Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges – Classic Music Review – Clube Da Esquina

Disclaimers Galore Clube da Esquina is a Brazilian double album with 21 songs. One of those songs is in Spanish; the other twenty are in Portuguese. I do not speak or read Portuguese, which severely limits my ability to provide readers with lyrical interpretations. Even if I were fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, my interpretations could still be way off. Clube da Esquina was recorded in 1972,…

Nick Drake – Classic Music Review – Way to Blue (Part 1 of 2)

Part One of Two One of the most insightful comments in the documentary Nick Drake: Under Review came from Ralph McTell near the end of the film when the various participants weighed in on Nick Drake’s startling rise to fame a quarter-century after his death at the age of twenty-six. “Unfortunately, the world wasn’t ready for you, Nick, at that time. It seems to be now and I hope it’s not just the…

Elvis Presley – Classic Music Review – Elvis

Like many inhabitants of this blue orb stuck at home with no particular place to go, we’ve been binging on TV series and movies. This represented a major lifestyle change for us because in the good ol’ pre-pandemic era we rarely watched television and had access to only one streaming platform: Amazon Prime, French Edition. When the second wave hit after last summer’s false ray of hope, we…

Phil Ochs – Classic Music Review – All the News that’s Fit to Sing

Hello! Welcome to this tour through Phil Ochs’ debut album! It’s nice to see you all looking so chipper this morning! Because I’ll be serving as your trusty tour guide, I should tell you a teensy weensy bit about my qualifications! I have had the privilege of leading tours through three Phil Ochs albums: I Ain’t Marching Anymore, Pleasures of the Harbor and Rehearsals for Retirement. I was…

Sleater-Kinney – Classic Music Review – Call the Doctor

The bad news: During my research of Call the Doctor I encountered several reviews written by men that I found quite annoying and two in particular that I found absolutely infuriating. The best news: I can blame my fury on my father! Suck it up, Dad! The story begins long, long ago in the midst of the Nixon-Ford recession in a small flat bordering the Mission District and Noe Valley, where my…

The Jam – Classic Music Review – Sound Affects

In a brazen display of multi-generational marketing, Paul Weller described Sound Affects as “a mixture between Revolver and Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall.” Valerie Siebert of The Quietus and I disagree: As a matter of fact – and speaking strictly musically and not negatively – it’s arguably the least soulful Paul Weller record there is. Setting Sons would likely be up for the title if it weren’t…

Ben E. King – Classic Music Review – The Very Best of Ben E. King

Ben E. King was born Benjamin Earl Nelson in Henderson, North Carolina, on September 28, 1938, to two very smart parents. Little Ben didn’t spend much of his life in his home state; his family was part of the Great Migration of the postwar period, abandoning the world of Jim Crow for Harlem when Ben was only nine. The move was serendipitous indeed—in addition to providing plenty of opportunities…

The Grateful Dead – Classic Music Review – American Beauty

We’ll set the stage for this review with two quotes. First, let’s hear from Jerry Reed: When you’re hot, you’re hot. American Beauty was released a mere five months after Workingman’s Dead, in large part due to a collective songwriting hot streak. Of course, Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia led the way in that area, but Hunter also collaborated with Phil Lesh and Bob Weir on two equally superb…