Brothers Johnson - inside cover

Brothers Johnson...and here is the inside cover of the Brothers Johnson album that I posted recently, right below.

The Brothers Johnson - Light Up the Night

The Brothers Johnson - Light Up the Night.  These guys are great.  Some of my favorite tunes.   Notwithstanding how superb this album cover is - they are talented musicians, singers, and songwriters.  If Quincy Jones is involved (and he is - as producer on most of their records), that's good enough for me.  This one is Light Up the Night is the fourth album by the Los Angeles, California-based duo Brothers Johnson, released in 1980. The album topped the U.S. R&B albums chart and reached number five on the pop albums chart. The single, "Stomp!", became a dance hit, reaching number one on both the R&B singles and disco charts and top ten on the pop singles chart.  Playing on this record are, among others:  

• Greg Phillinganes - Electric Piano, Piano, Synthesizer
• Steve Porcaro - Synthesizer
• Rod Temperton - Electric Piano and...
• Paulinho DaCosta - Percussion

Gary Lewis and the Playboys - This Diamond Ring with Carl Radle

My 2nd favorite bassist of all time played briefly with Gary Lewis and the Playboys.  I am referring to the great Tulsa Sound bass player, Carl Dean Radle.  Before joining Eric Clapton's finest backing group (per Eric himself), Radle recorded and toured with Gary Lewis & the Playboys for about a year. During that time he was on television shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig, Hullabaloo, and The Tonight Show.  Other Tulsan musicians Jimmy Karstein and Tommy Crook also were members of this group. During this time they had many top ten sings like "Everybody Loves a Clown" and "Count Me In."  Radle worked on 14 Gary Lewis albums!!  Wow - I did not know that... Other Tulsa-based musicians Jimmy Karstein and Tommy Crook also were members of this group.

Name This Record...

Name This Record.  Not much of a clue, but it's a DLA.  And, it was a free concert.

Head East - Gettin' Lucky, a regional band (700th post)

Head East - Gettin' Lucky.   Head East is in a unique category of bands.   A list that a band does not want to be on.  It is the list called "There First Album was their Best Album."  Flat as a Pancake was Head East's first, and it's a classic.  I bet you can think of a few other bands to add to this list.  I will start with the Big Three:  Boston, The Cars, and Molly Hatchet.  And more...?  Please use Comment function.   Now back to this record - called Gettin' Lucky, it was released in 1977 on A&M Records.  Along with Flat as a Pancake and Head East Live!, it is one of their most renowned releases.  The album peaked at #136 on Billboard's Pop Chart.  This album was re-released together with Head East on CD as a double-album.

Let it Bleed - first of the Mick Taylor era Stones Records...

Let it Bleed...an ancient copy of this classic.  I enjoyed reading Robert Greenfield's micro- study book, called Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones.  This record might be my favorite Stones album.  It is in my personal top three Stones Records, along with Exile and Some Girls.  And it could easily be in the top ten single record studio records of all time.  Let it Bleed is the first of a string of 4 Stones records in what I deem their best era.  Followed by Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, and It's Only Rock and Roll.  Not by accident - this is also the Mick Taylor period.  One this record, I love the jagged subtleties of the songs here.  My favorite of which is Monkey Man.  The song's introduction features distinctive vibraphone, bass and guitar, as well as piano. The song was recorded in April 1969, very likely at Olympic Studios.  Richards plays the main guitar riff as well as the slide guitar solo, Jagger provides vocals, producer Jimmy Miller plays tambourine, and my guy Nicky Hopkins plays piano, and Charlie Watts provides drums, while Bill Wyman plays vibraphone and bass.  This record temporarily knocked Abbey Road off the top spot in the rankings.  In his 2001 Stones bio, Stephen Davis said of the album "No rock record, before or since, has ever so completely captured the sense of palpable dread that hung over its era."  Indeed, the day after its December 5th release is the date of the infamous Altamont Free Concert.  The album was critically well-received.   In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Let It Bleed the 69th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 28 in its list of "The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever".  In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed Let It Bleed at number 24 on their best album survey.  In 1997 it was voted 27th greatest album by The Guardian.  In 2003, it was listed as number 32 on the "List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

Leon Russell - Life and Love, with a word about Roger Linn

Leon Russell...Life and Love.  Most of the best rock piano players say Leon Russell is the best rock piano player.  This record was produced by Roger Linn....an accomplished guitarist, songwriter and musical instrument designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals.  His innovations in music technology go back as far as 1979 with the release of the worlds first sampled drum machine, the LM-1, and subsequently the LinnDrumm and Linn 9000, lead to some defining moments in the music of that era. In 1988 Roger teamed up with Akai to create another classic instrument of it's time, the MPC 60, this sampler / sequencer / music production center and its offsprings almost totally ruled the world of Hip Hop and Rn'B sound for a long time, a tool that inspired new art.