New York Dolls “New York Dolls”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#704 in the Series) is New York Dolls, New York Dolls The New York Dolls are a band that has, over time, come to be defined more by the drugs, debauchery, and deaths of various members than their actual music, and the original line-up has never been given enough credit for being good musicians, in my opinion. Much like The Sex Pistols and even The Ramones, they are always labelled as ‘influential’ in terms of style and attitude, without being given due respect for their musicianship and the songs they wrote and recorded. Then again, the reputation they had as being hell raisers was well earned. It isn’t a widely-known fact that...
“The Sting” Original Soundtrack Recording
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#687 in the Series) is the Original Soundtrack Recording from the Academy Award Winning Motion Picture, The Sting. The Sting was one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s also one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. The Sting starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford and was set in the Chicagoland area beginning in the late 30’s. The soundtrack featured the great ragtime styling of Scott Joplin. Here, Joplin’s music is recreated by pianist Marvin Hamlisch. Hamlisch also added some original compositions to the mix. Scott Joplin was born in 1867 and lived until 1917. His popularity peaked posthumously after The Sting hit the big screen. He was awarded a Pulitzer...
Montrose “Montrose”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#637 in the Series) is the Montrose debut release, Montrose. When was the last time you pulled this one out of the rack? Talk about an album that sounds as good in ’12 as it did in ’73. I’m truly amazed how timeless this one sounds. I’m betting that twenty years from now I’d be saying the same thing. I listened to this one about a year ago for the first time in a decade, at least. I couldn’t get over how much fun I had in reminiscing. The groove in “Space Station #5” really stood out. I think I played the darn song twice. Of course you still have the...
Bad Company “Bad Company”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#630 in the Series) is self-titled debut from Bad Company The year was 1974 and the musical landscape as far as the charts were concerned was a saccharine heavy peppering of Crosby Stills and Nash, The Eagles, and Carole King, full of laid back California Soul that was about as dangerous and edgy as Peter Frampton, and much like Cliff Richard was very close to exceeding its shelf life. It was during this time that hard rock & heavy metal was very much like that green, leafy, combustible substance, it was something I really wanted, but did not necessarily know how to go about getting it. I could not find it...
Waylon Jennings “Honky Tonk Heroes”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#592 in the Series) is Waylon Jennings, Honky Tonk Heroes The time was late summer 1972 and the somewhat grassroots movement that was to become known as “Outlaw Country” and was rooted in the anti-hero cowboy and celebrated rugged individualism vs. Brylcreem wearing, skinny tie sporting, image conscious country crooning, was still in its embryonic stages and had not yet galloped into public awareness. The place was Dripping Springs, Texas in a field that had been recently outfitted with a stage along with the accompanying infrastructure to put on what was to become an annual event, Willie Nelson’s Summer Picnic. On the bill that day were soon to be country icons Willie...
Ringo Starr “Ringo”
Today’ Cool Album of the Day (#575 in the Series) is Ringo Starr, Ringo People sometimes forget that directly after The Beatles breakup, that you wouldn’t have been necessarily wrong if you said Ringo had the early lead on best Beatle solo career. He really did have a nice run of hits in the early 70’s. It began with “It Don’t Come Easy” (which was just a single) which was a huge hit. It was followed up by two #1 hits from the Ringo album. “Photograph” and “You’re Sixteen” topped the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. As an album, the Ringo album reached as high as #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. ‘It Don’t Come...
Deep Purple “Made in Japan”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#568 in the Series) is Deep Purple, Made in Japan. 40 years ago today, Dec. 3, 1971, Frank Zappa was playing the Montreux Casino. That night, some stupid with a flare gun, burned the place to the ground… I think you may have heard about that…. One of the all-time, classis live hard rock albums is the perfect way to describe Deep Purple’s release, Made in Japan. The oddity of it all is that this album wasn’t even supposed to happen. Deep Purple had just released their super successful album, Machine Head in March of 1972. The support tour for that album brought the band to Japan. The Japanese wing of their label at...
UFO “The Chrysalis Years (1973-1979)”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (# 553 in the Series) is UFO, The Chrysalis Years, (1973-1979). I am going to delay with the normal album review inroduction and substitute it with: IT’S ALL HERE! ALL YOU COULD WANT FROM THIS SEMINAL 1970’S HARD ROCK JUGGERNAUT. AND IT COSTS LESS THAN NINETEEN DOLLARS ON LINE! Now that I have that out of my system…… UFO was a great heavy rock band that my friends and I worshipped as teenagers in suburban Chicago. My first show was UFO at the Aragon Ballroom on October 10, 1975. This group had everything. UFO possessed the piledriving rhythm section of Peter Way (bass) and Andy Parker (drums). They featured serviceable short term...
Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels “Live ’73”
Today’s Cool Live album of the Day (#544 in the Series and #57 in the Live Saturday Night Series) is Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels, Live ‘73 (Sierra Records) Today we look at this special album by this special artist on a special day, for today, Gram Parsons would have been 65 years of age. I look at it as a bittersweet day, for as I celebrate his birthday I cannot help but wonder what would have been. What kind of music would Gram have been producing if those that were troubled and in need of help back in the early 70s could have received the help that they do today. Not that we have all the...
Tom Waits “Closing TIme”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#535 in the Series) is Tom Waits, Closing Time (Asylum) With the recent release of his first proper full length release since 2004, Bad as Me, I got to thinking about my somewhat tortured relationship with the enigmatic troubadour. Appreciating Tom Waits is like drinking a six pack of beer for the first time. Your first taste is kind of bitter where over indulging can cause a violent reaction the likes of which you probably have not experienced since that god awful last episode of “Cheers”. The chances of this first experience being a negative one increase exponentially especially if you’re Tom Waits de-flowering happened to be in the not so gentle arms...
