Tag Archives: Great Album

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

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(?)):

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

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!

Continue reading Jan 18: Warren Zevon released Excitable Boy in 1978

Jan 13: Johnny Cash recorded “At Folsom Prison” in 1968

 

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison

 “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash”

Johnny Cash recorded “At Folsom Prison” January 13 in 1968

“Folsom Prison looms large in Johnny Cash’s legacy, providing the setting for perhaps his definitive song and the location for his definitive album, At Folsom Prison. The ideal blend of mythmaking and gritty reality, At Folsom Prison is the moment when Cash turned into the towering Man in Black, a haunted troubadour singing songs of crime, conflicted conscience, and jail.”
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

One of the best live albums in recording history was taped on this date in 1968, hell, it’s one of the best albums period. Today it is it’s 46 year anniversary.

Released May 1968
October 19, 1999 (re-release)
October 14, 2008 (Legacy Edition)
Recorded Live at Folsom State Prison, January 13, 1968
Genre Country
Length 55:56 (re-release)
Label Columbia
Producer Bob Johnston (original)
Bob Irwin (re-release)

Continue reading Jan 13: Johnny Cash recorded “At Folsom Prison” in 1968

Jan 11: Howlin’ Wolf by Howlin’ Wolf – 1962


hw album

“Howlin’ Wolf’s second album brings together some of the blues great’s best singles from the late ’50s and early ’60s. Also available as a fine two-fer with his debut, Moanin’ in the Moonlight, the so-called Rockin’ Chair Album represents the cream of Wolf’s Chicago blues work. Those tracks afforded classic status are many, including “Spoonful,” “The Red Rooster,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Back Door Man,” “Shake for Me,” and “Who’s Been Talking?” Also featuring the fine work of Chess house producer and bassist Willie Dixon and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, Rockin’ Chair qualifies as one of pinnacles of early electric blues, and is an essential album for any quality blues collection.”
– Stephen Cook (Allmusic)

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Jan 02: Elvis Presley released “Elvis Country” 1971


Elvis Country

Elvis Presley released “Elvis Country” 2 Jan 1971

“Elvis has come out with a record which gives us some of the very finest and most affecting music since he first recorded for Sun almost 17 years ago”- Peter Guralnick (Rolling Stone Magazine 1971)

“…Elvis was at his peak when he cut Elvis Country. Actually, Elvis Presley was positively on a roll at the time. A decade after the end of what were thought to be his prime years, he was singing an ever-widening repertory of songs with more passion and involvement than he’d shown since the end of the 1950s…”
~Bruce Eder (allmusic.com)

 

Elvis Presley – Funny How Time Slips Away (Willie Nelson):

Continue reading Jan 02: Elvis Presley released “Elvis Country” 1971