Foghat - Boogie Motel

This is a good record to start the new year.  Is this awesome, or what?  Not only is this a fabulous album cover - but side one, track one is one of my all-time favorite songs.  It's called Somebody's Been Sleepin' in My Bed, written by band members Bond, Johnson, and Perry).  I cannot believe there is no clip of the song on YouTube.  That song is just plain fun.  It's an upbeat major chord rocker with a fun sax solo in the last third of the song by, I am guessing, Bob Seger's Alto Reed.  Boogie Motal is Foghat's eighth studio album - out in 1979 - the year that I graduated from high school.  The cover design and art is by Jim Baikie - a talented and semi-famous comic book artist, which is apparent from what he did on this cover.  If you zoom in, all of the song titles on shown somewhere on the front or back cover.  And speaking of the cover - this is a single record album, that does not unfold.  So I took digital photos of the front and back covers and photomerged them into one image.  I also like the round wear marks visible from the records themselves.  I scored this on eBay for a couple of bucks.  I just had to have it.

He Shall be Levon:

He Shall be Levon.  Well - actualy he shall be Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John.  Congratulations Elton and David.  Madman the album, unlike many of Elton's record during this period, is pretty barren on the inside, in terms of photos and artwork.  From the label, all we see is "Composers: Elton John-Bernie Taupin.  Publisher: Dick James Music, Inc. BMI.  Recorded in England"  Produced by Gus Dudgeon, this is his 4th studio album, from 1971.  It was the follow-up to Tumbleweed Connection, what this blogger says is his best one-record studio album. This was the first record on which Davey Johnstone plays guitar, joining of course Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson.  I read today that the album cover for Madman was/is a denim jacket embroidered by Janis Larkham, wife of the album art director David Larkham.  I bought this record used - I think it came with a color booklet.  On later live albums - Elton makes sure to mention the mastery of arranger Paul Buckmaster.

Mama They Took My Kodachrome Away

Paul Simon - There Goes Rhymin' Simon.  And there went Kodachrome, the end of an era.  I read yesterday [Scripps Howard News Service] Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan., the last photo film processing lab in the world that processes the famed color film Kodachrome, is discontinuing that service at the end of the year - in 2 days.  So, after 75 years, all that will be left of Kodachrome is the Paul Simon song and a state park named after it in Utah.  The Eastman Kodak Co. discontinued making the iconic film in June 2009.  Unlike other color film, Kodachrome starts as black-and-white film and the color dyes are added in the lab, like printmaking, which is why one cannot develop it in a home lab.  “It’s the most complicated film there is to process,” says Todd Gustavson, a curator at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.  Dwayne’s in Kansas is the last licensed processor, and doing 700 rolls a day, twice its average, but that’s not enough demand to convince Kodak to make more chemicals used to process the film.  First introduced in 1935, Kodachrome film was the first commercially successful color film.  “It had a color saturation that is unmatched with any other slide film or with digital,” says Lou Dematteis, a San Francisco freelance photojournalist.  

    Now back to my own words; this record was made at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.  It is Paul's second solo album, released in 1973, and it was produced by Phil Ramone.  The cover was designed by Milton Glaser.  Rick Marotta has a drumming credit on the song Tenderness.

The Bellamy Brothers:

The Bellamy Brothers - Two and Only.  I wish this record had their great song, Let Your Love Flow, on it - but it does not.  Is it just me - or do these guys remind you also of Brewer & Shipley?   My pal Greg told me he is on the lookout for the Brewer & Shipley record with One Toke Over the Line on it.  This record is from 1979, it is their fourth studio effort and this tidbit worth copying:  "They signed to Curb Records in 1975.  And a first single, featuring only David Bellamy, "Nothin' Heavy", was a flop.  However, at the suggestion of Neil Diamond's drummer Dennis St. John, the Bellamy brothers recorded and released the single "Let Your Love Flow," (again - not on this album) which was written by Diamond's roadie Larry Williams.  That song was released in 1976, "and reached No. 1 on the American pop charts, plus charting in many others countries worldwide."  [wiki]

Bare Trees - Fleetwood Mac

Bare Trees - Fleetwood Mac.  My pal Mike D. turned me on to this album.  He considered it for a guest post, but I did not own it - yet.  I scored it a record show back in Novermber.  This is the back cover, which is more interesting than the front cover.  We all know the Fleetwood Mac lineup that transformed mainstream pop with smash hits from 1975 to 1987, but as Mike explained to me, there were really (at least) four Fleetwoods Mac (is that the plural?).  From Mike, here is the rundown: "Fleetwood Mac" is (at least) FOUR different bands: (1.) early FM with the great and enigmatic Peter Green on guitar (Green Manalishi, Oh Well, etc), then (2.) the Fleetwood Mac with Danny Kirwin and Jeremy Spencer on albums like this one, Bare Trees, and also Kiln House.  Mike says, listen to "Jewel-Eyed Judy" from Kiln House (!), (3.) the version with Bob Welch (with songs like "Hypnotized", "Ghost of Flight 401" and "Future Games") then (4.) the famous line-up with Stevie and Lindsey.  And there's the short-lived version after that with Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason.  Thanks Mike - this was mainly your post anyways!  Click on post title to hear Sentimental Lady.

UB40 - Rat in the Kitchen

UB40 Rat in the Kitchen - for Greg.  He loves this band and this song.  And it is the ideal record cover for me to post.  It's a single record, in a jacket that does not unfold, and the artwork is continual from back to front.  So, doing what I do in these cases, I used the Photomerge function of Adobe Photoshop.  I hope you like how it came out.  As for UB40, if you read this blog - we can assume you are a music and record fan - so you likely know that the band got its name from the form one would fill out in order to register to unemployment benefits (UB) over in the UK.   On the inner sleave, we read that Herb Alpert himself plays some guest trumpet on this record, not sure which song or songs.  From the band's website, Released 28/7/1986.  Entered charts 5/8/1986.  Reached No. 8 (UK). 17 weeks on charts.  Went Gold (100,000 copies).