The New Barbarians “Buried Alive: Live in Maryland”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1054 in the Series and #38) is The New Barbarians, Buried Alive: Live in Maryland The band The New Barbarians was formed in 1979 as a means to promote Ron Wood’s most recent album Gimme Some Neck. The album was a minor success peaking at number 45 on the billboard charts and was the first to feature Wood’s own artwork on the album cover including a self-portrait. The band and the subsequent eighteen gig U.S. tour may have gone largely unnoticed were it not for the exceptional musicians that accompanied Wood on the tour. The stellar line-up included Ron Wood and Keith Richards on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass, former Faces keyboardist Ian...
Keith Richards “Talk is Cheap”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1013 in the Series) is Keith Richards, Talk is Cheap. I think I listen to this album more than any Stones album. Great songs, great arrangements, great musicians, great performances. But talk is indeed cheap. So give a listen to “Struggle,” ” Take It So Hard,” “You Don’t Move Me” and “I Could Have Stood You Up.” The latter definitely channels one of Keith’s favorites, Chuck Berry. One of the more interesting cuts on the album is “Make No Mistake.” Here Keith has written a song that Al Green would be proud of. It’s a nice departure with some great duet vocals by Sarah Dash. Word has it that this 1988 recording was during a period...
Merle Haggard "I Am What I Am"
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#959 in the Series) is Merle Haggard, I Am What I Am. I was REAL late coming to the Merle Haggard appreciation society. I’ve loved traditional country for many years. But for some reason Merle slid though the cracks for me. That changed due to his classic song, “Sing Me Back Home.” About five years ago I started noticing all these artist I really respected had covered it. The Grateful Dead, Flying Burrito Brothers, Heartfield, Gram Parsons and Keith Richards together, The Everly Brothers, etc etc. I had to look in on it. Then I started checking out all these old albums and wow. I sure missed quite a bit. Instead of featuring...
Warren Zevon ‘Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School’
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#895 in the Series) is Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School In what can be considered a what came first, the chicken or the egg, sort of symbiotic of relationship, we will never know if Earnest Hemingway could have written The Old Man and the Sea if he was clean and sober, and wasn’t wrestling with more demons than Anton LeVay. Fortunately, in the case of Warren Zevon, we have the exact answer. You can go home again, and second chances to make a great first impression are sometimes given, which is exactly what happened with the release of Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School in 1980. Following the somewhat...
The Rolling Stones ‘Black and Blue’
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Hot Stuff” by The Rolling Stones Today’s Song Of The Day comes from the Rolling Stones’ 1976 album Black And Blue. Next to Goats Head Soup, the album stands as one of the most maligned Rolling Stones releases of the 1970s. That assessment is totally unfair since the album actually is one of the most varied and forward looking records in their catalog, featuring two superb ballads, two terse rockers and several songs that add reggae, soul, funk and disco into the mix. Many of the record’s songs stemmed from studio jams that were recorded while trying out new guitarists to replace Mick Taylor, and guitarists Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel...
Otis Blue ‘Otis Redding Sings Soul’
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#871 in the Series) is Otis Blue, Otis Redding Sings Soul. If you are a musical purist and do not allow live albums, compilations, or greatest hits packages to infiltrate your desert island disc knapsack, then Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul should be added to your collection post haste. The album, released in 1965 just months after the death of Sam Cooke, was the first really pure Otis Redding record. More cohesive in style, this effort has much more of a live feel about it, with the entire package (including the sultry, evocative blond on the album cover) produced with an artistic flow that was previously missing from his prior efforts that...
Johnnie Johnson ‘Johnnie B. Bad’
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#798 in the Series) is Johnnie Johnson, Johnnie B. Bad On New Year’s Eve 1953, history was made when Check Berry walked on stage for the first time with the Sir John Trio creating an embryonic musical moment pairing up Johnnie Johnson, the Grand Poobah of the Piano, with arguably the greatest guitar player of all time, creating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup worthy blending of scorching three chord guitar rock with boogie woogie piano blues. Using the same “If Lee Harvey Oswald was never born would John F. Kennedy still be alive?” progression of thought, it would be relatively safe, albeit futile, to assume that had Chuck Berry not walked on...
The Rolling Stones Bring a Bigger Bang to Tinsel Town
39 Years. That’s a long long while since a “Long Long While” played second fiddle to the “A” side of the UK single, “Paint It Black” … then the current chart topper by Rock’s Bad Boys back in Summer ‘66. And yep! I waited 39 years and a long long while to see the return of “therollingstones*” to ….. The Hollywood Bowl. From teenager to fifty-something, I am wai-ting … ting … I am wai-ting … ting … oh yeah oh yeah! On 25th July 1966, Buffalo Springfield opened for therollingstones* … but I was no longer a 17 year old kid and now had a lifetime of concert memories embedded in this old grey-matter & matted brain....
Jagger and Richards Friends Once Again. Looks Like a 2013 Tour with the Strong Possibility of a Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor Inclusion.
Things are looking good, very good thank you for a Rolling Stones 50th anniversary tour. However, it would most likely be held 51 years after their birth. The news doesn’t stop there however as there is talk that ex-band mates, bassist Bill Wyman and guitarist Mick Taylor may also be part of the happening in some formation. The main obstacle to overcome, that being Mick Jagger and Keith Richards getting along has indeed been rectified. Just last night after a long get together in New York City, this was said by Mr. Mick: “Looking back at any career you are bound to recall both the highs and the lows.”In the 1980s, for instance, Keith and I were not...
The Rolling Stones to Reunite with Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor? Well, Kind of … Maybe.
The Rolling Stones to reunite with Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor? Well, Kind of. maybe. Our friends at Spinner.com recently interviewed Keith Richards. He shared with them some thought on an upcoming jam session and also the possibility of a 50th anniversary tour. The band is re-releasing a their Some Girls album this week (Nov 21st) As a promotion, Keith, and Charlie Ronnie will be jamming and have invited Bill and Mick to join them. We’re not sure if Mick will be there. We hope. Here’s the interview Keith did with Spinner.com When do you start those jam sessions with Ronnie and Charlie? The idea is to go in December. I said, “Jesus Christ, we haven’t played together...
