306. Eric Clapton - 461 Ocean Boulevard (1974)
















Track Listing

1. Motherless Children
2. Give Me Strength
3. Willie And The Hand Jive
4. Get Ready
5. I Shot The Sheriff
6. I Can't Hold Out
7. Please Be With Me
8. Let It Grow
9. Steady Rollin' Man
10. Mainline Florida

Review

Dear Reader,

I am writing this missive to you from the dark ages of the internetless world. British Telecom has fucked up, again. Meaning, I moved house but the internet connection didn't move... better still it moved, but to a dead line. They should really check that the line was dead before transferring their services to a new location. But hey, who am I to presume to teach costumer service to the great BT. I hope to have internet by Tuesday, and you'll get a raft of albums.

Let's get back to less bitter affairs. I have mixed feelings about this album, while I don't like Eric Clapton that much, even tough I enjoyed Derek and the Dominoes and Cream I must say that there are some tracks here which I quite like. But then I am irked by this album for a completely different set of reasons, and those are the fact that Clapton, who would make his famous racist remarks just a couple of years later in Birmingham, is making a whole album based on black music. It is a good thing, because the album is good, it is a good thing because he helped bring Bob Marley to the forefront with the big success that I Shot The Sheriff had... but it smacks of exploitation.

Still we can't really judge an album based on the opinions we have on the performer outside of his art... and the truth is that there are some very good track here. The big hit is I Shot the Sheriff, although you would probably be better off with the Marley version. Still, most of the other songs are really good and my particular highlights go the the beautiful and Please Be With MeLet It Grow. So I like this album, against my wanting. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Please Be With Me
2. Let It Grow
3. I Shot The Sheriff
4. Steady Rollin' Man

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

On later pressings of the album and the Polygram CD, "Give Me Strength" was pulled because a songwriter claimed she was the composer and had not been credited (Clapton was originally listed as composer). It was replaced with the track "Better Make It Through Today",(dropped from the re-release) which was recorded in September '74 and originally released on the "There's One In Every Crowd" album in April '75.

In 2004 a remastered two-disc "deluxe edition" of 461 Ocean Boulevard was released. The second disc included in the packaging features a live concert with various "jam" sessions. The first disc also has a few new added tracks, all live which were recorded at Hammersmith Concert Hall (formerly the Hammersmith Odeon).

The title of the album was the address of a house on Golden Beach in Miami, Clapton was living in at the time. The house is also the one featured on the cover. Clapton would later recommend the place for the Bee Gees. In 2003, the album was ranked number 409 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.


Let It Grow... another crappy static image video:

305. Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)

















Track Listing

1. Smile Please
2. Heaven Is Ten Zillion Light Years Away
3. Too Shy To Say
4. Boogie On Reggae Woman
5. Creepin'
6. You Haven't Done Nothin'
7. It Ain't No Use
8. They Won't Go When I Go
9. Bird Of Beauty
10. Please Don't Go

Review

After a couple of astonishing albums from Stevie Wonder we get another one. Unfortunately it isn't as good or cohesive as the two previous albums, this is not, however, to say that it is a bad album. Most of the tracks are really good, but it is quite hard to follow perfection in any meaningful way, and if you fall short of it it always smacks of disappointment.

This is however a really good album. The main problem here is the fact that it seems more a collection of very good songs than an album. The beauty of Talking Book and the anger of Innervisions made them two cohesive wholes, even if they had interludes of anger and beauty respectively. This album seems to mix the feel of the two previous albums in a less satisfactory way. But i am being too harsh here, because the songs themselves are great, it just isn't as perfect an album.

The songs here are mainly love songs, and they are good ones, there are a couple of political tracks here, plus a track amusing to Portuguese speakers where Stevie fails to speak Portuguese in Bird Of Beauty. Generally the songs have a certain gospely feel that makes them sound really life affirming and uplifting. So in the end it is a great album, but it isn't Innervisions of Talking Book. Get it at Amazon UK or US


Track Highlights

1. They Won't Go When I go
2. Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away
3. You Haven't Done Nothin'
4. Boogie On Reggae Woman

Final Grade

8/10


Trivia

Fulfillingess' First Finale won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal, Best Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, and Album of the Year in 1974. When Wonder took two years to record his follow-up album (Songs), this broke his consecutive Grammy streak and led to Paul Simon's famous quote thanking him for not releasing an album in 1975 (when he won the Album of the Year award for Still Crazy After All These Years).

You Haven't Done Nothing:

304. Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information (1974)
















Track Listing

1. Inspiration Information
2. Island Letter
3. Sparkle City
4. Aht Uh Mi Hed
5. Happy House
6. Rainy Day
7. XL-30
8. Pling!
9. Not Available

Review

Some albums are obscure due to a great injustice of history, some are obscure because they are shit. This album is a case of neither. It is a pretty good album, but it is not astonishing. Maybe this album has become so famous because it has been so strongly advocated by David Byrne, maybe it is due to the bonus tracks on the re-release, which include Strawberry Letter 23, which is truly a great track.

As it is however the album presents some interesting psychedelic funk, which manages to be three things at the same time; of its time, a throwback and visionary. Let's try to tackle this one by one. It is of its time because it sounds funky and like something in the area of Stevie Wonder, which could never have been put out any other time. It's a throwback because its psychedelic sounds were pretty much out of fashion by 74. It is also visionary because this would be the kind of music which would be used by samples by many a chill out DJ later on.

Peculiar as this is, the album doesn't blow me away. It is perfectly interesting to listen too, even pleasurable, but I have read such raves that I can't help but feel slightly disappointed. Still, worth listening to, so get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Aht Uh Mi Hed
2. Inspiration Information
3. XL-30
4. Happy House

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

He is the son of rhythm and blues musician, bandleader, and impresario Johnny Otis. One source gives his birth name as Johnny Otis Jr., but since his father used his own birth name of John Veliotes when he ran for the California Assembly in the 1960s, Shuggie's family name at birth was probably Veliotes. Shuggie Otis began performing professionally at the age of 12, often disguising himself with dark glasses and a false moustache so that he could play in nightclubs.

He released his first solo album in 1970. The Brothers Johnson's version of his composition "Strawberry Letter 23" reached #1 in the Billboard rhythm and blues chart and #5 in the Billboard pop chart in 1977. He has recorded with Frank Zappa(specifically, he is listed as "Shuggy Otis" for electric bass on "Peaches en Regalia" from Hot Rats), Al Kooper, Etta James, and Eddie Vinson, and more recently Mos Def. Shuggie's albums include: Here Comes Shuggie Otis, Freedom Flight and Inspiration Information. David Byrne recently re-released Inspiration Information, including some bonus tracks from "Freedom Flight", on his Luaka Bop record label. It the liner notes, the critic James Sullivan states that Shuggie was offered guitar duties in the Rolling Stones but declined.

Bonus track Strawberry Letter 23, with some guys skateboarding:

303. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974)

















Track Listing

Disc: 1:

1. Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2. Fly on a Windshield
3. Broadway Melody of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In the Cage
6. Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back in N.Y.C.
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting out Time
10. Carpet Crawlers
11. Chamber of 32 Doors

Disc: 2:

1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boat
7. Colony of Slippermen: The Arrival/A Visit to the Doktor/The Raven
8. Ravine
9. Light Dies Down on Broadway
10. Riding the Scree
11. In the Rapids
12. It

Review

This is probably the most ambitious concept album ever made. I wonder if it is a case of Peter Gabriel losing his mind or just being ready to leave Genesis and wanting to leave with a big bang of an album. The most surprising thing here is however that he album really works. I am as surprised as you are. This should never work, the length and story are too ambitious, it is practically impossible to understand what the album is all about and the music runs the gamut from AOR (It) to noise (Waiting Room).

That said the album also has some of the most beautiful melodies ever to be made in Progressive Rock, the Lamia for example is a big stand out. It just sounds lush and beautiful as do many other songs. I do however have some advice on how to listen to the album, firstly ignore the plot line, secondly just let it wash over you knowing that it will sink in eventually whether you want it too or not.

An interesting thing about the album is the fact that Brian Eno is also credited on it with Enossification, whatever that means. The truth is there is something of the Eno touch to it, however, although it is hard to pinpoint, but the use of noises and strangely alluring melodies probably has something to do with him. This is probably the most ambitious album that has ever worked as a masterpiece, and it is definitely the Genesis masterpiece. After this album Peter Gabriel would leave and Genesis would never be the same again. So we are saying goodbye to Genesis on the list today and there is not a better album to do this than the amazing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. So get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. The Lamia
2. The Light Lies Down On Broadway
3. Carpet Crawlers
4. The Chamber of 32 Doors

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album tells the surreal story of a half-Puerto Rican juvenile delinquent named Rael living in New York City, who is swept underground to face bizarre creatures and nightmarish dangers in order to rescue his brother John. Several of the story's occurrences and places were derived from Peter Gabriel's dreams, and the protagonist's name is a play on his surname. It should be noted that in an interview Phil Collins remarked, "It's about a schizophrenic." This would make the tale similar in some ways to the film "The Fisher King". Another interpretation comes from Gabriel himself who says it is about a "split personality". In this context, Rael would believe he is looking for John but is actually looking for a missing part of himself. The individual songs also make satirical allusions to everything from mythology to the sexual revolution to advertising and consumerism. The title track, as well as "The Carpet Crawlers" and "In the Cage", were still live favorites for the band into the 1990s.

Most of the music on the album was written by band members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford, without Gabriel's participation. Gabriel insisted on writing the story and all the lyrics himself, which caused friction, in particular because Rutherford had originally suggested another project for the band - an album based on Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince. Gabriel was absent from the album's writing and rehearsal sessions due to personal problems — his wife was having difficulties with her first pregnancy — which added to the strain. However, Banks and Rutherford wrote the words for "The Light Dies Down on Broadway", as Gabriel could not come up with a linking piece between "Ravine" and "Riding the Scree".

During the album's pre-production, Gabriel was contacted by filmmaker William Friedkin, (at the time enjoying great success with The Exorcist), about a possible film project, after Friedkin read Gabriel's short story on the sleeve of Genesis' 1973 live album. Despite his bandmates' disapproval, Gabriel left them to work on some early script drafts. However the project came to nothing (Friedkin instead working with Tangerine Dream to make his next film, Sorcerer), and Gabriel returned to the band.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway met with mixed reviews, and reached #10 in the UK, while nearly cracking the U.S. Top 40, reaching # 41 and eventually going gold. The band went on a world tour upon its release, performing the album in its entirety 102 times. The Lamb Tour was slated to begin on October 29, 1974; but due to an injury to Steve Hackett's hand, the tour was postponed until November 12, 1974; days prior to the album's release to the public. Opening night for the tour commenced at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois; November 20, 1974. The final show on The Lamb tour was May 27, 1975 at the Palais Des Sports in Besançon, France. Early into the tour, Gabriel decided he would be leaving Genesis, although he would finish the tour amicably with the band and not go public until August 1975. The album eventually would go Gold in the US in later years.

A digitally remastered version was released on CD in 1994 on Virgin in Europe and on Atlantic in the US and Canada. The remastered CD's booklet features the lyrics and story that came with the original vinyl although some of the inner sleeve artwork was not re-produced.

A SACD / DVD double disc set (including new 5.1 and Stereo mixes) is planned for release in late 2007/early 2008.

Ok look at this now, a version of Lamia on Youtube, some guy plays it on the guitar very well and some other guy murders it by singing it over the youtube video of the other guy... I think we should take this to infinty, I am thinking of using this video and adding myself with maracas:

302. Bad Company - Bad Company (1974)


















Track Listing

1. Can't Get Enough
2. Rock Steady
3. Ready For Love
4. Don't Let Me Down
5. Bad Company
6. Way I Choose
7. Movin' On
8. Seagull


Review

Well this album didn't fascinate me. It's a bit run of the mill rock, clearly influenced by the stuff coming out of California with the Eagles and such. And that is a style of music that I've never warmed up to. It seems to try to join rock, country and folk but only ends up diminishing all those musical styles.

There is not much to praise in the album, and the criticism aren't really that strong, in fact the main problem of the album is the fact that it is not very exciting. It comes off as country-blues-rock, but nothing in it is new, nothing that hasn't been tried before and sounds like middle of the road AOR. To make adult oriented rock, whatever that means, you are either very good or you come off sounding incredibly tacky. Fortunately Bad Company don't fall in the second category, it never sounds particularly tacky, it just sounds boring.

When you have them following the Dolls and Eno you really feel a slight disappointment with this album. It is perfectly listenable, just not very good. Still, if you are into this style of music it is definitely something to check out. Historically many musical movements that have started in the US were refined by the UK, this is true of pop-rock, of Punk and so on. But here it is clearly untrue, this UK participation doesn't bring anything new to the field. Still, you can get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Don't Let Me Down
2. Bad Company
3. Seagull
4. Can't Get Enough

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The 1974 début album Bad Company was an international hit, with the group considered one of the 1970s' first supergroups. Bad Company consisted of four seasoned musicians: two former members of Free, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke; former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs; and King Crimson's bassist Boz Burrell. The group was managed by Peter Grant who also managed Led Zeppelin at the time and would manage Bad Company until 1982. The album peaked at #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart (North America) and included two singles that reached the top 20 charts, "Can't Get Enough" at #9 in 1974 and "Movin' On" at #14 in early 1975.

Some guy Kayaking to the sound of Seagull:

301. Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (1974)















Track Listing

1. Needles In The Camel's Eye
2. Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch
3. Baby's On Fire
4. Cindy Tells Me
5. Driving Me Backwards
6. On Some Faraway Beach
7. Blank Frank
8. Dead Finks Don't Talk
9. Some Of Them Are Old
10. Here Come The Warm Jets

Review

Some of you might have noticed by now that I have a big love for all things Brian Eno. This is his first solo album, the third album that he participates in on the list, the other two being the Roxy Music albums. Mr. Eno makes an album of pop-music here, but very particular pop - if you like Roxy Music's early albums you will love this, Eno was always in a battle with Brian Ferry between the weird (Eno) and the beautiful (Ferry). Here Eno is able to indulge in all the weirdness that he always wanted and with that he creates one of the best albums of all times, and the first solo album of a pretty great career.

Eno is probably the person which is most represented throughout the list, from the production of Talking Heads and U2 albums to his myriad collaborations with David Bowie or David Byrne, to a very impressive solo career and the fact that he simply appears in everyone's albums. Here you actually see what makes him so special.

Even though this album is a triumph of the weird, the beautiful is not gone. Although the album is not immediately accessible you will uncover levels of a slightly deranged beauty. On Some Faraway Beach and the title track are great examples of this, the whole album is also pervaded by a constant deranged sense of humour that really works for me. And then it is a triumph of production work, there are so many little intricacies here that you can hear it hundreds of times without being fully aware of everything, not even what is being sung.

Eno's voice is not amazing, but it is so well used, he makes such good technical use of his voice by surrounding it with the right sounds that it just sounds perfect for his music. Pretty much a perfect album, you even have proper pop-single tracks like the first one and Baby's On Fire, both part of the soundtrack of Velvet Goldmine. So get this album today from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Here Come The Warm Jets
2. Needle In The Camel's Eye
3. Some Of Them Are Old
4. Baby's On Fire

And all other tracks.


Final Grade

10/10


Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album's musical styles range from aggressive garage rock ("Blank Frank") to serene Beach Boys-style reverie ("On Some Faraway Beach"). Eno enlisted a large number of guest musicians to play on the album, including three members of Roxy Music, guitarist Robert Fripp and bassist John Wetton of King Crimson and members of Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies. One of the most notable performances from these guests is the cacophonous three-minute-long guitar solo by Fripp on the song "Baby's On Fire".

"Warm jets" is used by Eno to describe the distorted guitar in the title track, which evokes the sound of a jet engine. Eno himself claims that he often chooses words for their sound.

The album provided Eno with modest success in the UK album charts, and would in fact be his only album to chart for the remainder of the 1970s apart from 1978's Music for Airports.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 436 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Some juggling with Baby's On Fire, unfortunately quite cut from its 5 minute length:

300. New York Dolls - New York Dolls (1973)















Track Highlights

1. Personality Crisis
2. Looking For A Kiss
3. Vietnamese Baby
4. Lonely Planet Boy
5. Frankenstein
6. Trash
7. Bad Girl
8. Subway Train
9. Pills
10. Private World
11. Jet Boy

Review

I am very proud to have The New York Dolls inaugurating the 300's number, because they will be representative of the world that is to come. If a band could be called punk beyond any doubt, more than The Monks, VU, MC5 or The Stooges it is most definitely the New York Dolls. Their stuff is just so close to what would come later with the Ramones, the Pistols and so on that it is truly impressive.

The Dolls were the new project of Warhol, who was a little weedy fucker who liked to build up people just to make them crash down when he lost interest. Yet, in the process he created VU and the Dolls and for that he deserves some respect. Malcolm McLaren, another little fucker would eventually steal the concept of the Dolls and make the Sex Pistols. Let's just keep in mind that the Dolls are a vastly superior band. Big shout out to my main man Todd Rundgren for the brilliant production work here as well, respec.

Actually the Dolls sound like everything even sometimes a bit like the Pixies, in Trash for example. Some of the tracks have more of a Gothic bent, like Frankenstein. But all of them are brilliant and the lyrics are really good. Some people at the time they came out were calling them the Stones in drag, but their sound owes a lot more to Detroit proto-rock and Do-Wop than might be thought. Of course the Stones were influential in anyone making heavy music at the time, but the Dolls are certainly not a rip-off. Get it form Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Frankenstein
2. Trash
3. Personality Crisis
4. Jet Boy

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album's hard rock sound is mixed with what were in retrospect influences of proto punk and girl group-pop. The New York Dolls had a reputation as wild troublemakers, and the slurred vocal style helped to reinforce this reputation. Lyrically intelligent, though, the album addresses controversial issues like the Vietnam War, mental health and other social issues of the time. New York Dolls is a pioneering recording in the history of punk rock, which would explode in popularity within a few years. It is also a pioneering recording in heavy metal because of the heavy riffs used in the album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 213 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was also #90 in Joe S. Harrington's Top 100 Albums

Trash:

299. The Isley Brothers - 3+3 (1973)



















Track Listing

1. That Lady
2. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
3. If You Were There
4. You Walk Your Way
5. Listen to the Music
6. What It Comes Down To
7. Sunshine (Go Away Today)
8. Summer Breeze
9. Highways of My Life

Review

This is a great album. It is one of the happiest, funnest and better crafted R&B albums of the 70's. It isn't Stevie Wonder, but it also has no pretentions to being Stevie. It is not political or deep in any special way. But it is supremely enjoyable music.

This album is all about the way it sounds, all tracks are beautiful and there are two particular highlights which are just perfect. That Lady has some great guitar to go with a brilliant tune and Summer Breeze is one of the most summery and enjoyable songs that we have had here in a long time. The Isley brothers modernise probably even better than The Temptations did, which is no mean feat and by adding three new members to their band they pull off something amazing.

Nothing could be more contrasting with the two albums which surround it on the list, but it is equally good as any of those two. We are going through a really good patch and the next two albums on the list are also pretty amazing. But honestly this was the discovery of the bunch, as I knew the other albums pretty well. The harmonies are beautiful, the guitars are Hendrix inspired but adding to a general summery feel which is light but exquisite. It is hard to find albums of light and happy music which are also masterpieces and this is a prime example. So get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Summer Breeze
2. That Lady
3. If You Were There
4. Sunshine (Go Away Today)

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Their first album for the label after several years in Buddah Records, it was also the first time the family group, which had consisted of founding members O'Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley, included six members instead of the standard three. Although they had performed on Isley Brothers albums since 1969's It's Our Thing, this was the first album where younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and in-law Chris Jasper were now known as Isley Brothers members starting a period where the brothers would only be part of the musical and production department. The success of the album is contributed to their first Top 10 pop record since "It's Your Thing", with their own cover of the self-penned "Who's That Lady", now re-titled "That Lady, Pt. 1 & 2". Other hit singles included the top five R&B single, "What It Comes Down To", and their cover of Seals & Crofts' folk hit, "Summer Breeze", which was also a top ten R&B single. The album became their first platinum album.

Sorry about the crappy video, but the sound is fine, Summer Breeze:

298. Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power (1973)

















Track Listing

1. Search And Destroy
2. Gimme Danger
3. Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell
4. Penetration
5. Raw Power
6. I Need Somebody
7. Shake Appeal
8. Death Trip

Review

Iggy gives a big middle finger to the music industry with this album, and what a great thing he does. It is hard to find an album as noisy as this in the whole of the 70's. A lot of the noise is just due to sloppy production, but this same sloppiness gives the album a lot of it's power.

The title of the album is really a perfect description of the contents. An album could hardly be more raw or more powerful than this collection of tracks. Actually it is noisier than anything that the Stooges had done before. It is not surprising his record company refused to release the album until David Bowie was called in to try and salvage it. David Bowie did the great job of basically doing very little, he was faithful to the vision of the album, although Iggy has gone back to clean up the songs for a new CD edition this was really unnecessary.

The album sounds rough, primal and raw, and for this it really cements Iggy's position as the grandfather of Punk. Actually this is messier than many Punk albums, it outpunks punk. The New York Dolls are actually much closer to the sound of Punk as it would be some 5 years later, but for raw undestilled anger you really can't beat this. And what a cool cover! Get it form Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Search And Destroy
2. Gimme Danger
3. Raw Power
4. Penetration

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Iggy Pop had been signed by MainMan Management, who handled David Bowie, as a solo artist, but Pop was hellbent on reforming the Stooges. Signed to Columbia Records, he was sent to London to write and record their album with his new collaborator, James Williamson. Pop insisted that his fellow ex-Stooges Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton participate in the recording sessions. Ron Asheton switched to bass (having played guitar on the first two Stooges album) while Williamson played all of the guitar parts.

Pop produced and mixed the album by himself. Mainman demanded that the album be remixed due to Pop's botched first attempt having mixed most of the instruments into one channel, and the vocals into the other, but Pop refused. When Mainman offered to let David Bowie attempt to rescue the album through a remix, Pop agreed—having been told by Mainman that the album would not be released otherwise—on the sole condition that his own mix for "Search And Destroy" be retained. Bowie reportedly remixed the other seven songs on the album in a single day in a cheap Los Angeles studio.

"Search and Destroy" and "Shake Appeal" were both pulled from the album and released as singles.

Iggy Pop said that the label insisted on two ballads for the record, one on side 1 and one on side 2. These two "ballads" are "Gimme Danger" and "I Need Somebody".

Such was the controversy over Bowie's mix that low-fidelity copies of Pop's original mixes circulated among fans for years. In 1995, a selection of these original mixes was released by Bomp Records as Rough Power. Fans and critics generally agreed that the original mixes were interesting, but not necessarily superior to Bowie's efforts.

Raw Power peaked at #182 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. In 2003, the album was ranked number 125 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Search And Destroy... the image is just the album cover:

297. Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Hello Hooray
2. Raped And Freezin'
3. Elected
4. Billion Dollar Babies
5. Unfinished Sweet
6. No More Mister Nice Guy
7. Generation Landslide
8. Sick Things
9. Mary Ann
10. I Love The Dead

Review

Alice Cooper, what a lovely man. Alice Cooper presents us with an interesting is not that good album here with Billion Dollar Babies. It is an American version of Glam which is really focusing in a gorier aspect of life. I have nothing against that per se and the best track in the whole album is I Love The Dead, a pretty disgusting necrophiliac lust song.

What I object to in Alice Cooper is the pedestrianity of the lyrics, the fact that what they are saying is shocking really doesn't cover for the fact that they are poorly written. The same already happened with Black Sabbath, but Sabbath had a sound which was much more distinctive than that of Alice Cooper.

Alice Cooper sounds like a mish-mash of Glam sounds, and that is what he is. He sounds a bit like Slade, a bit like Bowie even tries to sound a bit like Roxy Music by using some interesting effects on his music. He fails in all accounts, his music is never brilliant and his lyrics are always pedestrian. Some songs here are however worth the price of admission, see track highlights below for the ones you should download. So in the end it is not a wholly negative experience listening to the album, but it won't really get anywhere close to blowing your mind. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. I Love The Dead
2. Elected
3. Mary Ann
4. Unfinished sweet

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Billion Dollar Babies peaked at #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The single "Elected" peaked at #26 on the Pop Singles chart.

I actually remember seeing this clip when I was a kid, I must have been about 5 or 6... in the middle of the afternoon on Portuguese state television... those are the wonders of a country which had left a fascist regime 12 years earlier, freedom of the media is sometimes taken too far, so here's Alice Cooper with I Love The Dead:

296. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next (1973)

















Track Listing

1. Swampsnake
2. Gang Bang
3. Faith Healer
4. Giddy-Up-A-Ding-Dong
5. Next
6. Vambo Marble Eye
7. Last of the Teenage Idols

Review

Well there were many faces to the Glam phenomenon and perhaps of the least known is Alex Harvey. There is reason for this, but there is no reason for him to be less well known than Slade for example. Actually there is a certain mix here between the novelty-like songs of Slade and something better.

It isn't a bad album, but it also doesn't blow you away. The best song here is Next, which has been done better before both by Jacques Brel and Scott Walker. These are probably not fair comparisons, but still they are there. Harvey's version is by no means bad, and might actually beat the other two by the sheer theatricality of it and by the way he says "whorehouse" in a lovely Glaswegian accent... "Ur-hous".

Other than next there is another particularly good song here, Faith Healer, with a droning intro which makes up for the price of admission to the album. The other tracks run the gamut from the interesting to the noveltyish. Gang Bang, describing a woman who loves to be loved, by 27 men at the same time, is quite funny... but it is the kind of base humour of Slade and such. It is revealing that the smartest track in the bunch is the one which isn't an original. Worth listening to but not worth sticking in your mp3 player. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Next
2. The Faith Healer
3. Gang Bang
4. Vambo Marble Eye

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

To end on a happy note.. from Wikipedia:

On February 4, 1982 while waiting to take a ferry back to shore after performing his last concert with his new band, the Electric Cowboys, Harvey suffered a massive heart attack. In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, he suffered a second heart attack, this one fatal. It occurred on the day before his 47th birthday, in Zeebrugge, Belgium.

Next:

295. Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Band On The Run
2. Jet
3. Bluebird
4. Mrs Vanderbilt
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Mamunia
7. No Words
8. Picasso's Last Words
9. Picasso's Last Words (Drink To Me)
10. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five



Review

This is one of those album that if it wasn't for the fact that it has Paul McCartney written on the cover would never have made the list. Frankly it is a pile of shit. There are actually some things that this album has in common with my beloved Abbey Road, but while Paul had John and George to rein in his tackiness, nothing saves him here.

I don't understand how the myth of Paul McCartney as one of the greats in the Beatles ever arose. Frankly he is just a bit above Ringo in my consideration, and at least Ringo never inflicted the pain that Paul's solo career has inflicted on us. This album is a collection of loosely related pop tracks, that like many shit pop tracks manage to be catchy while still being crap. You know that feeling of having a song in your head that you hate but can't lose? That's what this album does to you.

I might be being a little too harsh on the album, there are a couple of songs that i don't mind. Mamunia is a good track for example, if only the lyrics weren't so fucking pedestrian. Paul and Linda were mugged in Nigeria while recording this album, a pity they weren't killed also, it would have saved us a lot of grief, vegetarian meals and Mull Of Kintyre. A lost opportunity for a better world. Fortunately he is not coming back to the list or my ears. Get it if you must at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Mamunia
2. Jet
3. Band On The Run
3. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five


Final Grade

4/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The cover of Band on the Run is also noteworthy. Shot on 28 October 1973, it depicts the now well-known shot of Paul, Linda, and Denny plus six other celebrities dressed as convicts caught in the spotlight of a prison searchlight. They are: Michael Parkinson (journalist and UK chat-show host), Kenny Lynch (singer, actor and comedian), James Coburn (Hollywood actor), Clement Freud (gourmet, raconteur, Member of Parliament, Just a Minute panellist and grandson of Sigmund), Christopher Lee (UK actor, best known for roles in horror films and as Saruman in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy) and John Conteh (Liverpool boxer who later became World Light-Heavyweight champion). The picture was taken against a garden wall in Osterley Park, Brentford. References to the cover were to be made later by McCartney himself (in the video for "Spies Like Us", along with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd) as well as others (such as the movie poster for the Dreamworks' animated film Madagascar, which depicts the main characters standing against a wall in a pose similar to the original "Band on the Run").

Even his fucking hair is annoying, Jet:

294. ZZ Top - Tres Hombres (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Waitin' For The Bus
2. Jesus Just Left Chicago
3. Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers
4. Master Of Sparks
5. Hot, Blue And Righteous
6. Move Me On Down The Line
7. Precious and Grace
8. La Grange
9. Sheik
10. Have You Heard?

Review

You might be thinking ZZ Top in 1973, isn't that a bit early? The truth is my friends, no, it is not early, this is actually their third album. It is also a very interesting stuff to listen too, particularly if you have nothing more than a passing interest in ZZ Top.

This phase of ZZ Top is very much a down and dirty Blues phase, not the electronic blues of later days of Sharp Dressed Man and Legs. This album sounds like what it is, an album done by a dirty Texas bar band who loves the blues. And that is a good thing. The best track here is definitely La Grange, while it can be argued that it is lifted form Johnny Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillin', the truth is that it stands up by itself so well that even if it is the same guitar riff I don't give a shit. It ends up being a different song and ZZ should have credited Hooker, sure. But let's not get hung up on that.

Unfortunately La Grange isn't representative of the whole album, the other songs are much more standard stuff, like a harder CCR but not as good unfortunately. If only all songs were like La Grange this would be a truly terrific album. This way it isn't bad, it is a collection of quite witty bluesy tracks, and it is heavy enough to actually sound like something some 10 years ahead of it's time. It does sound more like mid-80's rock than early 70's, even so it is good. You should get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. La Grange
2. Master Of Sparks
3. Jesus Just Left Chicago
4. Hot, Blue and Righteous

Final Grade

7/10

From Wikipedia:

"La Grange" is a song by the rock group ZZ Top from their album Tres Hombres, released in 1973. A one-chord blues, it is one of their most successful songs. It was released in 1973 and received extensive radio play, rising to #41 in the Billboard Pop Singles list in 1974. The song refers to a country brothel on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas (later notoriously known as the "Chicken Ranch"). This brothel is also the subject of the Broadway play and film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the latter starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds.

The initial groove of the song is based on the song "Shake Your Hips" by Slim Harpo, later covered by the Rolling Stones. The chords were also based on "Boogie Chillen" by John Lee Hooker and also has elements of other Hooker songs. This song itself was subsequently covered by Crazy Backwards Alphabet on their lone album.

In March 2005, Q magazine placed "La Grange" at number 92 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks

La Grange:

293. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Too High
2. Visions
3. Living For The City
4. Golden Lady
5. Higher Ground
6. Jesus Children Of America
7. All In Love Is Fair
8. Don't You Worry About A Thing
9. He's Misstra Know It All

Review

Well we've had a nice couple of albums the last couple of days. Although the styles are so different that it is impossible to compare them, I probably take even more pleasure listening to this album than Dark Side of The Moon. Innervisions is my favourite Stevie Wonder album, it might be tied with Talking Book, and while I think that Talking Book as my two favourite Stevie Wonder songs, Superstition and When I Fall In Love, Innervisions ends up being the better album.

Innervisions is a work of beauty at all levels, the music is exquisite, from the guitars to the synths and the amazing harmonica work, the message is also important, this is Wonder's most political and angriest album and that is a good thing. Wonder balances the political message with truly beautiful romantic pieces, however. There is really nothing to fault in this album, not one song is a dud or anywhere close to one. The songs which don't shine through so completely here like Visions would probably be highlights of any other artist, the album is just too perfect.

The suite Living For The City is the closest to a political R&B Prog-suite and it sounds perfect, form the voices that Stevie makes to the great use of ambient sounds and it's 7 minutes actually sound too short. If I have a problem with anything in this album it would be the intro to Don't You Worry About A Thing, which can get a bit annoying, but the song that follows it is such happy perfectly crafted pop that you bear with the intro more than happily.

This is one of those albums that is definitely in my top 10 of all time and it should be in your too. If I could give it more than 10 I would. So get it now at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Living For The City
2. Higher Ground
3. Don't You Worry About A Thing
4. Golden Lady

Final Grade

10/10 (Perfect!)

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was the third of five consecutive albums widely hailed as his "classic period", along with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life. Considered by many fans and colleagues to be his masterpiece, the nine tracks encompass a wide range of themes and issues: from drug references in "Too High" and "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing"; social anger in "Higher Ground" and "Living for the City"; to love in the ballads "All in Love is Fair" and "Golden Lady." The album's closer, "He's Misstra Know It All," is a scathing attack on then-US President Richard Nixon, similar to his song "You Haven't Done Nothin'".

The album was originally released on Motown's Tamla label on August 3, 1973. As with many of Stevie Wonder's albums the lyrics, composition and production are almost entirely his own work, with the synthesizer used prominently throughout the album.

Innervisions won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording in 1974, while "Living for the City" won the Grammy for Best R&B Song.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 23 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2001, VH1 named it the 31st greatest album of all time.

Living for the City, get the album version for the full 7 minutes of glorious music:

292. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)
















Track Listing

1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Great Gig In The Sky
6. Money
7. Us And Them
8. Any Colour You Like
9. Brain Damage
10. Eclipse

Review

This is probably one of the most famous albums in the world, and there is good reason for it. Many have called Dark Side Of The Moon an overrated album, they have said the same about Pet Sounds for example and while to some extent I agree that both these albums aren't as hierophantic as some seem to consider them they are still pretty much the crème de la crème of popular music in the time they were put out there. It is easy to dismiss some albums with 30 years of stuff based on them to look at. But in an historical sense they are essential. It's a bit like saying that the guy who invented the computer was crap because he was using perforated paper. Most of those naysayers are usually more informed by ignorance than actual legitimate grievances. Of course taste is subjective and I perfectly respect someone who hates this album for no apparent reason, it happens to me too. Now when you try to justify it through subjective reasoning, like "it's crap", that's not really going to stick or change anyone's ideas. I'd like to see some good reasoned discourse when trying to tear down well loved albums.

Now that I finished my rant about post-modernist appreciations of albums without taking history or context into account, lets get on with the review. Dark Side is a truly staggering album, I can safely say that it is the most successful that Prog ever was, not only in term of sales and popularity, but more importantly musically. Pink Floyd manage to marry the concept to music that is tailored so perfectly around it that it is astounding.

Another impressive thing about this album is the use of sound effects, and while we have seen these in music all the way back to Pet Sounds (again) or even in Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812, it was never used as effectively as here. Never as effective of as deliberately a part of the music and message. The sound effects not only add to the general mood and feel of the tracks, like the clocks in Time or the cash sounds in Money, but they go on at a much more complex level. The sounds actually add to the meaning and relevance of the songs. The interview technique is particularly important in this respect, the little snippets of conversation which populate the album with it's own inner life are perhaps more effective than any lyric. The fact that they are also not rehearsed makes them sound real and natural, which they indeed are, giving this whole different organic texture to the album. The addition of a female singer to the band again adds something.

If this was a double album it would probably be overextended, as it is it has the perfect length not to be tiring and the fact is we are still talking about it today. An essential addition to anyone's collection. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Time
2. Great Gig In The Sky
3. Money
4. Us And Them

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Snippets of dialogue between and over the top of the songs are also featured on the recording. Roger Waters devised a method of interviewing people, whereby questions were printed on flashcards in sequential order and the subject's responses were recorded uninterrupted. The questions related to central themes of the album such as madness, violence, and death. Participants were commandeered from around Abbey Road, placed in the darkened studio in front of a microphone, and told to answer the questions in the order which they were presented. This provoked some surprising responses to subsequent questions. For example, the question "When was the last time you were violent?" was immediately followed by "Were you in the right?"

Recordings of road manager Roger "The Hat" Manifold were the only ones obtained through a conventional sit-down interview because the band members could not find him at the time and his responses (including "give 'em a quick, short, sharp shock..." and "live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me...") had to be taped later when the flashcards had been lost. Another roadie, Chris Adamson, was on tour with Pink Floyd at the time and recorded his explicit diatribe that opens the album ("I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, over the edge for yonks...").

Pink Floyd's executive road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts) contributed the repeated laughter during "Brain Damage" and "Speak to Me." The monologue about "geezers" who were "cruisin' for a bruisin'" and the often-misheard "I never said I was frightened of dying" (during the middle of "The Great Gig in the Sky") came from Peter's wife, Myfanwy Watts.

The responses "And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying, there's no reason for it you've got to go some time" (during "The Great Gig in the Sky") and closing words "there is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact it's all dark" (over the "Eclipse" heartbeats) came from the Abbey Road Studios' Irish doorman at the time, Gerry Driscoll. Paul and Linda McCartney were also interviewed, but their answers were considered too cautious for inclusion. McCartney's bandmate Henry McCullough contributed the famous line "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time." (Apparently in answer to the question "Why does anyone do anything?", which immediately preceded it.)

Time from P.U.L.S.E.: