So in to you (Atlanta Rhythm Section) (LP 733 - 736)

Atlanta Rhythm Section  Red Tape (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ***

Atlanta Rhythm Section  A Rock and Roll Alternative (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ****

Atlanta Rhythm Section  Champagne Jam (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1978) ****

Atlanta Rhythm Section  The Boys From Doraville (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1980) **

Genre: Southern Rock

Places I remember: These have come from Spellbound Wax Company, Real Groovy Records and Vinyl Countdown over the last few months as I embarked on a catch up of the back catalogue.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Another Man's Woman (Red Tape) - stretches out nicely!

Gear costume:  Champagne Jam, Outside Woman Blues (Rock and Roll Alternative)

Active compensatory factors: These boys are not the best looking southern rockers out there (I'm not sure who is but it ain't ARS) but they sure play purrty.

Red Tape is quite a rocky set and the band is blessed with the vocal ability of Ronnie Hammond - he appears on all four albums, as he lifts them out of the run of the mill. Rock and Roll Alternative hones the sound into a slicker operation - still nice variety throughout with pop, rock, country rock all getting a look in. And the mellow ballad - So In To You was a big hit.

Champagne Jam was the big seller on the back of two hits - Imaginary Lover and I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight. By the eighties album The Boys From Doraville Robert Nix had said adios amigos and punk rock diverted attention from these good ole southern rock boys. It sounds like ARS but the thrill had gone. 

Aside from Ronnie Hammond's distinctive vocals, the other aspect that produced a successful formula was the songwriting team of drummer Robert Nix (lyrics) and keyboardist Dean Daughtry (producer Buddy Buie gets a credit on nearly every song but who knows what his creative impact is). 

They could certainly write some great hits - Sky High (with Hammond), So In To You, I'm Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight, and Imaginary Lover were high water marks on these albums.

Where do they all belong? They join Are You Ready? - the excellent live double they released in 1979 in the southern rock section.

Feeling pretty good (Farmyard) (LP 732)

Farmyard  Back to Fronting (Vinyl, Polydor originally - reissue on Wah Wah Records, 1972) ***

Genre: NZ pop/rock 

Places I remember: JB Hi Fi (Palmerston North). I have to admit I was affected by the special sticker applied to this reissue that indicates it is limited to a repress of 500 copies. Original copies will cost you something between 200 and 400 dollars so I'll stick with this version thanks - it's not THAT good.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Too Much Wrong

Gear costume: All In Your Mind

Active compensatory factors: I don't remember Farmyard back in 1971/1972 when I was certainly a very active record buyer/listener. Mainly I guess because without a hit they flew under the radar, in that the limited outlets on NZ radio at that time weren't playing anything by them.

As they were perceived to be working the prog rock side of the road that's kinda understandable. Listening to it now I'd say it was probably more folk and country rock than anything, but whatever it was, it was clearly not pop. So - no radio. 

For the most part, these boys from Wellington have a bright and breezy sound - the flute and guitar on the Side 2 tracks Fantasia/New Road certainly create pleasant pastoral sounds - complete with seagulls and waves on a beach. Lovely.

Overall they remind me of Magna Carta - who also stray into folk/country/prog sideroads. Very rewarding!

Where do they all belong? NZ Music is world class. Do try it!

Hard hearted Alice (Alice Cooper) (LP 730 - 731)

Alice Cooper  Muscle Of Love (Vinyl, Warner Bros. Records, 1973) *** 

Alice Cooper  Detroit Stories (Vinyl, Edel Music, 2021) *** 

Genre: Pop/rock 

Places I remember: Muscle Of Love is from Real Groovy Records, Detroit Stories from Vinyl Countdown.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Teenage Lament'74.

Gear costume: Hard Hearted Alice, Rock & Roll, Muscle Of Love

Active compensatory factors: Back in 1973 a friend had a copy of Muscle Of Love (at that point I only had Billion Dollar Babies and the School's Out single). I borrowed it - loved the packaging and the title track, plus Teenage Lament '74 and Hard Hearted Alice, but wasn't motivated to buy it myself. Weird.

I think it's because the other songs sounded so different to Billion Dollar Babies, which I really loved. Now I know that this last album by the original Alice Cooper band was an attempt to go back to a sound they had before School's Out, and I appreciate it a lot more in my (haha) mature years.

Luckily, I recently obtained a near mint copy from Real Groovy with all the original packaging. BTW - this brings to an end the lavish packaging that began with School's Out (a school desk) and Billion Dollar Babies (a bill fold wallet). Both of which I still have in my collection. You can take the boy out of 1973 but you can't take 1973 out of the boy.

Detroit Stories was released this year! I don't own any Alice Cooper solo albums apart from this, and I was drawn to it by the inclusion of former Alice Cooper band members on a few tracks.

It's a good album, not great, and not as good as those early seventies albums, but still worth owning. His take on Lou Reed's Rock & Roll is a high point.

Where do they all belong? And that's it for Alice. I have now written about all of the Alice Cooper albums I own from 1969 to 1973 (there and here). I don't feel particularly driven to collect any of the twenty albums he released from 1975 to 2017 but you never know - I may be tempted - maybe Welcome To My Nightmare and Goes To Hell if I see them going for a bargain price in these inflated price for vinyl times we currently live in.

This is it (Freddie Hubbard) (LP 729)

Freddie Hubbard  Ride Like The Wind (Vinyl, Elektra Records, 1982) *** 

Genre: Modern jazz 

Places I remember: I bought this at Marbecks for my dad and when he passed away in 2009 I inherited his record collection.  I always remove price stickers from covers when I buy a record or a CD but he didn't bother - $10.99 apparently for this one - it's still there on the cover. Records were cheap back in 1982!

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Birdland 

Gear costume: Ride Like The Wind

Active compensatory factors: At the time, I liked this version of Christopher Cross' Ride Like The Wind and I thought dad would like this horn driven modern jazz album too. So I bought it for him.

At the time, I'm not sure if he did like it or not but now that I look back on it, I'm not sure he would have. His collection was heavily piano jazz and swing oriented. So a trumpeter may not have been his cup of tea.

It's not really mine either. I have a few Miles Davis records but those are mostly with a famous sax player joining him at the session. Jacky hates the shrill trumpet sounds so I don't ever have much opportunity to play trumpeters, no matter how seminal they are. 

Where do they all belong? Once I clean it up a bit, it goes back into the modern jazz section. Although it plays well, for some bizarre reason side 2 has a coating of something on it which I've only just noticed. Dad was fastidious with his records, and so am I, so I have no idea what happened to this one. Maybe he did play it a lot after all.

Here comes the morning (George Shearing) (LP 728)

George Shearing  Shearing Today! (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1968) *** 

Genre: Piano jazz 

Places I remember: My father's record collection natch.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: By The Time I Get To Phoenix

Gear costume: I Say A Little Prayer, Morse Code

Active compensatory factors: Okay, I confess - I spent a lot of time staring at, and fantasising about the girl on the cover.

The music was okay too. I can remember listening to By The Time I Get To Phoenix a lot as a 11 or 12 year old. But then I became a teenager and this music was clearly marked 'My father's music' in my head. Teenagers can be terrible musical snobs.

I became a Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher fan - i.e. rock guitars ruled! I was also a Lennon obsessive (I remember many arguments at school about how John was so clearly superior to Macca).

Anyway - fast forward 50 odd years and this one finally gets another play.

It's still not really to my taste but on a slow wet Friday morning during my holiday break from school, it sounds alright. There is something timeless about the Webb and Bacharach melodies.

Most definitely of its time, however. If there is anyone out there doing easy going jazz piano takes on 2021's favourite songs I'd be mightily surprised.

Where do they all belong? Well there's no way I'm ever going to get rid of this album is there; memories of my mum and dad are preserved within its sturdy grooves and there's always that cover!

Maiden voyage (Blood Sweat and Tears) (LP 725 - 727)

Blood Sweat and Tears  New Blood (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1972) ****

Blood Sweat and Tears  No Sweat (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1973) ** 

Blood Sweat and Tears  Mirror Image (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1974) ***

Genre: Jazz rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, Slow Boat Records, Chaldon Books and Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Snow Queen (New Blood)

Gear costume: Over The Hill (New Blood), Inner Crisis (No Sweat)

Active compensatory factors: These three albums are grouped together as they were the three records produced after their lead vocalist David Clayton-Thomas left and then rejoined the band.

He was replaced by Jerry Fisher. Consequently that and a number of other personnel changes initially meant the accent went on the music rather than vocals. The band takes the opportunity to move into more jazz rock (a.k.a. jazz fusion) areas on New Blood.

New Blood is a spirited set - tight playing, tight song structures, great swinging horns! Lou Marini Jnr (who went on to the Blues Brothers) joins the band.

No Sweat sees another future Blues Brother Tom Malone on the album but it's a weaker album for me as the jazz rock quotient tilts towards more pop oriented stuff without making up it's mind what it wants to be.  

Mirror Image completes the trilogy and the move pop-wards. This version of BS&T has more changes in group members and is produced by Motown vet Henry Cosby. He adds a funky gloss to the production that feels very different to their back catalogue. Once you get used to the idea of a funkier/popier BS&T the album becomes a lot easier to like.

 
Where do they all belong? Next up is the return of David Clayton-Thomas in a bid to recapture past glories.

Hot house (Charlie Parker) (LP 723 - 724)

Charlie Parker  Volume IV (vinyl, Everest Records, Live in 1951) ** 

Charlie Parker  Jazz At Massey Hall (vinyl, Waxtime in colour, Live in 1953, released 2018) ****

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: Little Red Bookstore (Hastings); MyMusic (Taupo)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: A Night In Tunisia (Jazz at Massey Hall)

Gear costume: Moose The Mooche (Volume IV) 

Active compensatory factors: My Charlie Parker collection consists of these two albums plus three compilations - Encore which cherry picks the Savoy sessions, the soundtrack to Bird and The Very Best of Bird (a double album).

Both of those featured above are live albums. With recording technology being what it was in the early 1950s, you have to accept that they won't necessarily be crisp clean recordings. 

That said, Bird is on fire amidst the audience noise on Volume IV. Here, he's live in New York City with piano, guitar, bass and drum accompaniment. Even a poorly recorded archive document can't dim his particular fire.

Jazz At Massey Hall is another thing altogether as it was a hugely prestigious gig. He's joined by jazz superstars Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Wowsers!!

It also sounds wonderful in both sound quality and playing (some of the bass and drums were overdubbed later). These guys just groove! And stretch out - a lot of these songs are around the 7 or 8 minute mark.

Where do they all belong? The Encore set on Savoy remains my personal favourite. I heard it and bought it while working at Marbecks back in the late seventies. It is a great great compilation; hot and sweaty and Charlie sounds like he's beamed down from another planet.

A place in the sun (Four Tops) (LP 719 - 722)

Four Tops  Yesterday's Dreams (Vinyl, Tamla Motown Records, 1968) ** 

Four Tops  Changing Times (Vinyl, Tamla Motown Records, 1970) ***

The Supremes and The Four Tops  The Return Of The Magnificent Seven (Vinyl, Tamla Motown Records, 1971) *** 

The Four Tops  Nature Planned It (Vinyl, Tamla Motown Records, 1972) *** 

Genre: Soul 

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records, Flashback Records, Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I'm In A Different World (Yesterday's Dreams)

Gear costume: Hey Man/ We Got To get You A Woman (Nature Planned It)

Active compensatory factors: These albums are all later period Tamla Motown efforts. Without the genius trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland the hits dried up and the boys were searching for direction.

Which explains why they were drawn to tackling material like Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (on Changing Times), but even then, Levi Stubbs and the boys overcome any trepidation you might feel. Still...

By The Time I Get To Phoenix (on Yesterday's Dreams) is another popular song that is pretty much indelibly linked to Glenn Campbell (and Isaac Hayes) but the Four Tops sing it so well you forget those other versions. That's pretty remarkable.

To my mind, the Tamla Motown organisation (The Sound Of Young America) didn't always do right by these guys - shoddy covers (Return of the Magnificent Seven is particularly embarrassing), sloppy cover notes (they can't seem to make up their mind if it's Four Tops or The Four Tops), and material that seemed to be inclined towards populism and the schmaltzy end of the market (Daydream Believer, Once Upon A Time and The Sweetheart Tree on Yesterday's Dreams are examples) rather than quality and gritty street cred material that starts surfacing in the early seventies (which ABC eventually cashed in on).

To summarise these four as albums: Yesterday's Dreams is uneven in quality - some greatness on side one along with A Place In The Sun ending side 2 and some filler on side 2; Changing Times is a much more cohesive album, sound and concept wise and although the social activism stance at Tamla Motown is quaint, forced, worthy, embarrassing depending on your point of view, you can never question the motives of the Four Tops; Return of the Magnificent Seven is, like The Magnificent Seven, a collaboration with post Diana Ross Supremes that works well and the production values are set to high; Nature Planned It sees them in a holding pattern for the most part.

Where do they all belong? The higher quality ABC years' albums have already appeared on Goo Goo (just do a search if you're keen to read them). One to come - from the Casablanca eighties years. Eighties. Casablanca. Be afraid.

Tickets to water falls (Jack Bruce) (LP 717 - 718)

Jack Bruce  Songs For A Tailor (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1969) *****

Jack Bruce  Things We Like (CD, Polydor Records, 1970) *****

Genre: Blues rock 

Places I remember: Flashback Records (Essex Road, Islington) and FOPP (Covent Garden)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Theme From An Imaginary Western (Songs For A Tailor)

Gear costume: Never Tell Your Mother She's Out Of Tune (Songs..), Over The Cliff (Things...)

Active compensatory factors: Songs For A Tailor was the second solo album that recorded by Jack Bruce, though he did not release his first solo album, Things We Like, for another year (which is why I've bracketed them together for this post).

The two albums are chalk and cheese. Things We Like (featuring John McLaughlin and Dick Heckstall-Smith) is a firey blast of instrumental jazz rock fusion and Songs For A Tailor is more blues rock in style (albeit in an off kilter way) featuring Jack's brilliant vocals. Both are master classes in each form.

Dick and Jon Hiseman on drums appear on both albums and are both unbelievably great foils for Jack.

The other name I should celebrate here is Pete Brown's. His lyrics are a constant source of smiles, bemusement, frowns, and nods.

Where do they all belong? As I've turned into a Jack Bruce completist, there is a stack of Jack to come on both CD and record in this genre.

Wang dang doodle (Howlin' Wolf) (LP 716)

Howlin' Wolf  Howlin' Wolf (a.k.a. The Rocking Chair Album) (Vinyl, Chess Records, 1962) *****

Genre: Blues 

Places I remember: FOPP (Covent Garden)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Wang Dang Doodle

Gear costume: The Red Rooster 

Active compensatory factors: This is ferocious and still as potent as when it was recorded back in 1960-1962. Timeless. Peerless.

Chester Burnett (a.k.a. Howlin' Wolf) released 12 singles back in the early sixties and Chess did the world a huge favour by collecting them onto this album.

The first time I heard Wang Dang Doodle I was transfixed. Scared out of my brain and transfixed.

As the musician and critic Cub Koda has noted, "no one could match Howlin' Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits". Spot on!

Where do they all belong? A blues titan. Every collection needs some Howlin' Wolf.

The true one (Gene Clark) (LP 715)

Gene Clark  No Other (Vinyl, 4AD Records, 1974) ***** 

Genre: Country rock 

Places I remember: JB Hi-Fi (Palmerston North)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Silver Raven 

Gear costume: Life's Greatest Fool, Strength Of Strings, Some Misunderstanding

Active compensatory factors: This one's a classic, albeit an eccentric one (the retro cover and Gene's glam get up is eccentric to say the least). 

Gene Clark had nothing to prove in 1974. His contribution to The Byrds was immense and his solo career was interesting and varied, without being hugely commercially successful.

So, by 1974  and No Other, he was able to fuse disparate elements like country rock, folk, gospel, soul and choral music with poetic, mystical lyrics to huge effect.

There is an otherworldly sheen to the album that makes repeat listens continually rewarding. Really I could have put any of the tracks in the highlight section above - they are all extraordinary.

BTW: Interestingly, I hear Mike Nesmith in some of these tracks. They have a similar vocal delivery at times.

Where do they all belong? A one off classic. Some Dillard and Clark is yet to come in the country rock section.

Three sheets to the wind (Johnny Bond) (LP 714)

Johnny Bond   Hot Rod Lincoln and Three Sheets In The Wind and other new favorites of Johnny Bond (Vinyl, Starday Records, 1964) ****

Genre: Country 

Places I remember: Real Groovy's $10 bins

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Hot Rod Lincoln

Gear costume: Hot Rod Surfin Hootlebeatnannie (Johnny Cash and The Beach Boys get namechecks) , I Like That Kind, Sadie Was A Lady (I feel that Macca studied this one - Rocky Raccoon is exhibit A) 

Active compensatory factors: I was drawn to this because of Hot Rod Lincoln, obviously, and hoping that some other pearls would be contained within.

Jackpot! This is great! Real country. His authentic country presence (he was the son of an Oklahoma rancher), twangy guitar and voice is superb. 

The lyric content - girls, hot rods, surfin', drinking, murder ballads, is all perfectly in place and current for 1964!

Where do they all belong? This mint copy is a great addition to my small country collection on vinyl.