Category Archives: Great albums

Country, folk, Great albums, Lucinda Williams, Singer Songwriter

June 5: Lucinda Williams released Essence in 2001

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Essence,

I envy the wind
That whispers in your ear
That howls through the winter
That freezes your fingers
That moves through your hair
And cracks your lips
And chills you to the bone
I envy the wind

June 5: Lucinda Williams released Essence in 2001

Essence is Lucinda Williams’ sixth album. It was released in 2001. It is a wonderful album, one of the best albums that year, hell, one of the best albums that decade!

Essence was highly anticipated coming after a three-year gap from her lauded Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and the critical reviews reflect that. Although positive, none rate the album as highly as her breakthrough. Robert Christgau, who raved about Car Wheels, called the album “imperfect” but still praised her artistry saying “[she] is too damn good to deny.” Reviewers noted the difference in tone between the two albums with Rolling Stone citing the “willful intimacy” of the music while Spin contrasted its “halting, spare” presentation with Car Wheels “giddy, verbose” one. In a review posted by Salon the album was called “an emotional mess of a masterpiece”.

Q listed Essence as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. 

Personnel on the album include Tony Garnier and Charlie Sexton, best known as part of Bob Dylan’s live backing band then and now. The album also features session drummer Jim Keltner, another Dylan collaborator.

Fantastic album!

Lucinda Williams – Essence (Live):

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Classic Concert, Country, Great albums, Johnny Cash, Music Calendar

June 4: Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin was released in 1969

 

June 4:  Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin was released in 1969

When I was little boy I was very interested in music, the radio and records. My father had a small  but very good record collection. Among the treasures in his collection was this album, Johnny Cash – Live at San Quentin. My father told me the story of the album, and I remember that the Norwegian broadcast company (yes there were only one channel at the time, early 70s) showed the actual concert. It was very late at night but my father woke me and I got to see this legendary show.   It marked me for life.

At San Quentin is the 31st overall album and a recording of a live concert given by Johnny Cash to the inmates of San Quentin State Prison. As well as being released on record the concert was filmed by Granada Television.

Johnny Cash – San Quentin Songs Compilation (with great sound!):

The album was a follow-up to Cash’s previous live album, the critically acclaimed and commercially successful At Folsom Prison.
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Bruce Springsteen, Great albums, Music Calendar

June 4: Bruce Springsteen released Born in the USA in 1984

Bruce Springsteen

June 4: Bruce Springsteen released Born in the USA in 1984

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just covering up

Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by  Bruce Springsteen, it was released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound.

born in the usa 2

While the predecessor, the dark and acoustic Nebraska featured songs of pessimism and isolation, Born in the U.S.A.’s lyrics expressed signs of hope in the daily fight of the standard American in following the American Dream, a new feeling complemented by synthesized arrangements and a pop-flavored, radio-oriented sound that helped Springsteen to extend his popularity and appeal to mainstream audiences.

Born in the USA (Live Paris, 1985):

Ronald Reagan, during his 1984 re-election campaign, tried to coast on the rising popularity of Bruce Springsteen and  Born in the U.S.A. :

“America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts,” Reagan said at a stump speech in Hammonton, New Jersey. “It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.”

Has a song ever been so misunderstood? Maybe if he heard the following version he would have hesitated…

Born in the USA (acoustic, slow bluesy):

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Bruce Springsteen, Great albums, Music Calendar

June 2: Bruce Springsteen released Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1978

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darkness shoot 2

June 2: Bruce Springsteen released Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1978

It is 36 years since one of the best albums in rock history was released, Darkness On The Edge Of Town is  number 2, (some days it has the top spot) on my list of favorite albums.

Today I think it is the best rock album ever released!

It came out three years after the incredibly successful Born To Run, and three years was an awful long time between albums in the 70s.  Bruce Springsteen had been tied up in a legal battle with his former manager Mike Appel but reached a final settlement in this year-long litigation with Mike Appel on May 28, 1977.

Darkness on the Edge of Town (Houston, 1978):

This meant that for the first time in a long time Bruce Springsteen was allowed into a studio. And he did. The recording of what was to become Darkness On The Edge Of Town began in June 1977 in New York City. He had a lot of material in various state of completion. Many of the songs were written or finished over the course of the sessions. He was in the studio for a long time.

Adam Raised a Cain (Paramount Theatre, 2009):

The material that didn’t make the album seeped out on a lot bootlegs through the years, it is of an incredibly high quality both sound wise and artistic. in 2010 we finally got a Darkness box that in many ways ended the need for Darkness bootlegs . There must still be a few unreleased gems in the vault, as of 2011, only 33 of more than 70 songs have been officially released.

darkness box

It consisted of 6 discs with the following content:

1: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (remastered )
2. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ, 2009)
3:Thrill Hill Vault (1976-1978) + Houston ’78 Bootleg: House Cut
4 and 5: The Promise (double album with outtakes and alternative takes)
6: The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”

In effect the most impressive and best box-set ever compiled.
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Beatles, George Harrison, Great albums, John lennon, Music Calendar, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr

June 1: The Beatles released Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967

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June 1: The Beatles released Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967

“A decisive moment in the history of Western civilisation”
– Kenneth Tynan, The Times

“Sgt Pepper is one of the most important steps in our career. It had to be just right. We tried, and I think succeeded in achieving what we set out to do.”
– John Lennon

The opening track:

We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn’t want any more, plus, we’d now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers. There was now more to it; not only had John and I been writing, George had been writing, we’d been in films, John had written books, so it was natural that we should become artists.

– Paul McCartney

I love Sgt. Pepper and it will always be in my top 5 Beatles album, sometimes at number 5 sometimes at the top spot. It’s a great Beatles album,  and it’s one of the best album in Rock history. It is laid out as a concept album, but the idea held for two songs, the coda, and the album’s sleeve design.

The Beatles songs now did not sound practiced or rehearsed, and the reason for this is that they weren’t. They were studio snippets put together in sections and pieces. I think that’s the reason that the outtakes from the Sgt. Pepper sessions are so uninspiring, so unfinished. There are several bootlegs with alternative versions, and for Beatles-nerds they are of course something to seek out. That said, I think the best Sgt.Pepper outtakes are presented on Anthology 2, and, yes, they are put together in the same way as the original album, each song constructed from different takes and sound bites.

I’m guessing it would be a difficult record to play live.

I believe that this album represent a shift in popular music, we look at pop/rock music before and after Sgt. Pepper. Almost everything on the album was new. And it still sounds new and fresh.

Happy birthday, Sgt. Pepper!

The Making of Sgt. Pepper documentary made for the 25 year anniversary :

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