Side effects (The Rolling Stones) (LP 4707 - 4709)

Steeleye Span  Live at Last! (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1979) *** 

The Rolling Stones  Foreign Tongues (CD, Polydor Records, 2026) ****  

Anthony Williams  Spring (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1966) *** 

Genre: Folk rock, rock, jazz

Places I remember: Vinyl Countdown, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Rough and Twisted (Stones)

Gear costume: Montrose (Steeleye Span)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: This post reviews three albums from a recent trip to New Plymouth and Palmerston North that cover three very different genres.

The Steeleye Span live album is both their first live album and final album of the seventies. It features Martin Carthy amid the band's gloriously updated folk rock sound. Honestly - any album featuring the combined vocals of Maddy Prior, Tim Hart and the others is worth hearing. 

Maddy is in great form here and she makes the album come alive. The Highlight is the lengthy Montrose and an expanded version of The False Knight on the Road which was originally from their 1971 album Please to See the King.

The latest Stones album has arrived in shops and like Hackney Diamonds, it is produced by Andrew Watt. He again achieves some great results from the threesome (Mick, Keef and Ronnie) plus guests (Macca again plays bass on one song).

It's not as consistently brilliant as Hackney Diamonds, but it is still a solid set of Stones songs with some familiar touches - the falsetto vocal songs, a country song and Keef's song all making an appearance.

Remarkably, Mick Jagger's vocals seem untouched by the years. He's remarkable!

Tony Williams (billed as Anthony here) is an amazing drummer. This was his second album as leader. He assembled a stellar cast for the album -  tenor saxophonists Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Gary Peacock.

The sub genre of jazz that is on offer here - post bop or modal jazz, is one step away from free jazz and it's an acquired taste. I don't mind being challenged by music but a lot of post bop is at the outer limits of my taste.

When they settle into a more lyrical stride I'm more on board, as on side two with both Love Song and Tee. That's largely down to the wonderful playing of Herbie Hancock on piano. I'm much more content with those than I am with the wild shronking horns of Extras which leads off side one. Even then though, there are things to learn, and it's good to stretch the taste boundaries from time to time.

Where do they all belong? Three excellent additions in three different genres.