Rufus and Chaka Khan...please, anyone - tell me something good

This is the 2nd record by Rufus and Chaka Khan.  I have a good half dozen of their albums.  Some of you have asked how I categorize my albums.  First off - they are in two areas of the basement.  I have 12-15 boxes of doubles that I hope to sell next month at the Chicagoland Record Collectors Show.  Approx. 50 in a box.  I have 30 crates out on display, ready to be played over in the rumpus room (fka my woodworking shop).  Two special crates right next to the turn-tables are chock full of what I call soul, R&B, and disco records.  Those records get some heavy rotation when friends come over.  They are within reach of the turntables for good reason.  My Rufus and Chaka Khan records are right there.  Rufus is a pioneering funk and jazz fusion band from Chicago.  This record has my favorite song they do - Tell Me Something Good.  I looked up this about how they go their start - In 1967, a band called The American Breed had a top ten hit with the classic rock single, "Bend Me, Shape Me".  After this success, members Kevin Murphy, Al Ciner and Lee Graziano were forced to create a new group after several members left the group. Recruiting Vern Pilder and Chuck Colbert from the bar band Circus, the group re-emerged in 1969 under the name Smoke. In 1970, female vocalist Paulette McWilliams and musician James Stella were added and the group's name changed again to Ask Rufus. Willie Weeks would replace Vern Pilder after the name change. In 1971, the band signed a contract with Epic Records recording an album that wasn't released. Weeks was replaced by Dennis Belfield. In early 1972, Epic dropped their contract. Former American Breed drummer Andre Fischer returned to his former band mates replacing Lee Graziano while McWilliams hired talented eighteen-year-old vocalist Chaka Khan (née Yvette Stevens) to replace her. James Stella was replaced by Ron Stockert. With that change, the group's name became Rufus, its music guided by Stockert, while Khan became the group's co-leading vocalist.

The Guess Who - with Burton Cummings

If you are going to have just one record by The Guess Who - this would be the album.  Go ahead and stack these guys up against any of the other great Canadian bands - don't laugh, they could be the best of that group. Or from any country, for that matter.  The Guess Who - a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba.  Winnipeg also is back in the NHL after a few decades.  How could Atlanta and Phoenix have NHL teams, and not Winnipeg?  The Cortwright brothers can explain that to me.  Oh well.  This band gained a strong following, in their native country and later broke out with far-reaching success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with some major hits like No Time. American Woman, These Eyes, and Share the Land.  Burton Cummings went on to solo success and of course Randy Bachman started some other band, the name escapes me But That's Only a joke.  Highly underrated - I will look and see if TGW are in the RNR HOF.  I bet they are not - but should be.

Bryan Ferry: Concert Review

We walked out midway though his final number Hold On (I'm Coming) from his The Bride Stripped Bare masterpiece solo album from 1978.  I enjoyed most the two songs he played from Flesh+Blood: Oh Yeah – the campy "we’re on a date coming home from a drive-in movie show" song.  And later, the layered and erie workings of My Only Love, the show’s best song. [Important Flash! This Just In. Woodstock Connection to Roxy Music! Alan Spenner played bass live at Woodstock in 1969 with Joe Cocker and the Grease band. Spenner is an on again/off again bass playing member of Roxy Music.]

Utter revelatory - was Chris Spedding.  I cannot overstate the quality of work of Chris Spedding added to the ensemble.  Born Peter Robinson, from Derbyshire (raised in Sheffield.  Aren't they all?  That city could have it’s own wing in Cleveland!,) this master session man’s versatility is his stock in trade.  As the commercial goes, “his core competency is competency.”  No wonder Bryan taps the guy for this lineup.

Try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ5R6YaWlk8  Also, our well-respected local Chicago rock critic Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune) in his review today gave absurdly low marks to Ferry’s “lackluster” first set – which I thought was superb. But Kot praised the elevated energy our ageless crooner gave after intermission. Kot gives us the set list: “The Main Thing” (Roxy Music). “I Put a Spell on You” (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins)/“Slave to Love.” “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues” (Bob Dylan). “Don’t Stop the Dance.” “If There is Something” (Roxy Music). “Make You Feel My Love” (Bob Dylan). “Casanova” (Roxy Music). “Boys and Girls.” “Oh Yeah” (Roxy Music). “Like a Hurricane” (Neil Young). Second set: “Tara” (Roxy Music), “Bitter Sweet” (Roxy Music), “You Can Dance.” “Reason or Rhyme,” “Avalon” (Roxy Music). “My Only Love” (Roxy Music). “Love is the Drug” (Roxy Music). “Editions of You” (Roxy Music). “Let's Stick Together” (Wilbert Harrison). Encore: 20 “Jealous Guy” (John Lennon). 21 “Hold On, I'm Comin” (Sam and Dave).

We caught most of the opening band’s set: The Phenonminal Handclap Band. Think Blondie meets the Jefferson Airplane in a dark alley in 2012.

For some fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvNuYqAdFXw&feature=relmfu

For those of us whom will forthwith Rock - AC/DC

Perhaps the most underrated of all hard rock bands, AC/DC delivers the necesary goods, albeit within a narrow spectrum, of all that is awesome about power rock and roll.  No ballads.  No horns or keyboards.  They appear in the classic 5-piece rock band configuration.  With Angus's brother Malcolm, aka the Human Metronome, on his worn out (busted?) yellowed, 1963 Gretsch double-cutaway Jet Firebird.  Cliff Williams uses the MusicMan Sting Ray bass.  Phil Rudd drums on a SONOR kit.  Above is the gatefold inside cover of AC/DC's album called For those About to Rock.  It has one of my favorite songs of theirs.  Another of their single entendre titles - Let's Get it Up.  The front cover of this album shows the bronzed Civil War era cannon.  Lucky to get to see this band when they come to Chicago almost each time the past 15 years.  But the years between their tours are getting longer.

For Those About to Rock We Salute You is their 8th (or 7th if you count international studio albums).  From 1981, it was their follow up to Back in Black, so they were behind the eight ball on that.  How do follow up an all-time great record?  But this one holds up and spawned a song that they always now close their shows with - the title track.  Rolling Stone magazine called it their best album.  Really?  Not in my book.  On this issue: my college pals mostly come down on the Bon Scott side of the Which Era was Better discussion, vs. the current Brian Johnson version.  Apparently - the album was inspired by a book Angus Young read, entitled For Those About to Die, We Salute You, about Roman gladiators.  The gladiators' final words to the emperor were "Ave Caesar morituri te salutant" – or, "Hail Caesar, we who are about to die, salute you".  The album was re-released in 2003 as part of the AC/DC remasters series.  This record was the 3rd and last of their produced by Mutt Lange.

Jerry Reed - Lord Mr. Ford

The late, great Jerry Reed.  They don't make 'em like this any more.  I have a couple of Jerry Reed albums.  For my money - he was one of the best pure pickers of all time - from any genre or era.  I also have tons of Roy Clark records.  This record is called Lord, Mr. Ford, from 1973. 
I also read that Elvis liked Reed's original version of Guitar Man so much, that he wanted to (and did) record it verbatim.  That was in 1967, where I read recently that Reed's song hit the country charts (#53) with his self-penned "Guitar Man."   Elvis also coveted Reed's next single "Tupelo Mississippi Flash," a comic tribute to Presley.  Recorded on September 1, the song became his first Top 20 hit, going to #15 on the chart. In a remarkable twist of fate, Elvis came to Nashville to record nine days later on September 10, 1967, and one of the songs he became especially excited about was "Guitar Man."  On wiki - I read that "Reed recalled how he got tracked down to play on the Elvis session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer).  He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut 'Guitar Man' all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.'  I (Reed) finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys (you're using in the studio) are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways."
Jerry Reed also played guitar on Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man."  Here is Lord, Mr. Ford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrzE8DL6mZQ

Volunteers; Dateline Paz - Jefferson Airplane - what the heck?

Volunteers.  Dateline Paz.  Right there on the front cover (above) it reads below the photo, "Jefferson Airplane.  Jefferson Airplane as they appeared at the exciting Paz Chin-In held this weekend in Paz South Dakota.  After this picture was snapped, the group donned jocular facial things and mingled with the crowd on hand, estimated by reliable sources at four billion."  And - Jefferson Airplane played at Woodstock!  

And below is arguably Maybe the best inside gate fold photo of an inside record cover.  This might be a rare record.  Let me know.

I also just found this out too:  This was the Plane's 6th album - and it was made in San Francisco using Wally Heider's then state-of-the-art 16 track studio.  Those playing on it as guest were Jerry Garcia, the great Nicky Hopkins, future Airplane drummer Joey Covington, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills.  It was one of the first-even albums made on a 16-track recording device.  Top photo shows a picture of the MM-1000 professional 16-track tape recorder by Ampex.   On his Live Bullet record, during Heavy Music - Bob Seger implores, "Alright people.  We got the 16-track tape machine rolling out back.  If you sing with me just a little bit - I won't guarantee it, but if you sing with me - you just might end up on an album."