy returning to his girlfriend back on the farm.  It was written by the band's lead vocalist and keyboard player, Steve Jablecki who also wrote most of the songs on the album with some assistance from his bandmates; Mike Jablecki (drums), John Poole (bass) and Wayne Gagnon (lead guitar.)  Nothing else on the album comes close to "Sweet Mary" most of it is generic early 70s rock.  The album sounds bland, there is very little variety in the instrumentation or musical texture, it could use more of the overdubs that brightened up the single version of "Sweet Mary."  My favorite song after "Sweet Mary" is "Let It Shine," an upbeat hippie-flavored song.  Some of that good feeling extends to "Havin' Such A Good Time" which has a weak melody, but a joyous chorus.  "City Gardner" [sic] is another nondescript tune redeemed by a catchy chorus.  "I Like It" is a solid, hard rocking tune reminiscent of Sugarloaf.  It really cooks.  "Long Haired Brown Eyed Girl" is the only song not written by a band member, it is credited to Leo Genereux who was in a fellow Rhode Island band called Benefit Street.  Oddly enough, considering its New England origin, it is a pretty convincing slice of southern boogie, not particularly good but it does rock.  "Michigan Harry Slaughter" is a blatant retread of "Sweet Mary" but without the hooks or the charm.  "Queenie Dew," "She Said She Would," and "Goodbye" bore me.  Is this album worth seeking out?  Probably not unless you are really into the 1970s.  Most people should just pick up the 45 of "Sweet Mary."  Recommended to fans of the Doobie Brothers.  

Second Album - Curved Air

Second Album
Curved Air
Warner Bros.  WS 1951
1971

I learned about Curved Air from the Logan/Woffinden "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock" which was extremely influential on my early record collecting.  The book has a British perspective which is a good thing as far as Curved Air is concerned since they never made any impact over here.  To this day I don't think I've ever heard them on the radio and I rarely see their albums in the record bins.  I guess American prog-rock fans preferred to listen to Keith Emerson butcher the classics than to listen to Sonja Kristina Linwood sweetly crooning this band's pop-oriented version of arty rock.  The songwriting on this album is divided evenly with Linwood and the band's violinist Darryl Way writing all of side one and Francis Monkman (guitar and keyboards) writing the three songs on side two.  "Young Mother" establishes the band's prog credentials right off the band with Way sawing away at his electric violin while Monkman goes nuts on his synthesizer.  The narrative portion of the song gives way to a lyrical instrumental passage with a soaring synth line that I find exhilarating.  The song is a statement of independence.  Bassist Ian Eyre joined Linwood and Way in writing "Back Street Luv" which was a hit in England and should have been here too.   Linwood sings of the perils of romance in a cool, reserved voice, she reminds me of Fairport Convention's Judy Dyble crossed with a young Marianne Faithfull.  The song features a more stripped down sound than most of the record, it sounds like a conventional pop song.  It has a strong hook and features hard rock heaviness in the verses contrasting with the lightness of the chorus.  I consider it one of the best songs of its era.  Art rock rears its fearsome head with "Jumbo" which is entirely synth and string driven.  Linwood's icy vocals suit this ponderous song quite well.  The title appears to be a reference to the jet plane the singer is flying home on.  Straight ahead rock returns with "You Know" which I think is about the double standard among the sexes.  The song has a heavy riff and even a couple of guitar solos.  Side one ends with one of the artiest songs on the album, "Puppets" which is some sort of allegory about free will and conformity I believe.  Linwood lifelessly intones the lyrics as if she were a puppet herself with Way's piano offering most of the instrumental color.  Side two's opener, "Everdance" wakes me up again.  It is another allegorical song about the roads people choose in life.  It is a fast-paced, riffing rocker with a Middle Eastern flavor particularly in Way's violin lines.  I can't believe I'm actually writing this, but I dig the dynamic interplay between the violin and Monkman's synth.  "Bright Summer's Day '68" sounds like the title of some lyrical paean to hippie bliss, but it is instead a satirical portrait of a dysfunctional family.  It is another rocker with a light, poppy chorus that ends with a surprising amount of guitar noise in the concluding instrumental passage.  Then comes the grand finale, the nearly 13 minute long "Piece of Mind."  With its shifting tempos, multiple musical themes, lengthy instrumental passages and numerous keyboard and string solos, the song is easily the most proggy one on the album, it sounds like the Nice jamming with It's a Beautiful Day.  The song is about madness, nightmares, distorted perception and despair and is just as awkward and pretentious as you might expect, Monkman even name checks Berlioz's "Harold in Italy."  Linwood can't do much with these lyrics although she gives it a game try.  I doubt that even Sandy Denny could make me care about these words.  Despite all that, I like the song, some sections of it are quite engaging.  I just wish the song had a stronger finish than just petering out the way it does.  Nonetheless if there has to be prog-rock, let it be like this.  This is a very underrated album, one of the better albums of the early 1970s.  The pop sensibility that Curved Air applied to progressive rock resulted in some complex yet enjoyable music.  I'll take a good hook and a solid riff over a rock symphony anytime.  Recommended for prog-rock fans looking for something a little sexier than their usual fare.

In My Mind - Dave Nordin

In My Mind
Dave Nordin
Specifications Records  5046
1971

I imagine many of you are aware of all the ruckus that NPR intern stirred up when she mentioned having tens of thousands of MP3s on her computer that she never paid for in a blog post celebrating the death of physical music.  I've stated my position on this in past posts so I won't go into it here although I'm not sure whether I'm more mortified that she has happily stolen so much music or that she is willing to settle for crappy sound quality in the music she claims to love so much.  The intern, Emily White, dreams of a service that will provide all the music in the world conveniently delivered via the electronic interface of her choice.  It would indeed be terrible if she had to leave her cozy home and shlep down to some dingy record store and touch icky records and CDs, the horror.  She will probably get her wish, but I wonder where that leaves records like Dave Nordin's.  When us dinosaurs with turntables die off, who is going to play this guy's music?  Assuming he makes it into the grand library of music, when you have millions of songs at your fingertips, why bother looking for one of Nordin's?  I have this record because I'm a collector and I play it because I bought it.  I only know about this record because I saw it, a physical copy sitting in a box of records one of my colleagues at work wanted me to buy.  My initial reaction to seeing the drawing of the hippie lothario on the cover was basically "eew!"  I stuck it back in the box, but then I had second thoughts and looked at it more closely.  It was obviously a demo or a vanity pressing so it had to be rare and when I examined the song titles they sounded trippy so I took a chance since I knew I'd never see another copy.  As a collector it is exciting to me when I see a record I've never seen before and it is exciting to listen to a rare record that I've discovered.  When you have access to all the songs ever, it is a different experience.  It may be illogical or even perverse, but to me the collecting experience is a valuable part of my overall musical experience.  I'm not going to make any grand claims that this is some lost masterpiece, but it is a worthwhile record and I'm happy to have found it.  I know nothing about Nordin but I assume that he was based in the San Francisco Bay Area since the record label that released the album was located in Marin County.  The album consists solely of Nordin singing while accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. The album opens with "And Roses" which is a cascade of hippie-type imagery heavy on descriptions of idyllic nature that reminds me of the Youngbloods.  "The Feeling" is an energetic tune in which he and his girlfriend take a romantic trip to the country in search of freedom, a theme that ought to be familiar to any connoisseur of late 1960s rock.  "Voyage" opens with a display of Nordin's guitar skill before he starts singing about a voyage of the mind with the apparent aid of some illicit substances.  "Once There Was A Time" is a short introspective song of confusion with tricky wordplay.  "Billy" is about a junkie and his demise.  It is a grim song but I dig the frenetic, raga-ish guitar work.  Side one concludes with "Rosemary" a striking song about a girl in his mind.  It is very much in a psych-folk vein.  "Old Joe" starts side two off with more trippiness with lines about touching the sky and raindrops making love to his face.  More nice picking from Nordin on this one.  "Maryjane" refers to the herb rather than a girl.  It describes the interesting perceptions acquired from "burning leaves."  "You Make Me Feel Like Someone" is a sunny love song with a euphoric vocal from Nordin.  "All Strung Out Again" sounds like it ought to be another drug song, but it is actually a romantic love song given a passionate almost florid vocal from Nordin.  "Pinball" is also about love, although it is more observational than personal regarding love as a sort of game.  There are some really pretty guitar lines on this one. The album concludes with "This Thing of Ours" which is about making a new start with his girlfriend.  Nordin's lyrical style emphasizes a lot of outlandish imagery "strawberry skies" "eyes like windows" and so forth which often comes close to being bad poetry.  Fortunately song lyrics aren't poetry and when accompanied by Nordin's charismatic singing and vigorous guitar playing, most of the songs work pretty well.  There is a lot of trippiness running through this album and if you hate hippie bullshit you'll probably have a tough time with Nordin.  I eat this stuff up and I really dig the record.  It sounds great late in the evening and I imagine if you are buzzed it sounds even better.  I think Nordin was genuinely talented and it would be nice to see this record get reissued, so he might finally get some of the attention he deserves (assuming he's still alive out there somewhere.)  Recommended to fans of Pearls Before Swine.

Fantasia Lindum - Amazing Blondel

Fantasia Lindum
Amazing Blondel 
Orizzonte ORL 8302
1971

I've been neglecting the blog lately.  I've been obsessed with the Los Angeles Kings' amazing Stanley Cup playoff run.  I haven't been listening to records much, instead I've spent all my free time on hockey blogs and internet forums not to mention watching the games.  It has been an incredibly exciting experience for us Kings fans.  But now it is over, we've celebrated and had our parade and I can get back to music.  I picked this up last year at a record store in Pasadena.  It is an Italian re-issue of the 1971 Island LP (ILPS-9156) and I believe it dates from the late 1970s.  I had never heard of the group prior to spotting it in the bin.  It looked interesting and I have a lot of respect for Island Records, so I took a chance on it figuring that I wasn't likely to see another copy of it any time soon.  I assumed it was some sort of folk-rock akin to the Pentangle, but when I played it, it sounded more like John Dowland than John Renbourn.  I don't have a problem with that, I have a record of Dowland's music that I like, but I don't play it nearly as much as I do my Pentangle records.  This certainly isn't folk-rock or any other kind of rock for that matter.  Basically it features modern recreations of courtly Renaissance music mostly using acoustic instruments from that era such as lutes, recorders and harpsichords.  Most of the album is composed by John David Gladwin who is also the lead vocalist.  I find his singing weak and annoying, he sounds like a prissy version of Dave Swarbrick with a sore throat.  The songs aren't that strong to start with and would greatly benefit from a more distinguished singer.  Side one consists entirely of the title tune, which is a song suite devoted to Lincolnshire where the band grew up.  Songs alternate with dance music and instrumental themes.  I like the instrumental passages best, but I must admit that the song "Swifts, Swains and Leafy Lanes" is a catchy song that sticks with me after the record is over.  "Celestial Light" on the other hand I can hardly endure.  It is a sappy ode to Lincoln Cathedral that I find tedious.  Side two opens with "Toye" which is a love song with pseudo-Elizabethan lyrics and a compelling melody.  I think it is one of better songs on the album, it reminds me of a wimpy Jethro Tull.   Gladwin's "Safety In God Alone" is the sole song on the album that sounds contemporary and it is the one I like the least.  It is a hippie folk song with heavily religious lyrics, yuck.  The Renaissance returns with "Two Dances," which consists of a pair of instrumentals.  The first one is "Almaine" which is lead lutist Edward Baird's sole composition on the album.  It is a lovely short piece that is followed by the sprightly "For My Lady's Delight" which is indeed delightful.  Gladwin returns to the mike for "Three Seasons Almaine."  It is the band's most satisfying foray into Renaissance style music.  If I heard it on a Nonesuch Renaissance music compilation I'd fully believe it was from that era.  From the lyrics to the instrumentation and the song construction it is completely convincing.  For most of this album I have my doubts about the band's approach, but on this one song, I can see some validity in their efforts.  The album concludes with the sole composition by the band's keyboardist and wind player, Terence Alan Wincott.  It features drumming from Traffic's Jim Capaldi, but alas it does not rock.  It is a droning instrumental that is the most dour tune on the album.  I look at the cover of this album with the three lads posing as if Rembrandt were painting them and marvel at the utter weirdness of this band.  I know a lot of hippies were looking to the past for inspiration, the Incredible String Band comes to mind, but the idea of slavishly imitating 400 year old musical styles seems crazy to me.  At least it's different I suppose.  I greatly prefer the approach of Ashley Hutchings, infusing the vitality of rock and electric instruments to traditional music while respecting its values and authenticity.  The dynamic quality of his hybrid creations is sadly lacking on this album.   I do enjoy most of this record but it does seem pointless to play it when I could be listening to the real thing performed by an ancient music consort.  Recommended for people looking for a soundtrack for their next road trip to a Renaissance Faire.