Rob Grant Lost at Sea (Vinyl, Decca Records, 2023) ***
Grin All Out (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1972) ***
Michael Nesmith Pretty Much your Standard Ranch Stash (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1973) *****
The Beatles Live on Air (8CD, Bootleg, 2023) *
The Partridge Family Crossword Puzzle (Vinyl, Bell Records, 1973) ***
Genre: NZ music, pop, rock, ambient piano, country rock, Beatle pop, bubblegum pop.
Places I remember: Music fair in Waipukarau (Chapta and Nesmith); JB Hi Fi (Grant), Tron Records (Grin and The Partridge Family)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Some of Shelly's Blues (Nesmith)
Gear costume: One Day at a Time (The Partridge Family)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Some of Shelly's Blues (Nesmith)
Gear costume: One Day at a Time (The Partridge Family)
Active compensatory factors: These albums come from a recent visit to Hamilton and a record fair which had returned to my local Central Hawke's Bay town. I was pleased to grab a couple of records for under $50, which is pretty reasonable these days.
South Island's Chapta were a presence in the early seventies in NZ. Say A Prayer was the high point from the Loxene Golden Disc of 1971.
Highlights on the album are the Procol Harum sounding I Can See You/Open Door, thanks to the organ by Ledlie Cleland and the soft rock You and I.
Rob Grant is Lana Del Rey's dad and so I took a punt after reading the Pitchfork review while browsing in JB. It only cost $10 so I'm happy I shelled out. The two tracks featuring Lana's vocals are the obvious highlights, but Rob's ambient languid style on the piano instrumentals are good moody pieces. Not bad for an old salt.
That's two down, both with crappy covers. Make that three with Grin's All Out. What's that about? Don't these people want to sell records?
Grin's All Out was the band's third album. The band was centred around Nils Lofgren on guitar, plus he composed all the songs. I always had Grin down as a hard rock band but in fact Nils' predilection is more for melodic pop/rock. That said, the Crazy Horse sound is also a marker at times (Don't You Belong is a good example), and Kathi McDonald's bluesy and at times soulful vocals are a highlight on She Ain't Right.
Michael Nesmith (no longer Mike of The Monkees) breaks the run of poor covers with this iconic portrait and the message beside the twice shy wink, 'Buy this record'. Red Rhodes is again onboard for a stellar set of songs. These include an old Monkees' obscurity - Some of Shelly's Blues. The rest of the songs are in the same brilliant league as that, with the Nez' warm country flavoured vocals making this a classic album.
The Beatles Live on Air is not to be confused with the BBC sets and is for hard core collectors only. It's a bootleg (unauthorised) collection of mostly Let It Be sessions that have appeared on various bootlegs over the years. The 8 CD set also includes snippets of Beatle interviews, the Esher demos for The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album) which are better heard on the box set reissue of that album, and a badly recorded Fabs' live show (top heavy on the bass).
Although there are duplications throughout the CDs, the good news, yes there is some, is that the LIB sessions sound good and they can replace the Beatles' bootlegs I lost in a house move a few years ago.
The Partridge Family's seventh album, Crossword Puzzle, is another classy affair that utilises the cream of LA's session musicians such as Hal Blaine (drums), Larry Carlton (guitar), Joe Osborne (bass), and Larry Knechtel (keyboards). Those guys are great with David Cassidy's warm and smooth vocals on top. Apparently Shirley Jones is also on the album but I'm blowed if I can hear her.
There's no doubt the record company's desire to make hay while the sun shone led to an oversaturated market and some filler on the records, but Partridge Family records remain on my wants list.
Where do they all belong? Back to the T's with Tool next up.
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