Dusty Springfield Where Am I Going? (Vinyl, Philips Records, 1967) ****
Steeleye Span Ten Man Mop or Mr. Reservoir Butler Rides Again (Vinyl, Philips Records, 1971) *****
Steeleye Span Storm Force Ten (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1977) ****
Strawbs Grave New World (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1972) ****
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: The double live Queen album captures the band in full pomp and glory. All of their seventies big moments are in the set and their massive arena sound is preserved on these four sides. Highlights are aplenty as the audience participation becomes the 12th man. Keep Yourself Alive is my pick to represent the album. It helps that I love the song - my first ever taste of Queenon the radio. The drum solo is intact in the middle, but it never overstays its welcome.
Dusty's third album is a varied affair - various genres mix it up and all sound successful to my ears. The big sound on Close To You is great, so too are the jazzy Sunny and the quietly brilliant songs like Welcome Home. It all sounds effortlessly amazing.
Maddy Prior is, of course, a unique singer and her delivery on When I Was on Horseback is wondrous. All this, plus Marrowbones and no skippers on the rest, makes this a classic 1971 record in my books. The bonus is that I got this excellent copy for just $4 from The Little Red Bookshop!
Grave New World (Strawbs' 4th album) was the first album after Rick Wakeman left to join Yes.
Genre: Rock, folk rock, prog rock
Places I remember: Brian Smith Collection, The Little Red Bookshop, JB Hi Fi, Vinyl Room, Vinyl Vault Plus, JB Hi Fi
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Keep Yourself Alive (Live Killers), Marrowbones (Ten Man Mop)
Gear costume: Sunny, Close To You (Dusty)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Keep Yourself Alive (Live Killers), Marrowbones (Ten Man Mop)
Gear costume: Sunny, Close To You (Dusty)
Active compensatory factors: The double live Queen album captures the band in full pomp and glory. All of their seventies big moments are in the set and their massive arena sound is preserved on these four sides. Highlights are aplenty as the audience participation becomes the 12th man. Keep Yourself Alive is my pick to represent the album. It helps that I love the song - my first ever taste of Queenon the radio. The drum solo is intact in the middle, but it never overstays its welcome.
Steeleye Span have a brace of new albums in the collection. Ten Man Mop etc is their third album from 1971; I love 1971! Right from the first track - Gower Wassail, there is something magical about the harmony singing of Tim Hart, Maddy Prior, Martin Cathy and Peter Knight (Ashley Hutchings just pays superb bass).
Storm Force Ten, their tenth studio album, came out six years later. Ten albums in 7 years is pretty amazing going and even more amazing is the quality control. This is another album picked up in The Little Red Bookshop sale. The records all cleaned up well, too.
The album continues the folk rock/prog rock leanings of the previous album with Dave Cousins' vocals and the exotic instrumentation clear points of strength.
It's definitely a 50 50 split between the acoustic folk of old and some experimentation with sitar, backwards tapes et al. I think on balance I'm more in the folk-rock camp. There's something about Cousins' voice that is so naturally suited to that genre.
Where do they all belong? Next up is the hard rock of Stray.
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