Jr. Walker and the all stars

Jr. Walker and the all stars.  What an album cover.  I am sure that this kind of artwork never pass muster and make it out of the record company's legal department.  It's trademark lawyer's dream!  And you likely know much about Jr. Walker.  But I had forgotten this nugget:  He played that most awesome sax solo on Mick Jones' Foreigner track Urgent.  On the recording, apparently that "solo" was cobbled together in the studio from bits and pieces of earlier recorded tapes he had made previously with the band.  I got this record for fifty cents last weekend at a record collectors tradeshow.

Faces - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, 2012. Faces...

Faces - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, 2012.  In honour of their impending induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here is their double album.  This is A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse, the third album by Faces, and their second album of 1971. It was their most successful album, peaking at #6 in the US.  It has Stay with Me on it.  Apparently, the original issue of the album came with a poster inside consisting of a picture collage, including images of pills and pharmaceutical capsules, as well as photos apparently taken on tour of band and crew members reveling with naked groupies in hotel rooms.  Within weeks of release, the record company had second thoughts and re-issued the album without the poster, making original copies with the poster into collector's items.  I am pretty sure this album does NOT have the poster inside - but I will double check.  Here is what the RNR HOF website tells us.  Some say the Small Faces are on equal footing, or at least creative peers with the Beatles, the Who, and the Stones.  Reborn in the early seventies with a shorter name, under either moniker – they’ve made a lasting inspiration.  They were bassist Ronnie Lane, organist Ian “Mac” McLagan, drummer Kenney Jones, and singer Steve Marriott.  They made some high-powered singles and a couple classic albums, mostly written by Marriott and Lane.  Actually Rod himself was a bit of a late addition to the group, replacing Marriott.  I think Rod brought Ronnie Wood along with him.  They broke up in 1975 when Stewart went solo and Wood joined the Stones.  Lane passed away in 1997.

Taylor Dane - tell it to my what?

Taylor Dane.  Really...?  Yes, really.  OK, ok....so I bought this record last Sunday at the Chicagoland Vinyl Record Collectors Convention and Trade Show.  I got there late and many of vendors had vacated their tables.  I took it home and played it.  Once you get past Tell it to my Heart, there are a couple of decent songs on side one.  It is now my collection, and accessible, and I guarantee there will be an evening when someone comes across this album and screeches out - OMG, play this one!

Ray Parker, Jr. - Woman Out of Control (wiki down today - still posting!)

Ray Parker, Jr., Woman Out of Control.  Skooter and I wore this album out in college.  After living in the "big house" on Broadway with 11 pals, we scaled down into apartment living, 8 guys in two, 2-bedroom apartments on Willow Street.  We would have these "after set" parties after the bar closed and this was one of our go-to records.  It keep things lively.  And while we're at it - Ray Parker, Jr. is one of the most talented music-makers of all time.  Just as Michael Jackson was no Prince, and Lionel Richie was no Michael; Ray Parker, Jr. has at least as much pure musical talent at those I mentioned.  Other than the lame-ish Ghost Busters, his songs from that same era seemed to always get the short shrift.  For instance - on this (like his other albums) all songs were written and produced by Ray.  Plus - Ray Parker, Jr. is credited in the liner notes as playing "Drums, Bass (guitar), Guitar, Piano, Synthesizer, and Lead and Background Vocals."  He does invite a few others to help on on things like flute, congas, tambourine, "percussion," and assorted background vocals.

Van Halen - their best album: 5150

Van Halen - my favorite album.  5150 is also their best work.  The debate will rage on, David Lee Roth  or Sammy, but I look at the Van Halen canon in its entirety, and pound (cake) for pound, I think this was their musical peak.  I also really enjoy For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge.  5150 is both brash and melodic at the same time.  I read Sammy's autobiography over the summer and he pretty much ended up hating not only his time with VH, but also the brothers themselves.  But that's his side of the story.  I think this wa/is a case of them needing him more than he needed them.  Back to Fifty One Fifty, it is their 7th studio record, released in 1986 on Warner Bros.  Foreigner's Mick Jones was brought in to Produce it.  It was their first of 4 records with Sammy Hagar.  It was named after Eddie Van Halen's home studio, 5150, which is a California police term for a mentally disturbed person.  The 5150 name has been used several times by Van Halen.  It is the name of a custom red and white Frankenstein-striped Kramer Pacer Special electric guitar used by Eddie Van Halen throughout the '80s, and the model name of a signature guitar amplifier endorsed by Eddie for his own EVH brand.  The album shipped numero uno on Billboard - something no previous VH album had, but it's the collection of songs that make this a great album.

Joe Sample - The Hunter

Joe Sample - The Hunter...what do we know about Joe Sample?  Well, this for starters...be was a child prodigy, having begun playing the piano when he was five years old.  He was a student of the late great organ and piano extraordinaire Curtis Mayo. Since the early 1980's, he has enjoyed a successful solo career and has guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, and The Supremes. Sample incorporates jazz, gospel, blues, Latin, and classical forms into his music.  Perhaps he is best know for being a founding member of the Jazz Crusaders, later shortened to just The Crusaders.  The Crusaders are an American music group popular in the early 1970's and well known for their amalgamation of traditional jazz, pop, (funk) and soul sound.  Since 1961, more than forty albums have been credited to the group (some live and compilations), 19 of which were recorded under the name "The Jazz Crusaders" (1961–1970).  I have many Crusaders records - and when you type The Crusaders into youtube, the first video song clips that you see at the top of the list are the tune Street Life, from the album of same name.

Kansas - their eponymous debut album; about to carry on...a Great Album Cover

Kansas - their eponymous debut album.  Is this one of the all time great album covers?  I think so.  Here is why:  yes, we all know that the album cover depicts abolitionist John Brown in a scene from a painting titled, Tragic Prelude, which is a mural by Kansas native John Steuart Curry.  The original mural is painted on a wall at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. The album cover image is severely discolored and cropped to show less than half of the painting.  But what of John Brown.  John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States.  Brown led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding, Kansas, and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.  Later that year he was executed, but his speeches at the trial captured national attention.  Brown has been called one of "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans" and "America's first domestic terrorist."  Below is a screen shot of the entire painting.  On the album cover - the Kansas twister is cropped out.  Rethinking the album cover for the band, in retrospect, they should have made the album a gatefold (even with single disk) with the entire painting laid out.  Looking at the painting - it's even in the proper rectangular proportions.