In 1979, following an acrimonious divorce from Mercury Records, Graham Parker & the Rumour released an album that would become a rock and roll classic.
Saturday, March 13th, 2010 by Ken Shane
This coming Tuesday, Bloodshot Records will release the latest Graham Parker album, Imaginary Television. My colleague Dw. Dunphy thinks it’s a pretty good effort. Read his review here. For many people however, Parker has yet to top his 1979 classic Squeezing Out Sparks.
Parker put the Rumour together in 1975 by enlisting veterans of three different British pub bands. The members were guitarists Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont, keyboard player Rich Andrews, drummer Steve Goulding, and bassist Andrew Bodnar. Their debut album, Howlin’ Wind was released in 1976, followed quickly by their second release, Heat Treatment. The band quickly gained a strong reputation for their intense live performances. Unfortunately, record sales did not live up to expectations, and by the time of their third album, 1977’s Stick To Me, Parker had clearly adopted a somewhat more commercial songwriting style.
Parker made it clear that in his opinion the blame for paltry sales in the U.S. lay squarely at the doorstep of his label, Mercury Records, and delivered the ultimate goodbye in the form of the lethal b-side of a 1979 single, “Mercury Poisoning.” He was quickly signed to Arista records, and enlisted legendary producer Jack Nitzsche to work on his debut for the label, Squeezing Out Sparks. The album would become one of the most acclaimed efforts in the history of rock and roll. (more…)
Tags: Andrew Bodnar, Bob Andrews, Brinsley Schwarz, Cratedigger, Dw. Dunphy, Graham Parker, Jack Nitzsche, Ken Shane, Mark Howlett, Martin Belmont, Steve Goulding
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 by Ken Shane
1970 was a momentous year. The Vietnam War raged on, and in May, four students at Kent State University were shot down in cold blood by members of the Ohio National Guard. Neil Young was so shocked by what he saw that day that he wrote the song “Ohio” in response, recorded it with his colleagues Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and had the single on the streets within days of the massacre. The big song and album of 1970 was, however, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water.
The Beatles broke up in 1970, and in April, Paul McCartney released his self-titled first solo album. It was very much a homegrown affair. Out in California, a young musician named Emitt Rhodes, unquestionably influenced by the Beatles, specifically Paul McCartney, had pop dreams of his own. After seeing a little bit of success in bands like the Palace Guard, and the Merry-Go-Round (see the first video below), Rhodes decided to go the solo route. Taking advantage of a $5,000 advance he got from ABC/Dunhill, he bought studio equipment, and installed it in his parents’ garage in Hawthorne, California, a town which was also the childhood home of Brian Wilson and his brothers. There must have been something in the water in Hawthorne. It was there that the 20-year-old musician recorded his first album, which over the years has become widely recognized as a pop masterpiece, and a highly sought prize for collectors. (more…)
Tags: Brian Wilson, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Cratedigger, Crosby Stills & Nash, Emitt Rhodes, Ken Shane, Kent State, Neil Young, Ohio, Prince, Simon & Garfunkle, Todd Rungren
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 by Ken Shane
There are very few songwriters who have enjoyed careers as storied as Jimmy Webb. For more than 40 years he’s been sending songs up the pop charts, creating stars along the way. My own appreciation of Webb began with the Richard Harris recording of Webb’s epic “MacArthur Park” in 1968. It’s a song that has inspired strong, and not necessarily positive, reactions. There has always been that silly criticism about “someone left the cake out in the rain,” and “all the sweet green icing flowing down,” when even a cursory listen reveals the true meaning of the metaphors. And yes, I even enjoyed Harris’ highly emotive vocal style. So much so that I bought his Webb-produced and written first album A Tramp Shining, as well as their second collaboration, which I regard as a true pop masterpiece, The Yard Went On Forever.
The 5th (not Fifth) Dimension scored their first big hit in 1967 with their version of Webb’s “Up, Up, and Away.” The single reached #7 on the pop chart, and the album of the same name, which included several other Webb songs, made it all the way to #8. It seemed only natural that when it came time for their second album, the L.A. vocal group would turn to Webb again. What wasn’t natural was that instead of building on their success, they took a big chance. It was a gamble that succeeded brilliantly on an artistic level, but it did not come close to the commercial success of Up, Up, and Away. (more…)
Tags: Billy Davis Jr, Bones Howe, Cratedigger, Florence Larue, Hal Blaine, Jimmy Webb, Joe Osborne, Ken Shane, Lamont McLemore, Larrry Knechtel, Marilyn McCoo, Ron Townson, The 5th Dimension, The Magic Garden, Tony Tedesco
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
Saturday, January 30th, 2010 by Ken Shane
I tend to reserve this space for albums that I remember fondly from a bygone era, but there is a lot of worthy new music around these days, and once in awhile, I like to feature a promising young band. That brings me to a band from Oklahoma City called the Uglysuit.
The annual South By Southwest music festival in Austin played host to about 1,900 bands last year. That doesn’t include all the bands that descend on Austin during the festival for unofficial shows, in nearly equivalent numbers. There is a lot of music vying for the attention of anyone who attends. You certainly can’t get to it all. You have to set your own criteria, and create a schedule for yourself. Said schedule usually goes out the window a few hours into the first day. So how do you decide who to see? I went for bands that made albums that I liked, but that I’d never seen live. Then I added bands that I’d read positive things about, but had never heard or seen live. Finally, I relied on advice from people whose musical taste I respect. (more…)
Tags: Cratedigger, Flaming Lips, Israel Hindman, Ken Shane, Oklahoma City, Pink Floyd, Quarterstick Records, Radiohead, The Uglysuit, Wilco
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
Saturday, January 16th, 2010 by Ken Shane
More than anything else, A Nod Is as Good as a Wink … to a Blind Horse is an album that reminds us. It reminds us of the great songwriter, singer, bass player, and overall beautiful spirit Ronnie Lane, and how much we miss him. Ronnie’s greatest song, “Debris,” is here. This tender tune that he wrote for his father never fails to move me, and when Rod joins in on that bridge, the whole thing becomes simply transcendent.
If we need reminding, here is the proof that at his best, Rod Stewart was the greatest rock vocalist of his time. Any number of performances here will confirm that. Ronnie Wood was once a stellar guitar player. Listen to his slide work on “That’s All You Need” if you don’t believe me. Ian McLagan, bless his heart, was, and is, one of the the premier keyboard players on the planet. Oh, and we’re reminded of what was once good about radio. After all, the rollicking “Stay With Me,” Faces’ biggest hit, got tons of airplay. Can you imagine that happening today given the restrictive nature of commercial radio playlists? Not bloody likely.
A Nod Is as Good as a Wink … is not just about memory. It’s about music too, the music made by a consistently underrated band. To some degree they have themselves to blame for not becoming the megastars they could have been, should have been. Faces seemed to prefer the role of good-time band at the pub down the block to stadium rockers. Their music, however, tells a different story. A Nod Is as Good as a Wink … is the third of the four Faces albums, the second that they released in 1971, and it presents the band doing all the things that they did best, from the rocking boogie of the opener, “Miss Judy’s Farm,” to the tender, whiskey-soaked ballad “Love Lives Here.”
Ian McLagan, Ronnie Wood, and drummer Kenney Jones got together for some shows in London last year, and now there is talk of a tour. Rod Stewart won’t be joining them, preferring to spend the time promoting his latest oldies covers album, and of course Ronnie Lane is irreplaceable. Usually the reunion of a band that’s missing key members holds very little interest for me. But to see the remaining Faces play these songs is something I’m actually pretty excited about.
(more…)
Tags: Cratedigger, Faces, Ian McLagan, Ken Shane, Kenney Jones, Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane
Posted in Cratedigger, Music | View Comments
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 by Ken Shane
Todd Rundgren is one of rock’s great auteurs. Along with artists like Emmit Rhodes, Paul McCartney, and Prince, Rundgren has the ability to put together entire albums on his own. He writes the songs, plays nearly all the instruments, and produces his albums. The 1970 album Runt is often thought to be Rundgren’s first solo album because later reissues identify it as a Rundgren album, but the fact is that at the time of the original Ampex release, Runt was a band consisting of Rundgren along with Hunt Sales on bass and Tony Sales on drums. Still, Rundgren wrote all the songs, produced the album, and played all the instruments aside from bass and drums (and, I suspect, the strings and horns).
The album distinctly shows the three sides of Rundgren’s genius. There are guitar rave-ups (Rundgren has always been underrated as a guitar player) like the opening “Broke Down and Busted,” “Who’s That Man,” and “Devil’s Bite.” Then there are the ineffably sad, beautiful ballads for which Rundgren has become a favorite of many. These include “Believe In Me,” and “Once Burned.” Finally there are the flat out pop masterworks like “We Gotta Get You A Woman,” which reached #20 on the U.S. charts, and the medley “Baby Let’s Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don’t Tie My Hands.” The opening song of the medley is a wonderful tribute to songwriter Laura Nyro. What makes it particular special is that Rundgren places it musically within the jaunty shuffle that was a hallmark of Nyro’s work. A mis-pressed vinyl release from later in 1970 offered a full-length version of “Baby Let’s Swing,” and the beautiful ballad “Hope I’m Around,” which eventually ended up on Rundgren’s next album, The Ballad of Todd Rundgren. There were only 5,000 copies of these mis-presses, but we can be thankful for the bountiful Internet.
Todd Rundgren recorded three albums with the Philadelphia band Nazz before leaving in 1969. The indelible original version of “Hello It’s Me,” which appeared on the first Nazz album, was a Top 50 hit in Canada. After leaving Nazz, he formed Runt. Whether Runt is a true solo album or a band effort remains a bit of a mystery. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren was even more of a solo effort, and by 1972, Rundgren was playing everything on three of the four sides of his masterpiece Something/Anything.
(more…)
Tags: Cratedigger, hunt sales, Ken Shane, Nazz, Todd Rundgren, tony sales
Posted in Cratedigger, Music | View Comments
Saturday, December 19th, 2009 by Ken Shane
There had never been anything quite like them. They weren’t the cute mop-tops or acid-fueled freaks that had risen to fame in recent years. The members of Blood, Sweat & Tears were seasoned music professionals. The horn section (did I mention there was a horn section?!) was led by alto player Fred Lipsius, featured a young trumpeter named Randy Brecker, and came from a jazz place. Keyboard player Al Kooper and guitarist Steve Katz were late of a great New York City band called the Blues Project, but of course Kooper was best known for his immortal organ part on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” The Mothers of Invention and Buffalo Springfield were part of bass player Jim Fielder’s resumé.
When the band came together in 1967, Kooper made himself the leader because he didn’t want a repeat of what happened in the Blues Project, which was more of a democracy. At first the new band was a quartet, including drummer Bobby Colomby. They did a few gigs in that configuration before Lipsius joined a couple of months later and recruited three more horn players of his acquaintance. It was this group that recorded one of the greatest albums of the 1960s, Child Is Father to the Man.
Kooper was the main songwriter and vocalist for the band. He contributed seven of the album’s twelve tracks, including future classics like the R&B-flavored “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know” and “My Days Are Numbered.” Katz’s more folk-influenced “Meagan’s Gypsy Eyes” and well-chosen covers of songs by Tim Buckley (“Morning Glory”), Harry Nilsson (“Without Her”), Randy Newman (“Just One Smile”), and Goffin-King (“So Much Love”) filled out the album.
The album was produced by Columbia Records staffer John Simon and released in February 1968. Later that year Simon produced the Band’s debut album, Music From Big Pink, and their second, self-titled album the following year. Very few producers have ever had a better run. Each track on Child Is Father to the Man was meticulously arranged, and the spirit of experimentation flows freely through the entire work. The horn arrangements have rarely been equaled in the annals of rock history. The most telling sign of all is that more than 40 years later this album doesn’t sound the least bit dated. From its opening “Overture” to its closing “Underture,” it remains one of the greatest listening experiences you can have.
Child Is Father to the Man peaked at #47 on Billboard’s pop album chart, but the band was already wracked by artistic squabbles: Katz and Colomby wanted to hire another vocalist and have Kooper focus solely on songwriting and keyboards. Eventually, Kooper found himself forced out of the band he had founded. Trumpet players Randy Brecker and Jerry Weiss also left after the album was released.
Blood, Sweat & Tears went looking for a new singer. Laura Nyro and Stephen Stills were considered for the job, but in the end it was given to Canadian vocalist David Clayton Thomas. The band turned away from the innovation that had marked their first album and traveled down more of a pop road. There they found enormous commercial success, but they never again neared the artistic heights they had reached on their debut.
Tags: Al Kooper, Blood Sweat & Tears, Bobby Colomby, Carole King, Cratedigger, David Clayton Thomas, Fred Lipsius, Harry Nilsson, Jerry Weiss, Jim Fielder, Ken Shane, Laura Nyro, Randy Brecker, Randy Newman, Stephen Stills, Steve Katz, the Bluebells, the Blues Project, Tim Buckley
Posted in Cratedigger, Music | View Comments
Saturday, December 5th, 2009 by Ken Shane
The Cars seldom seem to get enough credit for being a fine band. That of course is because they had the temerity to be too successful, launching hit single after hit single up the charts. Originating from Boston in the wake of the rise and flame-out of the punk movement, they were one of the first of what were labeled “new wave” bands. Bands that were tarred with this particular brush were thought to be playing on the punk image while putting mainstream success ahead of punk principles. The defining fashion statement of the new wave wasn’t torn T-shirts, but rather pushed-up sleeves on sports jackets. The Cars are an object lesson in why we should forget about labels and image and judge the music on its own merits.
In 1978 the first, self-titled Cars album was like a bolt out of the blue. The band had been signed to Elektra Records based on the heavy airplay that their demos were getting on Boston radio station WBCN. Roy Thomas Baker, who had great success with Queen, was brought in to produce. The sound was modern but based on an amalgamation of things that had been heard before. It was the songs that made that first album special. Three of its singles made the Billboard Hot 100, and the album itself peaked at #18.
(more…)
Tags: Cratedigger, Elliot Easton, Greg Hawkes, Ken Shane, Ric Ocasek, Roy Thomas Baker, The Cars
Posted in Cratedigger, Music | View Comments
Saturday, November 14th, 2009 by Ken Shane
Please read to the end for information about how you can win a copy of this album.
The Village in question is Greenwich, and 429 Records has gathered together an accomplished cast to celebrate the music that shook the world from that corner of New York City in the Sixties. Lest you think my use of phrase “shook the world” is an overstatement, I offer the first three songs on the album as evidence. Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds Rickie Lee Jones putting a pin in the balloon of pretension that surrounds Dylan these days. Though not of his making, it marks his every movement. Jones jabs at it with, of all things, a slide whistle, returning the humor inherent in the song.
Songs two and three are Dylan covers too, albeit more serious in tone. There’s nothing funny about “It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding,” and Winnipeg band the Duhks perform it with requisite intensity and respect. Lucinda Williams makes Dylan’s bitter rant “Positively 4th Street” her own by bringing it from a less angry, more heartbroken place, and very few people do heartbreak like Lucinda Williams.
Sixpence None the Richer contribute a wonderfully inventive take on the traditional “Wayfaring Stranger,” and John Oates’ retelling of another traditional song, “He Was A Friend of Mine,” is something of a revelation. The extremely underrated Philadelphia singer/songwriter Amos Lee closes out side one with a typically understated, soulful version of Fred Neil’s “Little Bit of Rain.” (more…)
Tags: 429 Records, Amos Lee, Bob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, Cratedigger, Eric Andersen, Fred Neil, John Oates, John Sebastian, Jose Marti, Ken Shane, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Mary Chapin Carpenter, rickie lee jones, Rocco DeLucca, Shelby Lynne, Sixpence None The Richer, The Duhks
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 by Ken Shane
I have to admit that I was hesitant to make Rickie Lee Jones’ Pirates the subject of this week’s Cratedigger. The weather has been gloomy here in New Jersey all week, the Yankees dropped the first game of the World Series to Philadelphia, and my finances are in the sewer. Since Pirates is perhaps the most heartbreaking album I’ve ever encountered, I was afraid listening to it again would throw me into an even deeper funk. Despite the sorrow, when pressed, I will tell you that Pirates is one of the best albums ever made, and it is easily ensconced in my personal Top Five, where it has resided since its release in July, 1981.
Rickie Lee Jones burst on the scene with her eponymous debut, and it’s massive hit single, “Chuck E.’s In Love,” in 1979. She was part of a bohemian L.A. crowd that included the aforementioned Chuck E. Weiss and singer/songwriter Tom Waits, with whom Jones was in a relationship. The songs on her second album, Pirates, are largely a wistful reflection on her time with Waits, following their breakup. “We Belong Together,” “A Lucky Guy,” and the title track all refer to her relationship with him, and “Living It Up” and “Traces of the Western Slopes” (written with new boyfriend Sal Bernardi) are peopled with characters from the bohemian milieu that they moved in. The most devastating heartbreak of all, however, comes in the song “Skeletons,” based on the true story of a young man who was killed by the Los Angeles police in a case of mistaken identity as he was driving his wife to the hospital to give birth. (more…)
Tags: Buzzy Feiten, Chuck Rainey, Cratedigger, David Sanborn, Dean Parks, Donald Fagen, Ken Shane, Randy Brecker, rickie lee jones, Sal Bernardi, Steve Gadd, Steve Lukather, Tom Scott, Victor Jones, vinyl
Posted in Cratedigger, Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music | View Comments
