Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1042 in the Series) is James Taylor, That’s Why I’m Here. “Come on everyone, come on… let’s go!  James is recording a new album.  We all have to help him out! Was that the clarion call throughout Los Angeles in 1985 when James Taylor decided to record for the first time in years,who knows? ButI’m guessing it was close.  It seems like every hot musician from within 100 miles played on this album. So before I get into the rest of album, let me make a list of who answered that call. Here’s who makes an appearance on That’s Why I’m Here. Don Henley, Leland Sklar, Peter Asher,  Randy + Michael Brecker...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#957 in the Series) is Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms. Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums that was completely digitally recorded. It was released in May of 1985. Right about this time I was itching to get my first CD player.  They had just started to get to a price level that ‘cattle’ like myself could afford one.  I knew the day was coming soon where I would have a player, so I grabbed a couple CDs that I could bring when I went player searching. I needed two discs that I liked. I needed two discs that had a sound quality so good, that when I heard them blasting...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#936 in the Series) is King Crimson, Discipline. King Crimson is quite the unique musical act. They’ve completely reinvented themselves numerous times.  This was probably the most straight forward of those reincarnations. Contributing to the straight forward sound was the newly slimmed down line up. King Crimson was now a tight little four piece. This would be the debut of two members that would eventually be considered King Crimson mainstays. They would be Adrian Belew on guitar, lead vocals and Tony Levin on bass and Chapman stick. Bill Bruford returned on drums along with the main man, Robert Fripp on guitars and “stuff.” Discipline also received a decent amount of airplay for a band that...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#885 in the Series) is Alice Cooper, Welcome to My Nightmare Part Psycho Circus, part Jerry Springer show, part Quentin Tarantino shock-fest, Alice Cooper’s Welcome to my Nightmare album and subsequent tour was, depending on your point of view, either ridiculous or brilliant. The ultimate answer is of course given the benefit of historical perspective, that the album is ridiculously brilliant. Released in 1975, the album was Alice Cooper’s first post band break-up outing and is by far the best solo record of his decades long career. Giving up the comfort of a consistent touring band and going to ax person by committee was certain to be a calculated risk. It was going...

  Song Of the Day by Eric Berman – “On The Air” & “Moribund The Burgermeister” by Peter Gabriel (Live from Rockpalast, 1978) By the time of the broadcast from this 1978 Rockpalast show, Peter Gabriel was three years past his Genesis days and was out on the road promoting his second solo record, Peter Gabriel (which also goes by the names Peter Gabriel II and Scratch because of its album jacket image). I’ve already written several pieces on Peter Gabriel’s second album and its unique relationship with two other Robert Fripp productions, Sacred Songs by Daryl Hall and Fripp’s own Exposure , but a nice pro-shot concert from this era is a real find worth sharing. The video...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#791 in the Series) is John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy I remember the day when Double Fantasy was released. It was full of hope and promise for the future.  That hope would soon turn into the deepest of sadness as John would be killed just three short three weeks later. This was the first piece of music that John had given us in well over a half a decade. We did have a compilation (Shaved Fish) and an album of old covers (Rock and Roll) so we were starved to hear what John had to say. Double Fantasy didn’t knock out the critics’ right out of the box, but...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#689 in the Series) is The Roches, Keep on Doing. I recently heard a song by The Roches on the radio and then it hit me, man I hadn’t thought about them for a long time (Sorry ladies if you’re reading this. I’ll make it up to you!), What a shame, I really like their music.  It’s been too long! What did I like about them? I think it was the melting of sounds that intrigued me when I first had this album thirty years ago. That and the sense of humor that is clearly visible in these songs. The Roches were a New York band that began in the late ’70....

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#456 in the Series and #44 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Peter Gabriel, Play’s Live Peter Gabriel, Plays Live… for me, this is a Desert Island Disc. And it’s not even close. Peter Gabriel’s first few solo albums after leaving Genesis are some of my favorite albums.  This was recorded on his 1982 tour.  He was on the road promoting his fourth album, the one that here in the States is called Security. It was released in a few different packages. The main release in 1983 was a double album.  The CD format of the album was also a double; however there was also a single CD version that was four...

Today’s Cool Album Of the Day (#298 in the Series) Is Robert Fripp, Exposure. Robert Fripp had a plan in the late 70s. He wanted to have three albums released as a ‘Trilogy.’ They would be related releases and would share musicians, producers, song writers, etc.  Not completely, but there would be enough overlapping to show the plan that Fripp had in his head. Besides Sacred Songs, the second album would have been Peter Gabriel’s second solo album, or as you may know it as ‘Scratches.’  We’ll be featuring that album soon enough. The third installment of the trilogy would be this one, Robert Fripp’s Exposure.  Daryl Hall adds some great vocals on tracks like “North Star” and “You Burn...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#200 in the Series) self-titled solo debut from Robbie Robertson. This one is a ‘special’ album. I recently listen to this great work in its entirety for the first time in many moons. It was as moving as it was the first time I heard it. It is an absolute gem. “Fallen Angel” was Robbie (co-written by Martin Page)‘s tribute to Richard Manuel. Richard was Robbie’s longtime band-mate.  It features some great support vocals by Peter Gabriel. I’ve included the full list of participating musicians.  It’s quite lengthy. Special mentions include U2, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, Terry Bozzio and Ivan Neville. It took Robbie 11 years to release his first solo effort. When...