Category Archives: Great albums

David Bowie, Great albums, Music Calendar

Jan 23: Station to Station by David Bowie was released in 1976

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stationtostation

Jan 23: Station to Station by David Bowie was released in 1976

“The return of the Thin White Duke
Throwing darts in lovers’ eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff“

Station to Station is a collection of soul, rock, funk, and disco, twisted by an influence of experimental German artists. This is David Bowie’s “plastic soul” mixed with krautrock. This is the introduction of the “Thin White Duke”.

It is Bowie’s tenth album, one of his most important and in my opinion, one of his very best!

stationtostation2

David Bowie came from the soul infused “Young Americans” into Nicolas Roeg’s film, “The Man who fell to Earth” (the picture on the cover is a still from the film) and then into this masterpiece of a record. If you see the film and listen to Young Americans you get a sense of what made the album. There is a switch from popular dance oriented music into a more artful approach. But, without losing the pop sensibility. It is also a start for Bowie on his journey back to a more  European approach to his music, even if it was recorded in LA.

“I know it was in LA because I’ve read it was”
– David Bowie

TVC15 (from rehearsals for the Station to Station tour 1976):

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Drive-by Truckers, Great albums, Music Calendar

Jan 22: Drive-by Truckers released Brighter Than Creation’s Dark in 2008

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Brighter_than_creations_dark

“That man I shot, I didn’t know him
I was just doing my job,
maybe so was he”

Brighter Than Creation’s Dark is the seventh studio album released by Drive-By Truckers. It was released on January 22, 2008 in the United States. Recorded during and after the acoustic Dirt Underneath Tour, the album features a more stripped down, and country based sound not seen since their sophomore releasePizza Deliverance.

A Ghost to Most (official video):

The album’s title is taken from a line in a Mike Cooley song entitled “Checkout Time in Vegas”. Wes Freed once again provided the album artwork. According to guitarist Patterson Hood, the band’s decision on the name of the album was greatly influenced by the Freed’s artwork. Hood also said that the album was recorded with much ease and did not require compromises.

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Great albums, Great Bands, Music Calendar, Van Morrison

Jan 21: Them Again by Them was released in 1966

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THEM_again

Them Again is the second album by Them, lead by singer and songwriter Van Morrison. The album was released by Decca Records in the UK on 21 January 1966 but it failed to chart. In the U.S. it was released in April 1966 where it peaked at #138 on the Billboard charts.

Released 21 January 1966 (UK), April 1966 (USA)
Genre Rock
Length 48:21Decca (UK), Parrot PA 61008; PAS 71008 (USA)
Producer Tommy Scott

It’s a great record and often overlooked and unfavourably compared to Them’s debut. It is allmost as good. You owe it to yourself to check it out.

Two of the original Van Morrison songs included on the album, “My Lonely Sad Eyes” and “Hey Girl”, can be seen as precursors to the poetic musings of Morrison’s later Astral Weeks album, released in 1968. “My Lonely Sad Eyes” begins with the words, “Fill me my cup, and I’ll drink your sparkling wine/Pretend that everything is fine, ’til I see your sad eyes.” The title implies that the sad eyes belong to the singer but the lyrics address the singer’s love interest. It reminds me of Rolling Stones at their most soulful.

My Lonely Sad Eyes:

The song “Hey Girl” has a pastoral feel to it, enhanced by the addition of flutes and in Brian Hinton’s opinion is a “dry run for ‘Cyprus Avenue'” from Astral Weeks.

Hey Girl:

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Great albums, Rolling Stones

Jan 20: The Rolling Stones released Between The Buttons in 1967

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between

Jan 20: The Rolling Stones released between The Buttons in 1967

Between the Buttons is the fifth British and seventh American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on 20 January 1967 in the UK and 11 February in the US as the follow-up to Aftermath. It was the beginning of the Stones’ brief foray into psychedelia.

In 2003, the American version of Between the Buttons, which included “Ruby Tuesday” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, was ranked #355 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

The Rolling Stones’ 1967 recordings are a matter of some controversy; many critics felt that they were compromising their raw, rootsy power with trendy emulations of the Beatles, Kinks, Dylan, and psychedelic music. Approach this album with an open mind, though, and you’ll find it to be one of their strongest, most eclectic LPs, with many fine songs that remain unknown to all but Stones devotees.

– Richie Unterberg (allmusic)

Between the Buttons was the last album wholly produced by Oldham, with whom the Stones fell out in mid-1967 during the recording sessions for Their Satanic Majesties Request.

This is another great album from the Rolling Stones and the remastered audio sounds great! I prefer the US version to the UK simply because I think that “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and “Ruby Tuesday” are better songs than “Back Street Girl” and “Please Go Home” (both released on the album/collection, Flowers later in 1967).

Ruby Tuesday (live, TV, 1967(?)):

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Great albums, Music Calendar, Warren Zevon

Jan 18: Warren Zevon released Excitable Boy in 1978

Excitable-Boy

Jan 18: Warren Zevon released Excitable Boy in 1978

“The further these songs get from Ronstadtland, the more I like them. The four that exorcise male psychoses by mock celebration are positively addictive, the two uncomplicated rockers do the job, and two of the purely “serious” songs get by. But no one has yet been able to explain to me what “accidentally like a martyr” might mean–answers dependent on the term “Dylanesque” are not acceptable–and I have no doubt that that’s the image Linda will home in on. After all, is she going to cover the one about the headless gunner? A-”
– Robert Christgau

Excitable Boy is the third album by Warren Zevon, released in 1978. It includes the top 40 success “Werewolves of London”. The album brought Warren to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career. A remastered and expanded edition was released during 2007.

This is a video of Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner (Norwegian mercenary!) with the late great Warren Zevon from October 30 2002, his last Letterman performance:

The tracks “Excitable Boy” and “Werewolves of London” were considered macabrely humorous by some critics.[3] The historical “Veracruz” dramatizes the United States occupation of Veracruz, and likewise “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” is a fictionalization of a mercenary in Africa. “Lawyers, Guns and Money” is a tongue-in-cheek take on Cold War paranoia. In addition, there are two ballads about life and relationships (“Accidentally Like a Martyr” and “Tenderness on the Block”), as well as a dance tune (“Nighttime in the Switching Yard”).

It could have been a greatest hit collection!

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