Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “One Too Many Mornings” by Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash Still a mystery to me why these recordings have never been officially released… The Dylan-Cash Sessions took place in Nashville’s Columbia Studio A on February 17-18, 1969 at the tail end of the Nashville Skyline recording sessions. During the same week that Dylan turned in such indelible recordings as “I Threw It All Away,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “To Be Alone With You” and “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” Johnny Cash, who had been recording in an adjoining  studio turned up for some recording fun. What transpired were several days of session in which the two traded songs and...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Only A Lonely Man Would Know” by Marvin Gaye The Marvin Gaye albums What’s Going On, Let’s Get It On and Here, My Dear are considered to be his finest by fans and critics alike, and it would be hard to argue the contrary with what’s in the grooves. But it mystifies me that the critics fail to mention the album M.P.G. in the same breath as the others. M.P.G. came out in April of 1969, and was one of Marvin Gaye’s last records before he took the control of his career away from Motown, and began calling the shots himself. That said, M.P.G. (for Marvin Pentz Gaye, not miles...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You” by Cher When one thinks of interpreters of Bob Dylan, the name Cher doesn’t automatically come to mind. But she was, in fact, a huge champion of Dylan’s songs, and his songs fit her voice like a glove. Over the years, Cher has covered such Dylan copyrights as “All I Really Want To Do” (a #15 hit),“Lay Lady Lay” (titled “Lay Baby Lay” on her version), “I Threw It All Away,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Like A Rolling Stone,” “Masters Of War,” “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” and today’s Song Of The Day, “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You.” Cher...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Reasons For Waiting” by Jethro Tull By the time of their second album, Stand Up, original guitarist Mick Abrahams was out of the band over a dispute over the future direction Tull’s music would take. Abrahams wanted them to remain solidly a blues rock band as they were on their debut album, This Was, while Ian Anderson wanted to branch out, adding acoustic elements to their sound. Replacing Abrahams was new guitarist, Martin Barre, who has been in every other incarnation of Jethro Tull ever since. Stand Up saw the development of the classic Tull sound as we know it today. By adding the influences of classical music via the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#681 in the Series) is King Crimson, In The Court of the Crimson King My father used to be a member of this old time Italian club when I was a child.  I always thought it was pretty cool. The club was called The Roseland Operetta Club. No, they didn’t sing, or promote Operas by this time but that was indeed how it was formed.  The club had some nice grounds that included picnic areas and some killer bocce courts. The front door was always locked, but all members had the key.  I really thought it was neat how you had to unlock it to get in. Heck, I was just a...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#615 in the Series) is The Guess Who, Canned Wheat How about a little Guess Who for today’s Cool Album of the Day, eh?  It’s actually about time we got to this great Canadian band considering they’re one of the better bands to emerge from the late 1960s. I’ve wanted to do a piece on them for quite some time but I had to go back and give their stuff another listen. I was a fan of theirs when they were current, but most of the time the only album of theirs and I had was The Guest Who, Greatest Hits. You might not be aware but we do not cover greatest...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#598 in the Series) is Mason Proffit, Wanted. The Mason Proffit name is quite well known in these Chicago parts. I’m really not so sure outside of this market. I look forward to hearing from those not in our backyard. Mason Proffit was a mid to later 60s to early 70s band that was founded and fronted by the Talbot brothers, Terry and John-Michael. They both played guitar and supplied the writing and the vocals. They were actually one of the originators of country-rock.  It would be nice to see their name included more when someone tosses out names on the subject.  They really should be recognized more. One song that you may...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#515 in the Series) is The James Gang, Yer’ Album Contrary to what popular opinion and what Don Mclean will tell you, the music did not die on February 3rd 1959 when the plane carrying The Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly crashed into an Iowa corn field.  In reality “The Day the Music Died” was actually that fateful day in 1977 that the novelty song “Disco Duck” made it to number one on the billboard charts.  Sure there had been other apocalyptic signs that rock music had “jumped the shark” and was destined for decades of mediocrity, not the least of them being the popularity of Air Supply, the song “Horse...

Today’s Cool Album of the day (#490 in the Series) is Dion, Wonder Where I’m Bound When is an album not an album ? Well, in this case it’s when an artist’s old record company decides to gather up a bunch of previously unreleased tracks, recorded years before, and rush-release them to cash in on the artists current success! That’s exactly what happened to Dion in 1969 and, let’s be honest; it was probably no surprise to anyone, just the kind of stunt that record companies pull all the time really. This time around it proved to be a great move though, “Wonder Where I’m Bound”, the album of material they’d rejected before, turned out to be better than...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#425 in the Series) is Chicago Transit Authority. How times have changed in the music industry.  I remember an era when if you were a pretty decent band, honed your writing skills, your playing skills and your overall package, you had a decent chance of getting a record deal.  If you had a following, you had a real good chance.  The labels often didn’t even expect anything from your first offering. They were often content to invest in you for the long term.  Start you off with album one, get you noticed and then try to just advance from there, album by album.  In fact, they worried more about over exposing you than...