Obsession (Jean-Luc Ponty) (LP 3602 - 2603)

Jean-Luc Ponty  A Taste For Passion (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1979) ****  

Gerry Rafferty  Can I Have My Money Back? (Vinyl, Passport Records, 1971) ****  

Genre: Jazz fusion, pop-rock 

Places I remember: M

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Beach Girl (Jean-Luc Ponty)

Gear costume: Sunset Drive (Jean-Luc Ponty)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: Here-to-which, I continue with my seventies' obsession, vinyl obsession and mild Jean-Luc Ponty/ Gerry Rafferty obsessions.

Has Jean-Luc ever made a poor album? If so, I've yet to hear it. The jazz rock moves on A Taste For Passion aren't as frenetic and experimental as his earlier albums so it gets into some lovely mid-paced grooves instead.

Gerry Rafferty's debut solo album was 1971's Can I Have My Money Back? The AllMusic review sums this album up well: This record harnesses the cosmic production presence prevalent in the latter discs of the decade, when Rafferty's commercial Renaissance arrived with City to City, but returns to earth with intrinsically fluid melodies, facile poetry, and folksy playing. Simply superlative, Can I Have My Money back is the first of too few full-lengths from a sporadic but splendid talent.

Where do they all belong? Always keen to pick up any Jean-Luc Ponty albums. So far, I've never been disappointed. Joe Egan was onboard for Rafferty's debut and the two would head off together to produce Stealer's Wheel and mega single success.