MBFAS

Various Artists

In Our Own Ways, Oldies But Goodies

@ 1970 UK Pressing

****

This is another blues compilation that the cover art attracts me, from the Blue Horizon label as well.

Featuring some of the American blues musician who resided in Europe in the 60s.

Various Artists

Super-Duper Blues

@ 1969 UK Pressing

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This is the 60s packaging of blues tunes in which the original US Pressing might not be available in UK market.

The Sleepers

Painless Night 

@ 1981 US Pressing

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Geordie

Don’t Be Fooled By The Name

@1974 UK Pressing

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Pete Townshend Ronnie Lane

Rough Mix

@1977 UK Pressing

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On 21 October 1976, The Who closed a brief North American tour in Toronto at the Maple Leaf Gardens, a show that would be the last with Keith Moon before a paying audience. The band members then took a hiatus to pursue various individual interests. Townshend had been initially contacted by Lane to produce his next album, the project instead turning into a full-blown collaboration between the pair.

The album featured songs written by both principals in a vein less like that of The Who orThe Facesbut instead close to thefolk-rockvogue of the early 1970s among various English bands. A number of famous colleagues appeared on the recording, among themEric Clapton,John Entwistle,Ian Stewart, andCharlie Watts. Orchestral arrangements for the track “Street in the City” were provided by Townshend’s father-in-law, noted British film and television theme composer Edwin Astley.

Jeremy & Satyrs

@1969 US pressing

Buy this if you have a special feeling for what was happening in the late 1960’s, but this is not typical in any way of what was happening back then. Back in the day, this is one of those albums I had to play for everyone. These guys had carved out something special, even it if was fleeting. I guess you could say that this music is a “unique fusion of jazz and psychedelic rock.” But the blues is in here too, and it’s good, and there’s more of it than “psychedelia”. The bluesy mug shots of these guys on the back of the original album (inside on the CD) don’t telegraph the talent that is heard within. These aren’t your regional musicians who banded together, managed to get a record contract, and even a modicum of success. These guys are cream of the crop musicians, make no mistake about that. Jeremy Steig (son of “Shrek” author and illustrator William Steig) and Eddie Gomez may be more familiar to aficionados than Warren Bernhardt and Donald MacDonald, but all are respected jazz musicians and demonstrate their talents wonderfully on this album. MacDonald does not play rock drums–even when he’s rocking the guy is jazzed. But for me personally it is Adrian Guillary who is the heart of this band. His vocals are city tough and he attacks his guitar with raw staccato passion. And as good as he can attack, he can finesse. Listen to his intro on “She Didn’t Even Say Goodbye.” You’ll hear no guitar pedals here–just Guillary, his guitar and his amp (and he plays the harp, too). The only thing that bothers me about this band is that they never made another album together, and I deeply regret the absence of Guillary to the wider music scene. Adrian, if you’re out there…man, you were one of the best.

Dazz Band

Keep it Live

@1982 HK Pressing

*****

This album spawned “Let It Whip,” and contains a mixture of “Whip”-ish tracks and slow, tantalizing ballads. “Keep It Live” and “Whip” both feature throbbing basslines and spirited vocals. “Whip” is an unusual dance tune in that the song was successful but the dance never caught on. LeadSkip Martindisplays his romantic skills on the shuffling “Gamble with My Love” and “Let Me Love You Until.” Despite the big hit, this is not theDazz Band’s best overall.Dazzwas experiencing growing pains – they wanted to produce themselves totally, but had to defer and follow Motown’s suggestions on what the finished product should sound like.

Pink Floyd

Pipers at the Gate of Dawn

@1967

70s Germany Pressing

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The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founder member Syd Barrett’s leadership. The album, featuring a prismatic cover photo taken by Vic Singh, was recorded from February to May 1967, produced by Beatles engineer Norman Smith and released in 1967 by EMI Columbia in the United Kingdom and Tower in the United States, in August and October respectively. The release of the album in the US was timed with the band’s tour of the US. In the UK, no singles were released from the album, however, in the US “Flaming” was offered as a single. The US version of the album has a rearranged tracklist, and contains the UK non-album single, “See Emily Play”. Two of the album’s songs, “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive”, became central to the band’s setlist around this period, while other songs were performed only a handful of times.

Since its release, the album has been hailed as one of the best psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s. In 1973, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was packaged with the band’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, released as A Nice Pair to introduce new fans to the band’s early work after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon. Special limited editions were issued to mark its thirtieth and fortieth anniversaries in 1997 and 2007, respectively, with the latter containing bonus tracks. In 2012, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was voted 347th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

Howlin’ Wolf and etc

The London Howlin’ Wolf Session (Back Cover)

@1971 UK Pressing

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Backstage at the Fillmore Auditorium, after a concert by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Electric Flag, and Cream, Chess Records staff producer Norman Dayron spotted the guitarplayers of the latter two bands, Michael Bloomfieldand Eric Clapton, talking and joking around. Dayron approached Clapton and, on impulse, asked “how would you like to do an album with Howlin’ Wolf?”[2] After confirming that the offer was legitimate, Clapton agreed, and Dayron set up sessions in London through the Chess organization to coordinate with Clapton’s schedule.

Clapton secured the participation of the Rolling Stonesrhythm section, pianistIan Stewart, bassistBill Wyman, and drummerCharlie Watts, while Dayron assembled further musicians, including 19-year-old harmonicaprodigy Jeffrey Carp, who died shortly after these recordings.[3] Initially, Marshall Chess did not want to pay the expense for flights and accommodations to send Wolf’s long-serving guitarist Hubert Sumlin to England, but an ultimatum by Clapton mandated his presence. Sessions took place between May 2 and May 7, 1970, at Olympic Studios.[4]

For the first day of May 2, Watts and Wyman were unavailable, and a call went out for immediate replacements. Many showed up, but only recordings featuring Klaus Voormannand Ringo Starrwere released from that day.[5] In the initial album credits, Starr is listed as “Ritchie,”[6] as Dayron was under the impression that, being a Beatle, his name could not be used directly.[7]

Further overdubbing took place at the Chess studios in Chicago, with Chess regulars Lafayette Leakeon piano and Phil Upchurchon bass, and horn players Jordan Sandke, Dennis Lansing, and Joe Miller of the 43rd Street Snipers, Carp’s band.[8] Ex-Blind Faith keyboardistSteve Winwood, on tour in theUnited States, contributed to the overdubbing sessions as well. Although he actually plays on only five tracks for the original album, his name is featured on the cover below the Wolf’s, along with Clapton, Wyman, and Watts.

Randy Newman

12 Songs

@1970 UK Pressing

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12 Songs is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Randy Newman, released in April 1970 on Reprise Records.It features a swampy roots music style and introspective, satirical songwriting.“Have You Seen My Baby?” was released as its sole single in May.

As with all of Newman’s early albums, several of its songs had been previously recorded by other artists. In this case, “Mama Told Me Not To Come” had originally been recorded in 1967 by Eric Burdon, and that same year The Beau Brummels released their version of “My Old Kentucky Home”.Three other songs originally appeared in versions by other artists just a few months prior to the LP release of 12 Songs: “Yellow Man” by Harry Nilsson on his 1970 album Nilsson Sings Newman; “Have You Seen My Baby” by Fats Domino (as a 1969 single); and “Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield” by Lou Rawls (the b-side to his 1970 R&B hit “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”). Newman himself played piano on the Nilsson and Domino tracks.

Robert Fripp

The League Of Gentlemen

@1980 HK Pressing

*****

The album emerged at the extreme tail-end of the Post-punk/New wave period in UK music just as the scene was evolving into more diverse musical ideas which eventually gave birth to ‘alternative rock’.

It was released in the same month as the NME and Rough Trade combined to release a mail-order compilation of the music of the UK Post-punk/New wave scene. This, now classic, compilation was released in the form of the C81 promotional cassette tape and effectively marked the end of the scene it celebrated and the start of the 'Indie’ period.

So the 'League of Gentlemen’ was released at a cultural cusp. The band had been positioned by Fripp himself as a “new wave instrumental dance band” which would suggest that he considered the music produced by the band to be 'New wave’ in character. Commentators have pointed to the rawness of the production as significant in so far as this approach had been popular among producers of Post-punk/New wave recordings of the time.

Frank Zappa

Hot Rats

@1969 US Pressing

*****

Zappa composed, arranged and produced the album himself. His primary instrument on the album is lead guitar. “Willie the Pimp”, “Son of Mr. Green Genes”, and “The Gumbo Variations” are showcases for his powerful and unconventional solo guitar performances. Four of the tracks have intricately arranged charts featuring multiple overdubs by Ian Underwood. Underwood plays the parts of approximately eight to ten musicians, often simultaneously. His work includes complicated sections of piano and organ, as well as multiple flutes, clarinets and saxophones.

The song “Peaches en Regalia” is widely recognized as a modern jazz fusion standard and is one of Zappa’s best known tunes. Zappa plays a short octave-bass solo. Underwood contributes flute and multiple saxophone, clarinet and keyboard parts. Zappa later re-recorded the song several times in live performances. It has been re-interpreted by many other jazz and rock artists, including Phish, the Dixie Dregs, and Frogg Café.

“Willie the Pimp” is a blues-rock tune. It has violin by Don “Sugarcane” Harris and guitar solos by Zappa in what appear to be loose jams, though the performances were edited before release. This song features vocals by Zappa’s longtime friend and collaborator Captain Beefheart. The title Hot Ratscomes from the lyric of this song.

“Son of Mr. Green Genes” is an instrumental re-arrangement of the song Mr. Green Genes from the Mothers album Uncle Meat. The unusual title of this song led to an urban legend that Frank Zappa was related to the character Mr. Green Jeans from the television showCaptain Kangaroo. This is the only song on the album to feature both intricate horn charts and extended guitar solo sections.

“Little Umbrellas” is similar in style to “Peaches”, another short carefully arranged tune with numerous keyboard and wind overdubs by Underwood.

“The Gumbo Variations” also is a jam performance which was edited for the LP. In addition to the Zappa solo, it features a tenor saxophone solo by Underwood and violin solo by Don “Sugarcane” Harris.

“It Must Be a Camel” is also an intricately arranged tune with numerous wind and keyboard overdubs by Underwood. The very unusual melody of this song is highly rhythmic and often makes large melodic leaps. The title may come from the fact that these leaps resemble “humps” when written on paper. The recording contains a violin performance by Jean-Luc Ponty.

A recording from the Hot Rats sessions titled “Bognor Regis” was set to be released on the B-side of an edited version of “Sharleena”, a track from the 1970 Zappa album Chunga’s Revenge. The single release was canceled, however, an acetate disc copy was leaked to the public and the track has appeared on Zappa bootlegs. The song was named after Bognor Regis, a town on the south coast of England. Musically, “Bognor Regis” is a basic blues instrumental with electric violin solo by Don “Sugarcane” Harris. Another track recorded during these sessions, titled “Twenty Small Cigars”, was later released on Chunga’s Revenge.

Frank Zappa

You Are What You Is

@ 1981 Japan Pressing

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You Are What You Is is a double album by Frank Zappa. It was originally released as a double album in 1981 and later by Rykodisc as a 20-song CD.

After the release of Joe’s Garage, Frank Zappa set up his home studio, the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen, and planned to release a triple LP live album called Warts and All. As Warts and All reached completion, Zappa found the project to be “unwieldy” due to its length, and scrapped it, later conceiving Crush All Boxes. Crush All Boxes would have been a single LP containing the studio recordings “Doreen”, “Fine Girl”, “Easy Meat” (a live recording with studio overdubs) and “Goblin Girl” on the first side, with the second side being occupied by a suite consisting of the songs “Society Pages”, “I’m A Beautiful Guy”, “Beauty Knows No Pain”, “Charlie’s Enormous Mouth”, “Any Downers?” and “Conehead”.

During the production of Crush All Boxes, Zappa decided to scrap the album and conceive a set of releases drawing from both Warts and All and Crush All Boxes, which would emphasize different aspects of his multiple talents, formatting the two albums into You Are What You Is, Tinseltown Rebellion and two series of live albums, Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar and You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore.

Much like a concept album, some of the tracks are bound together, although the album lacks an overall storyline. The title track “You Are What You Is” is an up-tempo pop rock style song that was released as a music video in 1984. Critics claim it was his most political album since “We’re Only In It For The Money.“ 

Glen Campbell

Rhinestone Cowboy

@1975 UK Pressing

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A concept album of Glen talking about living in the city while reminiscing the life and times of being a Rhinestone Cowboy.

UK and US releases feature different cover.  It might due to the consideration of a rhinestone cowboy photo for the UK market. 

Nick Lowe

Jesus of Cool

@1978 UK Pressing

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Neil Young

Comes a time

@1978 US Pressing

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Comes a Time is the ninth album by Neil Young, and a return to the country/folk rock sound of Harvest (1972). “Comes a Time” is also the title song and a single release from this album. Originally, it had started out as a solo record, but when Young played it for Repriseexecutives they asked him if he wouldn’t mind adding rhythm tracks to what he already had. Young agreed to this, and the end product was the Comes a Time that was released. Two songs had Young backed by Crazy Horse, resulting in them having sound more raw than the smooth production of the rest of the album.

“Human Highway” was written several years prior to its release, and originally presented to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1974 for a proposed studio album by the group which never came to be.

Much of the album features harmony vocals from Nicolette Larson. She also shares lead with Young on “Motorcycle Mama”.