Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1049 in the Series) is Styx, Styx II All I have to do is look at that Styx II album cover and I immediately feel a smile forming on my face as all these wonderful childhood memories return. I was raised in the far Southside neighborhood of Chicago called Roseland.  A place that while part of a huge metropolis, still felt like small town America to us. It was a small town that was made up of many immigrant families.  There was a Polish area, a Mexican area, a Lithuanian area (that gave us director Robert Zemeckis. Back to the Future, Forest Gump) an area called “Bum Town” (that gave us Elliot...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1031 in the Series ) is Uriah Heep, Live Back in the mid-seventies, one of my friends had a “neat” drum kit in his attic. He and and a few other  friends would pound away on it. At that point I had taken some lessons so I knew a little bit of what I was doing. We had a stereo up there as well.  If memory serves me correct, it was a two story unit apartment house type of thing with maybe one person living in-between. So we could make a ton of noise up there and no one cared, and we did. We’d get some of our favorite albums and try and...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#953 in the Series)  is Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies. About three years ago I listened to this album for the first time in about 12 years. I could not believe how great it still sounded. Of all the early 70s things that I loved, this one still kicked as good, if not better, than almost anything else I’d played in quite sometime from that old era. The quality of the tracks stood out, but what stood out the most was the quality of the arrangements and wonderfully intricate playing by the band. There was a ton great musicians in the early Alice Cooper band.  It’s great to hear hard rock played by...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#910 in the Series)is Paul Pena, New Train New Train is the debut release and the “lost record” from blind blues singer Paul Pena. Recorded in 1973, the album was (for a reason known only to the musical gods) shelved until its first proper release in 2000, and is now considered one of the great unearthed Soul-Blues albums. With a voice that floats somewhere between Lenny Kravitz and Lou Rawls, and a vibe that rolls down The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Croce and Bonnie Raitt train track with a side trip down the Joe Cocker Highway, New Train does not show its age at all, and sounds as if it could have...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango Hailing from Cameroon, Africa, Manu Dibango established himself as an in-demand saxophone player working with acts as diverse as Fela Kuti, Don Cherry, The Fania All-Stars and Sly and Robbie. “Soul Makossa,” Dibango’s signature disco smash, was originally released as the flip side to the 1972 single “Mouvement Ewondo” on the French independent Fiesta record label. The song probably would have sunk without a trace if it had not been for Manhattan socialite David Mancuso. Mancuso was known for throwing exclusive invitation-only loft parties in New York City that served as a precursor to the city’s thriving Disco scene of the 1970s. Mancuso found a copy...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy” by Return To Forever featuring Chick Corea Pianist extraordinaire, Chick Corea, got his professional start playing with the likes of Cab Calloway, Blue Mitchell, Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaria. He went on to replace Herbie Hancock in Miles Davis’ band and played with him from 1968 through 1971 during a crucial time when Miles was moving away from straight-ahead jazz, and toward a more psychedelic rock sound. He appeared on Davis’ seminal albums Filles de Kilimanjaro, In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Black Beauty and Miles Davis At Fillmore. After leaving Miles’ ranks with Dave Holland, he formed Circle with Anthony Braxton and Barry...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Rock On” by David Essex It was the era of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Lou Reed’s Transformer. Glam rock was all the rage as were Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople and The New York Dolls. And there was also a new brand of power pop taking the charts by storm at the same time with hits like “Little Willie” by Sweet, “Go All The Way” by Raspberries and later “Saturday Night” by Bay City Rollers. Enter David Essex…British actor and future glam rock pinup star. Essex had an acting career appearing in the musical Godspell in 1971 and later in the film That’ll Be The Day...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Show And Tell” by Al Wilson Today’s Song Of The Day is the signature hit by soul great Al Wilson. While Wilson is closely identified with the song, he wasn’t the first artist to record this classic hit. That honor went to none other than Johnny Mathis, who recorded it in 1972, a year before Wilson took to the charts. (We have it below for your enjoyment) Al Wilson spent his formative years kicking around San Bernardino, California working odd jobs, singing in soul groups and developing comedy routines with an eye towards a career in entertainment before joining the Navy and singing in the enlisted men’s chorus. After two...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & The Gang When Kool & The Gang topped the charts with “Celebrate” in 1980, they were at the peak of their success, but as far as I was concerned, they were long past their prime. To many, that prime happened seven years earlier with the 1973 album, Wild And Peaceful and its clutch of super funky singles. Kool & The Gang hailed from Jersey City, New Jersey and formed in 1964 as The Jazziacs. They then changed their name to Kool & The Flames, and later settled on Kool & The Gang so as not to be confused with James Brown and His Famous Flames. Their...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Dancing Machine” by The Jackson 5 They were growing up…and the world liked their Jacksons young. By 1973, The Jackson 5 were becoming somewhat of a spent force around Motown. It had been a few years since the group scored a bona-fide top ten hit, and there was plenty of dissatisfaction to go around. Brother Michael was no longer the pint-sized dynamo that he once was. He was now a pimply 15 years old geek with a much deeper voice. Motown had been grooming him as a solo star much to the detriment of his singing brothers, and between 1971 and 1973 he scored several substantial solo hits including the top...