Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#511 in the Series) is Steppenwolf, The Second How do you follow up “Born To Be Wild”  and “The Pusher”? You release “Magic Carpet Ride” and Don’t Step on the Grass Sam” of course.  With their eponymous album Steppenwolf, John Kay and the boys established themselves as the cream of the stoner boogie-rock crop of bands that included Black Oak Arkansas, Mountain, Brownsville Station, Moby Grape, Foghat, and many others . The appearance of “Born to be Wild” in the film Easy Rider also didn’t hurt in cultivating their image as the ultimate biker and party band. Steppenwolf’s follow-up album, boringly but accurately released as Steppenwolf, The Second was in many ways a...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#500 IN THE SERIES) is Van Morrison, Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks by Van Morrison is the greatest album ever made. By anyone. Ever. A bold statement to make, given the vast amount of albums that Iwould consider “classic” but I’m willing to stand by it. I’ve loved this album for many years, can still listen to it without feeling it’s overfamiliar, and can still marvel at the sheer beauty of the music, the lyrics AND the singing. It’s a shape changer. For the first few, I dunno, hundred?, thousand?, listens you simply don’t know what’s coming next, where the music’s going to go, what flights of lyrical, poetic fancy Van’s going to take...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#495 in the Series) is the debut album from Procol Harum. This was Procol Harum’s debut album and it was released in 1967.  I’ll go and say it. I think it contains two of the best songs of the decade. One for sure, the other, maybe it’s more of a personal favorite. I don’t think there’s any doubt that I’m referring to “Whiter Shade of Pale.” This is an absolute 100% masterpiece of a song.  It was written by the band’s lead vocalist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid. (Or was it? More on that later) And Yes, I did say lyricist.  Keith Reid was considered a full-fledged band member even though; he...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#494 in the Series) is The Band, Music From Big Pink. No, The Band’s 1969 album titled The Band, was not their debut album. That distinction would be given to their 1968 release, Music From Big Pink. I know we have a ton of followers of The Band that visit our site. Yeah, I knew you knew, but many actually don’t. Quite a few people actually. Last week we looked at a great debut album from The Pretenders. We spoke about how that was one of the best debuts in music history.  This one is also in that team picture. When that Pretenders album hit the streets, they were a new act for...

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 (#473 in the Series) is Iron Butterfly, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida I told this story originally as part of the Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 write up. It needs to be here as well. I know I’ve mentioned many times in these parts how much of a part my two older sisters (Tina and Judy) played in getting me started on listening to good music. Tina was the older one; she always made sure that she had on “Where The Action Is” or “Shindig” in the afternoons.  She added the first albums to the family record collection that were not my father’s stuff like Al Martino, Mario Lanza or Robertino “The Young Italian Singing Sensation.”  Judy...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#442 in the Series) is James Brown, Live at the Apollo I often look at “Top” lists when I decide which album to feature.  I sometimes look thru “Top Live Albums” and such just to get ideas. The one album that may show up more than any other album on those top lists is this one, James Brown, Live at the Apollo. This was recorded in late 1962 and released in 1963.  I wonder, not only is this one of the best live albums of all time, but it’s also got to be one of the first live albums as well. What’s more interesting is the fact that this album almost was never...

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...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#419 in the Series) is Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You When Columbia Records signed the 18 year old Aretha Franklin in 1960 they must have been absolutely delighted. There was no doubt that the kid had tremendous talent and years of singing and playing gospel music along with her father and sisters had given her the confidence and experience to go with it. There was surely no doubt that she would go on, very soon, to be one of the biggest stars the label had ever had. Leaving her home in Detroit for New York to work with some of the finest musicians in the country as...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day(#395 in the Series) is The Meters, Look-Ka Py Py Today we’re going to take a look at The Meters’ classic album called Look-Ka Py Py. Classic you say? Well, for its genre it is. Actually you can probably say maybe even more than that.  We’ve referred to that Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of all-time list more than once in these parts. Well, The Meters had the #138 entry with Rejuvenation while Look-Ka Py Py was listed at #218.  So I guess they actually had a pair of classic albums. So you’re not familiar with The Meters you say and “what genre is that of you speak?” Yeah, I guess I’m getting a...