Tag Archives: Great Album

Today: The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding was released in 1968


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“…It’s two thousand miles I roamed, just to make this dock my home.”

This should have been the start of a magnificent career, instead it gives us,  in a fine and vital way, Otis Redding’s place in soul music at that time. It was released posthumously (and it was the first of many).

The songs are chosen by Steve Cropper (produces and guitar player) and he did a remarkable job, it must have been a difficult task to assemble this album, the first after Otis’s death. It could have been a cash-in and a dark memorial album but instead we got lively, and fitting presentation of Otis’s fantastic abilities.

The album consists of singles, A and B-sides, a one hit duet with Carla Thomas, and some previously unreleased tracks (1966-1967). It IS a mixed bag, but in a good way!

Otis Redding – (Sittin’ on) The Dock Of The Bay (Official video):

I love the album and think Steve Cropper did the best job any one could do when putting it together. The choices are not obvious but we get a good representation of what Otis Redding was about and what he could do. A sad but vivid soul classic!

In 2003, the album was ranked number 161 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

My favorite track is the incredible ballad, I Love You More Than Words Can Say.

Otis Redding – The Dock of the Bay (Spotify):

– Hallgeir

Today: 16 Horsepower released Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes in 1996


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“Well, at first the band were simply called Horsepower, but a lot of people thought that was something to do with heroin. That really pissed me off, so I decided to put something in front of it to distract them. “I got ’16’ from a traditional American folk song, where a man is singing about his dead wife and 16 black horses are pulling her casket up to the cemetery. I liked the image of 16 working horses.”
– David Eugene Edwards (NME, 1996)

16 Horsepower originated out of the “Denver scene” around 1992. Edwards teamed up with bassist Keven Soll and drummer Jean-Yves Tola (yeah he is French), and the trio soon discovered a common love for country music, traditional music (from all corners of the world), and the darker bands of the ’80s, like Joy Division, the Gun Club, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.

They toured extensively the first years, sometimes as opening act for bands like MorphineLos Lobos and the Violent Femmes.

Edwards said at the time that he regularly checked out Library of Congress records, old Appalachian music, and that he just listen to it for hours and hours. He expressed his for love Irish and Cajun music too, and how he saw it as all interconnected. All this seeped into Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes.

When Edwards was writing about early America, he was referring to the darkest aspects of USA’s past: the slavery, the war with native americans and the rape of a fertile land. He’s also thinking of the moral decline and violence of the Wild West that found sinners having to answer to a form of justice much higher than that of Man’s. He writes about a young and more primitive country, he write about the punishments for wrong-doing that were much more severe and eagerly executed than today. The word of God was also the word of the state and the executioner. Edwards and the songs he wrote with Sixteen Horsepower existed in that world.

16 Horsepower – Haw (official video):

“The music of the church was the most important thing to me , that’s where I learned the doctrine, where it came to me. That was how I was spoken to.”
– Edward Eugene Edwards (grandson of a Nazarene minister)

Continue reading Today: 16 Horsepower released Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes in 1996

Today: The Rolling Stones released The Rolling Stones No 2 in 1965


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“The album’s great, but I don’t like five-minute numbers.”
– John Lennon

The Rolling Stones No. 2 is the second UK album by the Rolling Stones released in 1965 after the massive success of 1964’s debut The Rolling Stones. Not surprisingly, The Rolling Stones No. 2 followed its predecessor’s tendency to largely feature R&B covers.

However, it does contain three compositions from the still-developing Mick Jagger/Keith Richards songwriting team. On Dutch and German pressings of the album, the title is listed as The Rolling Stones Vol. 2 on the front cover, although the back of the album cover lists the title as The Rolling Stones No. 2.

“…plus one of the group’s best blues covers, their version of Muddy Waters’ “I Can’t Be Satisfied,” which wasn’t released in America until 1973 and features some killer slide playing by Brian Jones. ”
Bruce Eder (allmusic)

On this great live version from Milan in 2006, Mick does some fine guitar playing and we get a fine intro by Charlie.

The Rolling Stones – I Can’t Be Satisfied:

It huge hit in the UK upon release, The Rolling Stones No. 2 spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in early 1965, becoming one of the year’s biggest sellers in the UK.

Young rolling stones

The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones No. 2 (Spotify):

– Hallgeir

Today: Paul Simon released the album Paul Simon in 1972

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Paul Simon is the second studio album by Paul Simon as a solo artist. It was released  14th of January 1972, nearly two years after he split up with longtime musical partner Art Garfunkel. The album represented the definitive announcement of the breakup of Simon & Garfunkel. Originally released on Columbia Records, it was then issued under the Warner Bros. label and is now back with Columbia through Sony. It was ranked No. 266 on the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  It is packed with classic songs.

 “…It was miles removed from the big, stately ballad style of Bridge Over Troubled Water and signaled that Simon was a versatile songwriter as well as an expressive singer with a much broader range of musical interests than he had previously demonstrated. You didn’t miss Art Garfunkel on Paul Simon, not only because Simon didn’t write Garfunkel-like showcases for himself, but because the songs he did write showed off his own, more varied musical strengths.”
– William Ruhlmann (allmusic)

Paul Simon – Me and Julio down by the schoolyard (live, 1992):

Paul Simon – Paul Simon (album, 1972):

– Hallgeir

Today: Live Rust by Neil Young and Crazy Horse was released in 1979

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Live Rust is a live album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, recorded during his fall 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour.

Live Rust composed of performances recorded at several venues, including the Cow Palace outside San Francisco. Young also directed a companion film, Rust Never Sleeps, under his directorial pseudonym “Bernard Shakey”, which consisted of footage from the Cow Palace  (Young had wanted to give the live album the same title, but Reprise vetoed the idea, fearing confusion with the earlier album, Rust Never Sleeps).

The CD version of the album was slightly edited to fit on a single compact disc, which were limited to 74 minutes at the time this album was first issued on CD. To adhere to the time limit, a little over one minute of the guitar solo “Cortez the Killer” was eliminated.

To take out a whole minute from one of those rare perfect songs, it is just wrong! …and it is the shortened version that is available on Spotify as well.

Cortez The Killer (with the entire solo!):

Live Rust repeat four songs from Rust Never Sleeps (album) and Neil Young was accused of releasing the same material over again (He had also released the compilation album Decade in 1977).

I like that he did release it and Live Rust is an excellent concert album, one of the best. He gave us a fantastic document from a great tour.

The album goes from slow, folksy tunes to raging rockers, Young’s versatility is astonishing.

.. and we don’t have those fucking goblins from the concert film running around.

Live Rust on Spotify:

– Hallgeir