Bobberman
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I loved this album and I remember hearing it on the radio back in the day fond memories
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I loved this album and I remember hearing it on the radio back in the day fond memories
Just got an email that this released today. Downloading right now from Bandcamp. (Since I download, I kick in an extra few bucks, since you can choose to do so on the site.) CD is being released 9/15.
The cover's a cool design--they built a new studio out in farm country, relocating from urban Toronto (pictured in the logo).
The cover's a cool design--they built a new studio out in farm country, relocating from urban Toronto (pictured in the logo).
I felt like hearing this one tonight:
This SACD combines two RCA Living Stereo LPs on one disc, and the mastering is excellent. Back in the day, you could buy these SACDs on sale for under $10--I remember going to a well-stocked Barnes & Noble and buying three or four of these for $8.99. A steal, given the repertoire and sound quality.
This SACD combines two RCA Living Stereo LPs on one disc, and the mastering is excellent. Back in the day, you could buy these SACDs on sale for under $10--I remember going to a well-stocked Barnes & Noble and buying three or four of these for $8.99. A steal, given the repertoire and sound quality.
This is a "who knew??" release that didn't even register on my radar three years ago. This 2020 album, Weather, is the final release of Huey Lewis & The News. While on tour during the recording of this album, Lewis was found to have Meniere's disease, which affected his hearing. So, the seven songs on Weather are more like an EP than a full LP. It's a lot "cleaner" sounding than earlier Huey Lewis albums and there a few drum machines in here (likely due to the band not having time to put down a full backing track) but the News is still putting down a great sound here.
I found a sealed copy of this album for only $5.99. Not too bad of a record, really--it was recorded in the wake of the breakup of the Doobie Brothers after the One Step Closer album. No hard feelings though--Michael McDonald can be heard on backing vocals and contributed to songwriting, and apparently a few other band members contributed also. "So Wrong" was a dance club single, and other tracks are more pop or R&B oriented than what Simmons had done with the Doobies.
jfiedler17
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that album is absolutely loaded with notable cameos! Naturally, a lot of his former bandmates from the Doobies are on it, including McDonald (whose wife, Amy Holland of "How Do I Survive" fame, also pops up on backing vocals), Tom Johnston, John McFee, Cornelius Bumpus, Tom Johnston, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. David Pack from Ambrosia and John Elefante from Kansas both show up on backing vocals. Chris Thompson and Nicky Hopkins from the band Night ("Hot Summer Nights," "If You Remember Me") show up on multiple tracks. Jude Cole (an alumnus of the power-pop band The Records ("Starry Eyes") who'd go on to have a couple Top 40 solo hits in the early '90s, i.e. "Baby It's Tonight," "Time for Letting Go") crops up on guitar.
Pretty decent album, actually - not as classic as any of the Doobies' best, of course, but still a very pleasant listen. "So Wrong" was the only major hit, though he also had a minor hit with "Don't Make Me Do It," which was actually a cover of a song from Huey Lewis & the News' little-heard self-titled debut before that band started having hits.
I am not near the info right now, but I think the connection there was that the song was co-written by John McFee who was in both groups (briefly with Huey, and twice with the Doobies). Unless I'm thinking of another one.
So I finally took the time to put all these tracks into a playlist.
open.qobuz.com
Peter Gabriel's latest album, i/o, is being released with every moon cycle. So with every full moon, we get a new "bright side mix," and every new moon we get a "dark side mix." I have a feeling the bright side mixes are the album versions, as they feel the most complete with the least amount of gimmicks. "Love Can Heal" arrived yesterday with late August Blue Moon.
Now that I've compiled these, the nine tracks (so far) of bright side mixes give me a good idea of what the full album will sound like. His previous album project, Up, was dark and somewhat sinister in places. If I had to describe this album, I would say that the feel is more like his popular album So ("Sledgehammer," "Don't Give Up," "Red Rain," etc.), with the production a little more oriented towards pop, not as heavy as Up was. The topics at hand are more personal, similar to how the songs on Us (which followed So) were personal and largely about relationships and his divorce. This one is more about pondering life, aging, the input/output in our lives (thoughts, feelings, experiences).
I'm liking this so far. I only wonder how many more tracks are in the complete album. 13, one for each full moon this year?
Open Qobuz
open.qobuz.com
Peter Gabriel's latest album, i/o, is being released with every moon cycle. So with every full moon, we get a new "bright side mix," and every new moon we get a "dark side mix." I have a feeling the bright side mixes are the album versions, as they feel the most complete with the least amount of gimmicks. "Love Can Heal" arrived yesterday with late August Blue Moon.
Now that I've compiled these, the nine tracks (so far) of bright side mixes give me a good idea of what the full album will sound like. His previous album project, Up, was dark and somewhat sinister in places. If I had to describe this album, I would say that the feel is more like his popular album So ("Sledgehammer," "Don't Give Up," "Red Rain," etc.), with the production a little more oriented towards pop, not as heavy as Up was. The topics at hand are more personal, similar to how the songs on Us (which followed So) were personal and largely about relationships and his divorce. This one is more about pondering life, aging, the input/output in our lives (thoughts, feelings, experiences).
I'm liking this so far. I only wonder how many more tracks are in the complete album. 13, one for each full moon this year?
I didn't realize this was released digitally. Been meaning to get it on vinyl. I have it playing via Qobuz at the moment. This is the first release from engineer Kevin Gray's Cohearant Records.
Kirsten is an L.A. area musician and educator, and she's backed by some well-known names (including a couple from Diana Krall's group). It certainly is well recorded. Kevin has been remastering many of the Blue Note series (Tone Poet, Classic Vinyl, etc.) and he went for a clean Blue Note type of sound on this record. I believe this went through his entire tube recording and mastering chain. Even on digital it is sounding superb.
Kirsten is an L.A. area musician and educator, and she's backed by some well-known names (including a couple from Diana Krall's group). It certainly is well recorded. Kevin has been remastering many of the Blue Note series (Tone Poet, Classic Vinyl, etc.) and he went for a clean Blue Note type of sound on this record. I believe this went through his entire tube recording and mastering chain. Even on digital it is sounding superb.
Poking around a record store site, I noticed that Analogue Productions has done a 45 RPM/2 LP reissue of this:
Hard to believe this is the face of the future "outlaw." 😁 But mainly I wanted to hear the original version of "Crazy," which Patsy Cline did so well. This album was Willie Nelson's debut in 1962, and the album does sound similar to the type of production on "countrypolitan" records of the day, including Patsy Cline's. I'm not a huge Willie Nelson fan but like a few things of his, and this is a good listen.
Hard to believe this is the face of the future "outlaw." 😁 But mainly I wanted to hear the original version of "Crazy," which Patsy Cline did so well. This album was Willie Nelson's debut in 1962, and the album does sound similar to the type of production on "countrypolitan" records of the day, including Patsy Cline's. I'm not a huge Willie Nelson fan but like a few things of his, and this is a good listen.
Forgot that I gave this a spin Thursday. I bought this when it first came out on CD; my mother later bought it on vinyl since she liked it also (which is what I played):
The only Marsalis album I can sit through, to be honest. He does some nice melodic work on the melodies, and the Bob Freedman orchestral arrangements are inventive enough to refrain from being syrupy.
Having looked at so many CTI credits, I started wondering why I didn't see Hubert Laws. 🤣 But no, this was Columbia Records and most of Wynton's group was on this (Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Jeff "Tain" Watts) along with Ron Carter and surprisingly Paul McCandless (Winter Consort, Oregon) on oboe and English horn (basically a lower-pitched member of the oboe family).
The only Marsalis album I can sit through, to be honest. He does some nice melodic work on the melodies, and the Bob Freedman orchestral arrangements are inventive enough to refrain from being syrupy.
Having looked at so many CTI credits, I started wondering why I didn't see Hubert Laws. 🤣 But no, this was Columbia Records and most of Wynton's group was on this (Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Jeff "Tain" Watts) along with Ron Carter and surprisingly Paul McCandless (Winter Consort, Oregon) on oboe and English horn (basically a lower-pitched member of the oboe family).
I keep going back to this album:
It's the funk/soul/fusion album by Johnny "Hammond" Smith, who sets aside the Hammond and primarily plays electric keyboards here. It's very much a 70s fusion date. Kind of a weird cover for sure, but I wish I'd heard of this record back in my late teens when I was really starting to get into this type of music.
I'm also happy (?) to say that thanks to the digital age, my legendary forgetfulness kicked in and I bought the CD of this title after having already gotten the high-res download of it. 🙄🤣 So now I have a CD which I have no use for!
It's the funk/soul/fusion album by Johnny "Hammond" Smith, who sets aside the Hammond and primarily plays electric keyboards here. It's very much a 70s fusion date. Kind of a weird cover for sure, but I wish I'd heard of this record back in my late teens when I was really starting to get into this type of music.
I'm also happy (?) to say that thanks to the digital age, my legendary forgetfulness kicked in and I bought the CD of this title after having already gotten the high-res download of it. 🙄🤣 So now I have a CD which I have no use for!
After some Herbie (Hancock), I thought I would give this one a try. This is from 1970, and is "electric" in the sense that Bitches Brew was electric.
Notable presence by Airto Moreira and flautist Hermeto Pascoal.
Third Man Records reissued this under a special program with Blue Note. If it grows on me more, I may head down and pick up the limited edition copy of it from Third Man.
Notable presence by Airto Moreira and flautist Hermeto Pascoal.
Third Man Records reissued this under a special program with Blue Note. If it grows on me more, I may head down and pick up the limited edition copy of it from Third Man.
I hate when this happens (...sometimes...).
I discovered that I own this album:
...but in this configuration:
This is one of those annoying/confusing instances where someone titles an album as though it's an anthology or best-of package when it's actually a single studio project. Why Columbia chose to do this with a reissue of a 1959 album in 1974 is...weird. Trying to package it for a new audience, perhaps? Then again, Columbia repackaged quite a few CTI albums when they reissued them not too long after.
I also warily offer another version, on the dubious Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CD called Everybody's Boppin' (which includes five extra tracks taken from their two other Columbia albums)
Anyhow, the surprise here is how much I like this record! This was one of the titles I picked up in my Colorado record crawl for $3.99. I thought I might get a sampling of their Columbia recordings, then branch out from there. But this was their first album for the label.
For anyone who enjoys vocals, this record is a rollicking good time end to end. Even though this is technically billed as a jazz record, it does not really come across as such, and Jon Hendricks' clever lyrics to these songs are worth the price of admission. "Gimme That Wine" is a comic highlight among the often tongue-in-cheek lyrics throughout.
Some connections here as well. John Hendricks penned the vocals for the song "Moanin'" which Brasil '66 covered. The version of "Summertime" is the one that inspired Herb Alpert's version. And Creed Taylor had a hand in the group also. Dave Lambert and Hendricks had come to Taylor with an idea to take a vocal group into the studio and record an album of popular Count Basie tracks, substituting voices for the horn sections. The professional singers they hired for the gig couldn't swing, so Lambert and Hendricks brought in Annie Ross and they overdubbed their voices (Annie trumpets, Dave trombones, and John the saxes) after recording a guide track with the Basie rhythm section. This became the trio's first album, Sing a Song of Basie, released on ABC-Paramount with Taylor producing.
I discovered that I own this album:
...but in this configuration:
This is one of those annoying/confusing instances where someone titles an album as though it's an anthology or best-of package when it's actually a single studio project. Why Columbia chose to do this with a reissue of a 1959 album in 1974 is...weird. Trying to package it for a new audience, perhaps? Then again, Columbia repackaged quite a few CTI albums when they reissued them not too long after.
I also warily offer another version, on the dubious Columbia Jazz Masterpieces CD called Everybody's Boppin' (which includes five extra tracks taken from their two other Columbia albums)
Anyhow, the surprise here is how much I like this record! This was one of the titles I picked up in my Colorado record crawl for $3.99. I thought I might get a sampling of their Columbia recordings, then branch out from there. But this was their first album for the label.
For anyone who enjoys vocals, this record is a rollicking good time end to end. Even though this is technically billed as a jazz record, it does not really come across as such, and Jon Hendricks' clever lyrics to these songs are worth the price of admission. "Gimme That Wine" is a comic highlight among the often tongue-in-cheek lyrics throughout.
Some connections here as well. John Hendricks penned the vocals for the song "Moanin'" which Brasil '66 covered. The version of "Summertime" is the one that inspired Herb Alpert's version. And Creed Taylor had a hand in the group also. Dave Lambert and Hendricks had come to Taylor with an idea to take a vocal group into the studio and record an album of popular Count Basie tracks, substituting voices for the horn sections. The professional singers they hired for the gig couldn't swing, so Lambert and Hendricks brought in Annie Ross and they overdubbed their voices (Annie trumpets, Dave trombones, and John the saxes) after recording a guide track with the Basie rhythm section. This became the trio's first album, Sing a Song of Basie, released on ABC-Paramount with Taylor producing.
It's all gone to the Byrds here. Another Donald Byrd album, this one apparently Blue Note's biggest seller, an R&B/funk date called Black Byrd.
One thing in common with the Johnny Hammond Gambler's Life album--the Mizell Brothers (Fonce and Larry) wrote and produced the record, and looking at the credits, quite a few of the same musicians appear on both albums. This Donald Byrd album is not as dark as Hammond's, which is a good thing since they could have ended up being too similar. What's more interesting is how this was such a big seller, but Hammond's record flew under the radar.
The Mizell Brothers also worked on other funk jazz artists' albums, along with pop records like L.T.D.'s album Love to the World (which features Skip Scarborough's oft-covered song "Love Ballad") and also produced a #1 hit via the R&B group A Taste of Honey ("Boogie Oogie Oogie").
One thing in common with the Johnny Hammond Gambler's Life album--the Mizell Brothers (Fonce and Larry) wrote and produced the record, and looking at the credits, quite a few of the same musicians appear on both albums. This Donald Byrd album is not as dark as Hammond's, which is a good thing since they could have ended up being too similar. What's more interesting is how this was such a big seller, but Hammond's record flew under the radar.
The Mizell Brothers also worked on other funk jazz artists' albums, along with pop records like L.T.D.'s album Love to the World (which features Skip Scarborough's oft-covered song "Love Ballad") and also produced a #1 hit via the R&B group A Taste of Honey ("Boogie Oogie Oogie").
And back to Johnny Hammond. Gambler's Life has been in heavy rotation, and his 1975 follow-up album Gears, with the Mizell Brothers again producing, landed on the Milestone label.
It's similar to Gambler's Life, but leans more towards the funk/pop side, with a lot of jazz overtones. A bit lighter and more accessible, where Gambler's Life is a bit more dense but just as good. "Los Conquistadores Chocolates" here is at times reminiscent of an early Earth, Wind & Fire record, the way the horns are arranged. Hammond was out-funking Herbie Hancock at this point. 😁 Interesting comparison here--queue up "Fantasy" from this record, and then queue up "Here to Love You" by the Doobie Brothers. The introductions are very similar.
Playing this in high-res right now, but I see that Craft Recordings had a 180g reissue of this record, with Kevin Gray (Cohearant Audio) mastering, pressed at RTI, in a Stoughton tip-on jacket. It claims to be in the "Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series."
It's similar to Gambler's Life, but leans more towards the funk/pop side, with a lot of jazz overtones. A bit lighter and more accessible, where Gambler's Life is a bit more dense but just as good. "Los Conquistadores Chocolates" here is at times reminiscent of an early Earth, Wind & Fire record, the way the horns are arranged. Hammond was out-funking Herbie Hancock at this point. 😁 Interesting comparison here--queue up "Fantasy" from this record, and then queue up "Here to Love You" by the Doobie Brothers. The introductions are very similar.
Playing this in high-res right now, but I see that Craft Recordings had a 180g reissue of this record, with Kevin Gray (Cohearant Audio) mastering, pressed at RTI, in a Stoughton tip-on jacket. It claims to be in the "Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Series."
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jfiedler17
Well-Known Member
My latest pickups (roughly half on vinyl and the other half on CD and as usual, a hilariously all-over-the-place mix of stuff):
- Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (which, amazingly, I somehow did not own already)
- Isaac Hayes' Greatest Hit Singles
- Barry White's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (I'd amazingly never stumbled across a copy of this before but already owned the first volume and figured I should get this to have as a companion piece)
- Michael Franks' The Art of Tea
- Nick Lowe's The Abominable Showman and Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit and Graham Parker's Heat Treatment (the only one of his first seven albums I was still without)
- The Romantics' self-titled debut
- Kraftwerk's The Mix
- Carole Bayer Sager's Sometimes Late at Night (a reissue on CD that I wasn't even aware existed)
- The Island Story, a late-'80s double-disc various-artists package of Island Records artists from its first two decades, i.e. Traffic, Sparks, Steve Winwood, U2, etc.
- Completely Cilla 1963-1973 (6-disc U.K.-only boxed set of Cilla Black's entire output during that time)
- Shalamar's Anthology (2-CD package from 2004 on The Right Stuff), Cameo's Gold (2-CD career-spanning compilation from Universal), and Gap Band's Ultimate Collection from Hip-O
- New Birth's Golden Classics
- Del Shannon's Classic Masters
- The Toys Sing "A Lover's Concerto" and "Attack!"
- Bye Bye Birdie/Teenage Triangle 2-for-1 Collectables reissue of Shelly Fabares/Paul Peterson/James Darren various-artist titles for the Colpix label
- Natural Gas (self-titled - and sole - LP by a short-lived group featuring Badfinger's Joey Molland and Humble Pie's Jerry Shirley); picked this up in the form of a CD reissue signed by Molland! (being a huge Badfinger fan, I was especially excited to come across this one)
- The Bellamy Brothers' Country Rap (a late '80s outing I had to grab after noticing that it was signed on the front cover by David and Howard both)
- Brian Protheroe's I/You (I hadn't heard of him, either, but I stumbled upon a sealed copy of this in a dollar bin and noticed multiple Jethro Tull personnel, Ian Anderson included, in the player credits on the back, and figured I'd give it a chance; very interesting album, as it turns out)
- Herb Alpert's "Red Hot" 12" single on red vinyl
- Quadraphonic copy of Art Garfunkel's first solo album (Garfunkel)
- Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (which, amazingly, I somehow did not own already)
- Isaac Hayes' Greatest Hit Singles
- Barry White's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (I'd amazingly never stumbled across a copy of this before but already owned the first volume and figured I should get this to have as a companion piece)
- Michael Franks' The Art of Tea
- Nick Lowe's The Abominable Showman and Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit and Graham Parker's Heat Treatment (the only one of his first seven albums I was still without)
- The Romantics' self-titled debut
- Kraftwerk's The Mix
- Carole Bayer Sager's Sometimes Late at Night (a reissue on CD that I wasn't even aware existed)
- The Island Story, a late-'80s double-disc various-artists package of Island Records artists from its first two decades, i.e. Traffic, Sparks, Steve Winwood, U2, etc.
- Completely Cilla 1963-1973 (6-disc U.K.-only boxed set of Cilla Black's entire output during that time)
- Shalamar's Anthology (2-CD package from 2004 on The Right Stuff), Cameo's Gold (2-CD career-spanning compilation from Universal), and Gap Band's Ultimate Collection from Hip-O
- New Birth's Golden Classics
- Del Shannon's Classic Masters
- The Toys Sing "A Lover's Concerto" and "Attack!"
- Bye Bye Birdie/Teenage Triangle 2-for-1 Collectables reissue of Shelly Fabares/Paul Peterson/James Darren various-artist titles for the Colpix label
- Natural Gas (self-titled - and sole - LP by a short-lived group featuring Badfinger's Joey Molland and Humble Pie's Jerry Shirley); picked this up in the form of a CD reissue signed by Molland! (being a huge Badfinger fan, I was especially excited to come across this one)
- The Bellamy Brothers' Country Rap (a late '80s outing I had to grab after noticing that it was signed on the front cover by David and Howard both)
- Brian Protheroe's I/You (I hadn't heard of him, either, but I stumbled upon a sealed copy of this in a dollar bin and noticed multiple Jethro Tull personnel, Ian Anderson included, in the player credits on the back, and figured I'd give it a chance; very interesting album, as it turns out)
- Herb Alpert's "Red Hot" 12" single on red vinyl
- Quadraphonic copy of Art Garfunkel's first solo album (Garfunkel)
You've got some choice picks there! I saw your mention of Gap Band and just put on one of their early albums. Universal had an interesting series of best-of compilations--Funk Essentials: The 12" Collection. Gap Band, Kool & The Gang, Cameo, etc. each had an entry in the series. It's a good way to get some of the rarer 12-inch mixes.
A little Barry White goes a long way. 😁 One album I like all the way through is The Man but beyond that, they can stretch on a bit. A couple of hits compilations cover most of the good stuff. One of my finds from a couple of years ago was the Polydor output of Isaac Hayes. There is a CD compilation Best of the Polydor Years that puts together some of the best tracks, and a B-side "You Can't Hold Your Woman" that I really like. One AllMusic review that cracked me up was for his album New Horizon, which has the track "Menage a Trois." It said something about Isaac Hayes one-upping Barry White by introducing a third person into the bedroom. 🤣
The Art of Tea is a good one, probably one of Michael Franks' finest. Not just the lyrics, but the chill vibe of the entire album is perfect. If you don't have any others, I've found Sleeping Gypsy, One Bad Habit, and especially Passionfruit to be favorites. Dragonfly Summer and Music in my Head are two later albums I like.
And I can't say enough good about Innervisions. It plays so well as an album, and avoids some of the silliness he had on Music of My Mind and Talking Book. He had a great way with lyrics--he could do social commentary without being blatant or uptight about it. And it is beautifully recorded, probably one of his best-sounding albums.
I have that "Red Hot" in my collection also--I think mine was a promo. That's how I found quite a few of Herb's 12-inch singles in the used bins.
The Island Story and that Kraftwerk set also sound interesting. I remember buying Computer World back in the early 80s and it's still a favorite even today.
Always good times to be found at the "wrecka stow." 😁
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