Elton John - Here and There; a tremendous Single Live Album

Elton John - Here and There.  Elton's single (record) live album.  It's called Here and There because each side has five songs recorded at two separate concerts, at different venues - (there) New York's famed Madison Square Garden, and at (here) Royal Festival Hall in London.   Recorded at RFH are Skyline Pigeon  Border Song, Honky Cat, Love Song, and Crocodile Rock.   At MSG are/were: Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Rocket Man, Bennie and the Jets, and Take me to the Pilot.  It was produced by Gus Dudgeon.  I just read that this album was reissued on an expanded CD, which I will break down and buy.  Here is more on that: "For the 1995 CD reissue, original producer Gus Dudgeon remixed both shows and extended the song list for a two-CD set, almost fully restoring the play lists for both concerts. While "Take Me To The Pilot" and "Your Song" appear on both discs, Dudgeon said in the liner notes that this was intentional, since both versions of each song are very different from each other, and in his opinion merited inclusion. Digital editing software allowed Dudgeon and his editing and mastering team to, as he put it in the new CD's liner notes by John Tobler, "fix the occasional musical mistake." In the U.S. it was certified Gold on 5/6/1976 and Platinum on 8/25/1998 by the R.I.A.A.  The "There" disc also restores to the set list the tracks Elton and the band performed with special guest John Lennon, who made his last public concert appearance at the Madison Square Garden Thanksgiving night show.  The tracks were left off the original vinyl version, though "I Saw Her Standing There" was released as the b-side of the "Philadelphia Freedom" single, and all three songs were later released on a DJM-issued EP.  Pop-rock journalist Paul Gambaccini wrote the liner notes to the original LP, which were included in the booklet that came with the 1995 remastered edition."

Survivor - Premonition with Summer Nights, Chevy Nights, and Light of a Thousand Smiles

Survivor - Premonition.  This record contains a song that many would consider to be one of the quintessential rock songs of the eighties.   That song is called Summer Nights.  Click on this post's main title above for a link to hear that song.  Out in 1981, this album came out right before the smash Survivor had with Eye of the Tiger.  Not only is Summer Nights a fantastic song, but also check out Chevy Nights, Runaway Lights, and Take you on a Saturday.  But my favorite song on this killer album is called Light of a Thousand Smiles.  Jim Peterik wrote these and so many other great songs.  His main songwriting partner, according to the album cover is Frankie Sullivan.

Eric Clapton - Journeyman; final entry of his three great albums from the late eighties

Pound for pound, Eric Clapton's best one-record album.  As I have written here before, this record - the aptly named Journeyman (from 1989) - it is the last in what I refer to as his Late Eighties Rock Trilogy.  Those are some of my favorite albums of his.  To me - they give off a Spector-esque Wall of Sound.  Many think the three are just too clean sounding and slightly "over" produced, if that is possible, with not enough bluesy jagged edges.  Those albums are: Behind the Sun, August, and Journeyman.  Also known to me as his Phil Collins period (hence the horns), these are some of Eric's best efforts.  Most of what I write here is from what I recall from reading his superb autobiography.  In this period (1985 - 1989), Eric had fallen back into an earlier fascination of his and re-exploring his fondness for the "Tulsa Sound."  That initially rubbed off on him via his favorite bassist and "domino" Carl Raddle.  Which, on this album led him to one of the greatest unknown song-writers in history: the late Jerry Lynn Williams.  Eric invites many other greats to to take part in this album.  We hear Darryl Hall and Chaka Khan on background vocals.  And this might be the last album Eric and George Harrison play on together.  A personal favorite of mime is on trumpet - Jon Faddis; music director emeritus of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble.  Plus David Sanborn, Darryl Jones (rhymes with Stones), and a fabulous and unsung keyboardist named Richard Tee.  If you like this trilogy - then get 24 Nights (available, but very rare on vinyl).  There Eric commits many of the songs from this mid- to late-eighties trilogy period to live recorded music on an epic double live album of that name.

Dio - Holy Diver: Guest Post by this album's owner

Here is a Guest Post by my neighbor and fellow musicologist, Jim - who graciously donated this album to my collection.  The cover art is so great - as you can see, it is my Blog's new title backer shot.

"Holy Diver is Ronnie James Dio's first album as a solo artist, following his stints with Elf, Richie Blackmore's Rainbow, and as Ozzie Osbourne's replacement in Black Sabbath.  The album's most popular tracks are the title track and Rainbow In The Dark.  My favorite tracks are Holy Diver and Don't Talk To Strangers and are excellent representations of the awesome range of Dio's voice.  Rainbow In The Dark is likely Dio's most recognizable song among both fans and non-fans.  Ironically, Dio didn't particularly care as much for the song as his fans did.  But being the consummate professional he was, he would always include it in his set for his fans.  Other musicians on the album include Vinnie Appice on drums and Vivian Campbell on guitar.  Mr. Appice was also the drummer for the Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath and is the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice who played for Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart, Cactus, and his own band, among other ventures.  Holy Diver was responsible for introducing Mr. Campbell to the world, and Vivian subsequently played with the likes of Whitesnake, Def Leppard, and Thin Lizzy.  A couple of other interesting facts about Mr. Campbell: 1) his second-ever performance with Def Leppard was on stage at the Freddy Mercury Concert For Life (talk about pressure!), and 2) he plays on Lou Gramm's solo album Long Hard Look (I didn't realize this until now, I'll have to give that album a closer listen now)."  Thanks Jim - what a great Guest Post!

Scorpions - Blackout

The Scorpions - Blackout.  This might be the best side of any one rock album released in the first half of the eighties.   Five monster songs are on Side One: the title track Blackout, the utterly monsterful Can't Live Without You, followed by (There's) No One Like You, then You Give me All I Need, and finally - Now!  During the first half of the eighties - we had Pyromania.  And Bon Jovi's breakout debut album (my personal fav of theirs).  Yet Aerosmith put nothing out worth noting her during this period of time.  What am I missing from say 1980 - 1985?   It seems like the the early eighties (when I was in college), was the advent of the MTV era - and we had Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Thriller, Stevie Nicks' great solo albums, the Thompson Twins, the Fixx, Toto, blah blah blah.  But during these six years (80-85) who was putting out the hard stuff?  More on that later, but back to the Scropes.  What a completely unique band they were.  In 1979 they won Playboy magazine's award for Best artwork of the year for their Lovedrive album cover - which I don't own.  Rats.  I really need to get that one.  There is a great song on that album - called Loving You Sunday Morning.  And a huge thank-you here to my neighbor and fellow musicologist Jim for donating this record to my collection.

Paul McCartney - His Regards to Broad Street, and getting by with some friends

Does anyone remember this Paul McCartney record?  It has some new songs on it - and some old BEATLES songs on it - that were re-worked.  Plus his Wings smash hit - Silly Love Songs.  I faintly recall that is was a movie soundtrack album.  Paul is not afraid to call in some heavyweights to come play with him on this record.  David Gilmore, John Paul Jones, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, Uncle Ringo, Dave Edmunds, and Chris Spedding - to name a few.  Here is what I read about it: Give My Regards to Broad Street is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name.   This album was fairly  successful, garnering Sir Paul a #1 song on the UK charts for its lead single, "No More Lonely Nights" - which was also a Golden Globe award nominee.  It was produced by Sir George Martin, CBE.  Besides "No More Lonely Nights" (also heard in a dance version), the only previously-unheard tracks were "Not Such A Bad Boy", "No Values" and a symphonic extension of "Eleanor Rigby" entitled "Eleanor's Dream."   The scope of the album was so immense that when it saw release that October, its vinyl issue had specially edited versions of its songs. The cassette and the later CD edition preserved the tracks' full lengths, while the CD went one further by including a bonus 1940's-styled piece called "Goodnight Princess."

Elvis - A Canadian Tribune

This one is called Elvis - a Canadian Tribute.  I think it's the only record I own that is not on black vinyl.  Over on Linkedin - I moderate and group called Vinyl Record Collectors that has close to 400 members.  It's really a great group of fellow vinyl enthusiasts.  There we post comments and questions about collecting vinyl records.  Then, just for kicks - I joined a very specialized Linkedin group for people who collect Elvis Presley records on vinyl.  So that is why I am posted this record today.  That, and how cool the record itself looks!