Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band’s Hammersmith Odeon London ‘75 is simply one of the greatest (if not greatest) live albums ever. The energy is unbelievable, the pacing perfect. What I like most is that this album is far from a greatest-hits collection, and songs such as “The E Street Shuffle” are so transformed that they become new. Yeah, “Born To Run” is on here, but it’s long before it was ground into dust by FM radio, and it’s not the best song here anyway.
Gimme Back My Bullets represents something of a transitional album for Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd. Guitarist Ed King had departed, and Skynyrd pared down to the twin-guitar attack of Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. The songs on Bullet are shorter slabs of blues-country-rock with some fine moments beyond the title track.
Ronnie Van Zant was one of rock music’s great lyricists, able to put his good ‘ol boy stamp on everything, with smarts that went far beyond the street. And who else in rock at the time was singing songs about the environment? His “All I Can Do Is Write About” could be an Earth Day theme song. “Double Trouble” is a self-effacing look at Van Zant’s brushes with the law and others, while “Every Mother’s Son” is a warning to those who didn’t follow his advice in “Simple Man.”
The Washington, D.C., hard-rock quintet Angel took its fair share of abuse from the music press back in the day. It’s not hard to see why: Big hair and matching white outfits gave the band a beefcake image, while critics wanted bundt cake. Fans, however, didn’t care. I count myself as one and find myself going back often to BGO Records’ two-fer reissue of Angel’s first two albums, Angel and Helluva Band. The self-titled debut is a forgotten hard rock classic and features a set of brooding min-pomp-rock epics. Vocalist Frank Dimino sings his lungs out, and guitarist Punky Meadows lays down fiery licks around Greg Giuffria’s grandiose keyboard parts. Check out “Tower,” “Long Time” and “Mariner” to hear what all the hype was about.
I know many jazz purists cringe remembering trumpeter Miles Davis‘ journeys into the unknown on his late 1960s and early ’70s albums. That period of Davis’ career is my favorite, however, and there’s a lot to explore from this period on the six-CD box set, The Cellar Door Sessions 1970.
The collection captures Davis and band (Gary Bartz, saxophone; Keith Jarrett, keyboards; Michael Henderson, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums; Airto Moreira, percussion [discs 2-6]; and John McGlaughlin, guitar [discs 5-6]) during four nights at the Washington, D.C., Cellar Door club.
When it came to big hair in the 1970s, I don’t think anyone did it better than Journey guitarist Neal Schon. As Journey’s Next album cover demonstrates, Schon (back left) had height, width and depth – a 3-dimensional ‘doo that still stands up as one of the greatest Afros of the decade. Great hair and a great album, too.
“The King Crimson in 1973-74 was not a balanced group, or perhaps it was balanced in disarray. It was sometimes frightening and not a comfortable place to be. Increasingly it needed improvisation to stay alive. But that didn’t show much in studio albums. In concerts, it stepped sideways and jumped. This team looked into the darker spaces of the psyche and reported back on what it found. The 1969 Crimscapes were bleak and written, the 1973-74 Crimscapes were darker, and mainly improvised.” – Robert Fripp, The Great Deceiver Box Set.
For many progressive rock fans, the German band Nektar hit their grand slam with the 1973 concept album Remember The Future – essentially one song spread across two album sides. The band’s 1974 follow-up, Down To Earth, takes a wacked-out circus as its theme; Nektar tighten the song structures and create another prog-rock classic.
The vintage Nektar sound is all over: chiming guitar chords (“Show Me The Way”), lilting harmonies (“Early Morning Clown”), perfect melodies (“Little Boy”), in-your-face-bass (“Astral Man”) and a wonderful sense of play (“Nelly The Elephant” and “Fidgety Queen”). Look for the Eclectic Discs reissue, which includes six alternate versions of Down To Earth songs and outtakes.
Roy Buchanan was an enormously skilled guitarist who made his name primarily as a blues musician. The Prophet, however, reveals Buchanan as capable of playing across a wide range of styles, with gut-wrenching intensity and emotion. The sessions for Buchanan’s first album took place in late 1969. Charlie Daniels (yes, the “Devil Went Down To Georgia” Daniels) secured a recording contract for Buchanan with Polydor, and he plays and sings here on many tunes (several of which he wrote). If you think Daniels is all redneck boogie, just give this CD a listen. The Charlie Daniels of the late 1960s wrote music with psychedelic, heavy blues and countrified-rock stylings.
25 Great Moments in Rock Drumming – Day 17: Keith Moon, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” from Who’s Next by The Who
Keith Moon’s drumming is best described as “barely controlled mania.” Moon is probably the most democratic of drummers, playing all over the kit as if afraid to leave any drum or cymbal out. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is Moon at his best, playing like a storm, full of thunder and lightning.
Portugal’s Forgotten Suns, after a game of musical chairs to determine their current line-up, have returned to fans of inventive prog-metal with their third release, Innergy. The record’s loose concept deals with questions of the definition of “life” – whether that relates to the actual physical state of living versus dying, or as it relates to the quality of life. The lyrics are written by band leader/guitarist Ricardo Falcao and sung by new vocalist Nio. Falcao’s main musical foil, keyboardist Miguel Valadares, returns to the fold and they’re joined by the spectacular rhythm section of drummer J.C. Samora and bassist Nuno Correla. Despite the chaotic journey the band experienced prior to its release, Innergy is easily one of the best recordings the prog-metal scene has heard in recent years.
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