Today’s Cool Album of the Day is the Original London Cast recording of  Jesus Chris Superstar. It”s now our Cool Album of the Day every Easter Sunday. Don’t give me the knock-offs. Give me the original 1971 release featuring Ian Gillian as Jesus. I remember playing the hell out of this back in the day. To me this has always been the definitive version of  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera.  It’s the Original London Concept Recording.  Yes, I also realize that the story told in the opera ends on Good Friday.  We still feel that it’s fitting for Easter Sunday. The music here is absolutely brilliant.  It includes some wonderful performances from Deep Purple lead vocalist Ian Gillan...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1021 in the Series) is Rodriguez, Cold Fact Recording under the single name “Rodriguez,” Sixto “The Dylan of Detroit” Rodriguez, was a psychedelic folk singer in the early seventies.  Long on talent and short on patience for “The Man,” Rodriguez was one of those folk singers that straddled that socio-political fence somewhere between the hippy-trippy sounds and somewhat obtuse themes of Donovan, and the more lyrically dense word-smithing of a folk era Bob Dylan. Vocally he soared slightly above the Dylan growl, and marginally below the sometimes off-kilter refrains of Scott Walker. Sonically the sound is Syd Barret-meets Arthur Lee and Love-meets Donovan, and the entire conglomeration can probably be described as...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#995 in the Series) is The Small Faces, First Step Being married to, or even dating a super model may give you a lot of bragging rights with the boys down at the local watering hole, and it certainly gives you a “checkmate” in the game of one-upmanship when you and your buddies are on your fifth pint and trading war stories about the hottest girlfriend you ever dated.  But if you are a rock star, and history tells us anything, it’s that that Super Models are responsible for ruining more careers than drugs, alcohol and Yoko combined, and that maintaining a relationship with one or more of these long legged vixens may be...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#994 in the Series) is Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy Most music fans will know the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (if they know them at all) as the makers of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”, a superb album which has become semi-legendary in certain circles, with good cause. It was an essential purchase when it came out in 1972, a wondrous 3 LP set within which tribute was paid by a younger generation to some of the most revered performers of traditional Country music. The likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs and Roy Acuff were on board for a seminal release on which both sides of...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (# 974 in the Series) is Blood, Sweat and Tears, 3. In many ways, this album had more to do with long love affair with music, than any other album ever released. When I was a wee lad, my sister gave me copy of this. It was actually on cassette. It was right when those lovely pre-recorded cassettes first hit the market. I had a player and played it over and over and over. I even remember starting and stopping the songs over and over so I could write out the lyrics. I was hooked. I had to get more of these! Blood, Sweat and Tears 3 contained some of the bands...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#924 in the Series) is The Allman Brothers Band, Idlewild South. Idlewild South was the second and last of the two  “true” Allman Brothers Band albums. They’ve had many, many great albums, but the first two are always considered the only “true” Allman Brothers, meaning, Duane and Gregg were both included. I’ve also read more than one review that has called this the best studio album that band ever produced.   As mentioned, this was the last full studio album that included the great Duane Allman. He would lose his life in a motorcycle accident while recording the follow up, Eat a Peach.  Of course it didn’t end there either. Original...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#909 in the Series) is The Who, Live at Leeds.  The Who, Live at Leeds. Is this the motherload of all live albums? I do believe this, when you talk about the best live albums of all time, this is in the team picture.  And I’m just referring to the six song, original release of 1970. That’s it, six raw powerful wonderful rock and roll songs. It was The Who during a great period. This was the tour for Tommy.  They had finished their poppy earlier era and had entered into a rock and roll era with the original band that would last for about eight more years. The six songs on the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#908 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Wishbone Ash. Everyone has a band or two, that, for one reason or another, they consider “their band.” Perhaps you were the first kid on the block to discover them, and then couldn’t wait to tell everyone about them! Or they simply remind you of a special time in your life. For me, Wishbone Ash is one of those bands. Wishbone Ash was the first “real” band I ever saw. They were opening for Alice Cooper at the long since demolished International Amphitheatre in the lovely stockyard area of Chicago’s south side. That show was in the year of 1972. I was 13...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Draggin’ The Line” by Tommy James Tommy James and the Shondells were one of the most commercially successful singles groups of the 1960s, selling millions of record and placing bubblegum classics like “Hanky Panky,” “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Mony, Mony,” “Crimson And Clover,” “Sweet Cherry Wine” and “Crystal Blue Persuasion” onto the upper echelon of the charts. However, things came to a dramatic end in March of 1970, when Tommy James and the Shondells played their last concert together in Birmingham, Alabama. As James was leaving the stage, he collapsed and was initially pronounced dead after suffering a bad reaction to drugs. The band continued to tour without James for...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “We Can Work It Out” by Stevie Wonder He was no longer little…but he was not yet big either… By 1970, Stevie Wonder had grown restless with the constraints that Motown Records put upon his creativity. Rather than continue to create commercial fodder that was sure to climb the charts, Wonder wanted to address social concerns with his music, and explore different instrumentation on his records. On his 1970 album Signed, Sealed & Delivered, he began to spread his musical wings and display a newfound maturity in his songwriting and his singing, particularly on songs like “I Can’t Let Heaven Walk Away,” “Something To Say” and “Never Had A Dream Come...