The Spinners - Yesterday Today & Tomorrow

The Spinners - Yesterday Today & Tomorrow.  This was not the Spinners record I had hoped it would be.  It really does not have any of the great hits on it.  This one is from the correct year: 1977.   The back jacket reads: Arranged, Conducted, and Produced by Thom Bell, with the exception of I'm In Love With You, wich was arranged by Tony S. Bell, Sr.  As for Thom Bell, let's find out more: Thomas Randolph "Thom" Bell was born in 1943 in Kingston, Jamaica, he is a well-known songwriter and music producer.  He is best known as one of the creators of the the Philadelphia style and sound of soul music in the 1970s. To me, that is a smoother, deeper, and more soulful branch veering off from the brigher Motown sound.   One of Bell's first gigs was producing records for the Stylistics.  Bell later teamed up with Elton John on an EP called The Thom Bell Sessions, which featured the Spinners as Elton's back-up singers on the Top 10 hit "Mama Can't Buy You Love."  They were going to do an entire record, but apparently there was a falling out and they only made enough finished material for an EP.  Then Bell re-teamed briefly again with the Stylistics in 1981.  In June 2006, Bell was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

City Boy - Book Early

City Boy - Book Early.  I heard a faint tinge of Def Leppard on this record.  That is because it was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.  [The former Mr. Shania Twain.]  But the question is: who are City Boy?  Well, they are/were a less-than-moderately successful English rock band in the late 1970s, characterised by complex vocal harmonies, bright-sounding major chord arrangements, and heavy doses of guitar work (again - think poor man's version of underhyped Def Leppard).  The band was made up of no one you ever heard of: Lol Mason (lead vocals), Steve Broughton (guitar, lead vocals), Max Thomas (keyboards, guitar), Chris Dunn (bass, guitar), Roger Kent (drums), Mike Slamer (guitar, bass), and Roy Ward (drums, vocals).  If you type in City Boy on youtude - you will get their most popular songs:  "5.7.0.5." and "The Day The Earth Caught Fire."  City Boy's first five albums were produced by Lange and are among the first albums he produced.  Their "breakthrough" (to what, I don't know) came in 1978 with their hit song "5.7.0.5." (also Mutt Lange's first hit single) and this, their subsequent album Book Early.

Fleetwood Mac - Penguins

 

Another incarnation of Fleetwood Mac.  My very dear friend Mike D., is an expert on this band.  Everyone knows Rumors and the massive world-wide appeal of THAT Fleetwood Mac, but what about the other versions of this groups?  I own Trees and Kiln House.  This one is called Penguin it is the group's seventh seventh album - from 1973.  This is the first Mac album to have Bob Weston (who?) on it and also the only one to feature Dave Walker.  The penguin is the band mascot favored by John McVie.  Bob Welch plays on it and Mac founder Peter Green chips in with an uncredited guitar solo somewhere.  Ah - finally - something to comment on that connects it to rock royalty.  I read that it was recorded somewhere in Hampshire using the famous Rolling Stones' Mobile Recording Studio.  No offense - but in just two short years one Mr. Buckingham and Ms. Nicks basically bailed this group out.   By this point, with this line-up, I think they had stagnated.

Records I Don't Own: Woodstock

I made a list of all of the bands, acts, artists (whatever we must call them) who played at Woodstock.  From Richie Havens starting things off (that is a whole 'nother story) around happy hour on Friday (5 pm) afternoon - all the way though to the ultimate wake 'n' bake of all time: Mr. Jimi closing out the 'fest at 11 am Monday morning.  I checked my stash and discovered that I own vinyl records by almost every act who performed at Woodstock.  But I do not own any records of - or by - these acts.  Here is the list of Acts Who Performed at Woodstock of which I do not own any of their records.  Day One: Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Ravi Shankar, and Arlo Guthrie.  Day Two: Quill, Country Joe McDonald, the Keef Hartley Band, and The Incredible String Band.  Day Three (and really - Day 3.5):  Country Joe & The Fish, and Chicago's own - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.   So albums by those bands are on my watch list when I head out exploring garage sales and used book stores.

Loggins & Messina - Native Sons

Loggins & Messina - Native Sons.  This is the duo's 6th, out of a string of seven studio albums, that ran from 1971 to generally 1977.  Without really trying, I know have accumulated what I think is the entire canon of this duo's music on vinyl.  Their stuff really holds up well and it grows on me.  What I find myself playing is their fine DLA (double live album), titled On Stage.  I know they have these excellent soft pop accoustic ballads like House at Pooh Corner, and Danny's Song - that have a Jimmy Buffett or Harry Chapin tone, or maybe the other way around.  But what I am really digging about Loggins & Messina is what they do live on their longer songs.  Angry Eyes is my May and June 2011 favorite song.  Try also the live version of Vahevala, at 20-plus minutes on the entire side three.  We know Jim was in Buffalo Springfield and also Poco.  Their 1975 release called So Fine is a compliation of all covers songs.  I think I own that one too.

Ten Years After - yes, they too played at Woodstock

Alvin (don't call me Albert) Lee and Ten Years After played at Woodstock, I am pretty sure.  There seems to be a little splotch of a red wine staining this record album jacket cover.  It's not quite even June, but the summer takes me to Woodstock.  I have some new Joan Baez records to post and a few others.  I may even have at least one record by almost every act to have played Woodstock.  Sort of a cool sub-category.  Reports from the fest say this British group, Ten Years After, hit the stage at Woodstock on Sunday, August 17^th at about 8:15 pm.  TYA was known for heavy Blues Rock and long guitar and drum solos.  But what could have been a memorable and world-shaking performance apparently bombed a bit sadley due to technical reasons:  The post-rain high humidity caused the instruments to go out of tune, the sound recording partially failed and the camera and film team was only able to capture the last song of their set: "I'm Going Home."  Bummer, bummer.

More Funk, as in Grand RR

This old band just continues to flat out fascinate me. I am a tad too young to have been really into them in thier heyday. From 1969 - I just cannot begin to describe in how great of shape this record and record cover are in. No dog ears, no water damage, crisp edges. This is called Grand Funk - their second studio album, and it was released in December 1969 on Capitol Records. It was produced by Terry Knight and engineered by Ken Hamann. This release (often referred to at "The Red Album") was certified by RIAA with a gold record award, the first for the group. It includes a cover of The Animals "Inside Looking Out" which is still - or was - a cornerstone of the band's live concerts today. Other key tracks include: "Got This Thing On The Move", "In Need", and "Paranoid" (not to be confused with the Black Sabbath song of the same name).

Rush - Fly by Night

Rush.  Fly by Night.  What a great album.  I went over my budget a couple of weeks ago at another of the Chicagoland Recollectors Shows.  They are quarterly or every other month.  And it is fun to walk about to the tables the vendors have out.  See: http://chicagorecordcollectors.com/  I think in the fall I will finally take the leap and get my own vendor table for the day there, it's $25 and if I have a pal or two join me - it would be a blast.  Back to this record - of course the title track might be Rush's best known song.  But the other songs are really quite good too.  I don't think Rush by this time - 1975 - or us, really knew that they would take on two levels of fans, cult-live devotees (I know a few), and just plain mainstream rock fans.  Here is what they say - Why try? Now why?  This feeling inside me says it's time I was gone.  Clear head, new life ahead.  Its time I was king and not just one more pawn.

Guitar solo.  Moon rise, thoughtful eyes.  Staring back at me from the window beside.  No fright or hindsight.  Leaving behind that empty feeling inside.  Chorus.  Start a new chapter.  I find what I'm after.  It's changing every day.  The change of a season.  Is enough of a reason.  To want to get away.  Quiet and pensive.  My thoughts apprehensive.  The hours drift away.  Leaving my homeland.  Playing a lone hand.  My life begins today.   ...yes it does.

Evelyn "Champagne" King

Evelyn "Champagne" King, on a yucky rainy day - how about the song called Shame?   "Shame" is the 1978 hit song.  It reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, number eight on the U.S. Disco Chart, and number seven on the U.S. R&B Chart, earning a Gold certification by the RIAA that same year. After a long struggle in the UK Singles Chart, "Shame" eventually made the top 40, peaking at number 39.  In 1994, R&B/hip-hop soul duo Zhané covered the song and hit #28 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the R&B chart.  The song is featured in the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the in-game radio station Fever 105.  On September 20, 2004, King's "Shame" became one of the first records to be inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York's Spirit club.

Chester and Lester - the greatests

Go ahead - take this one in.  Songs on this record are, It Had to be You, Avalon, Birth of the Blues, and Caravan.  I am in awe of being able to even own such a record.  Chester & Lester.  That would be Chet Atkins and Les Paul.  Just typing out the name Les Paul is chilling.  That would be Mr. Lester William Polsfuss.  His name is synonymous with, of course, the Gibson Les Paul model solid body electrtic guitar that has adorned the shoulder of Jimmy Page and so many others.  It was first made and sold in 1952, aurguably the birthdate of rock and roll.  The Les Paul was designed by Ted McCarty in collaboration with popular guitarist Les Paul, whom Gibson enlisted to endorse the new model. It is one of the most well-known electric guitar types in the world.  Les Paul's own guitar: until his death in August 2009, Les Paul himself played his personal model of Les Paul Guitar onstage, weekly, in New York city.  He preferred his 1972 Gibson "Recording" model guitar, with different electronics and a one-piece mahogany body, and as we read on Wiki - he was as an inveterate tinkerer and bona fide inventor, Paul modified heavily to his liking over the years.  A Bigsby-style vibrato was of late the most visible change although his guitars were formerly fitted with his "Les Paulverizer" effects.