Archive for the '1970s' Category
Exposure to Robert Fripp (1979)
Last week I picked up a near-mint LP copy of the original mix of Robert Fripp’s 1979 album, Exposure. I find listening to the album, whose main themes orbit suffering, a fascinating experience. Fripp (who is best known for fronting King Crimson) thought of the album as a third in a triology including the [...]
Read More..>>Bill Bruford on Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson
I recently took the book Genesis: Chapter and Verse (2007) out of the library. It’s mainly a collection of quotations from each of the band members, as well as collaborators, on various stages in Genesis’ history. There are some interesting things in here.
Bill Bruford, who is best known as the drummer of Yes [...]
Motown meets Bayou: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “I heard it through the grapevine” (1970)
Listen while you read: “Heard it through the grapevine” (a half-decent recording of the song on youtube opens up in a new window)
I’ve been listening to a lot of Motown and related (R&B, Soul, Funk) since getting back into vinyl, including the likes of Al Green, Supremes, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, and others. Marvin [...]
Roberta Flack’s Second Chapter (1970): Reverend Lee
Listen while you read: “Reverend Lee” (audio)
Roberta Flack is perhaps best known for her influential performance of the song “Killing me softly with his song” back in 1973, recently re-covered by the Fugees (if 1997 is “recent” to anyone else). Flack’s early work, before the years of disco set in and had their deleterious [...]
Read More..>>Post-Gabriel Genesis: A Trick of the Tail (1976)
Listen while you read: “Dance on a volcano” (audio snippet)
I have been a fan of Genesis for some years. Just now memories are coming back of earlier days, when I was 13 (1982-83), listening to Genesis on 103 PhD, coming out of Buffalo (for many years when someone referred to a “PhD”, I thought [...]
Read More..>>Bruce Springsteen’s character sketches: Welcome to Asbury Park N.J. (1973)
Listen as you read (live version of “Lost in the flood”, Hammersmith Odeon, 1975):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_h4jxXPENU
With Bruce Springsteen’s new studio album (Magic) due out on October 2nd, what better time is there to post on the boss’s songwriting (official Springsteen website).
I am a relatively new fan of Springsteen. This shift was thanks, in part, to my [...]
Forgotten albums: Shawn Phillip’s Second Contribution (1970)
Listen while you read: “She was waiting . . . ” (audio snippet)
I was browsing through the overload bins at the local record store and came across an intriguing cover with a lone, long-haired guitarist amidst a sea of dried mud. This image caught my attention and I began to wonder whether it [...]
Read More..>>From Pink Floyd’s mysteries to Led Zeppelin’s “Satanic” music
There are a number of posts about music, religion, and culture on my academic blog that may be of interest to readers of this one:
The times they are a changin’ endin’: Bob Dylan’s apocalypse
Satanic conspiracies of the 1970s and 1980s (dealing with the supposed and real cases of back-masking)
“Me and the Devil Blues”: Robert Johnson [...]
Jazz guitar duel of 1976: George Benson vs. Jeff Beck
Listen as you read: “Breezin‘” (audio snippet)
Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m biased and the winner is a foregone conclusion. Through the luck of the draw, I recently ended up with two jazz guitar records from the same year (the first for ¢.10 and the other for a mere buck–both in excellent condition with almost [...]
Read More..>>Phil Spector’s “wall of sound”: Isn’t it a pity?
Listen while you read: Beware of darkness (Spectorized) (audio snippet)
Phil Spector’s influence on rock n’ roll cannot be underestimated. His production of several Beatles albums ensured this. Spector’s style of production (by the mid-late 1960s) with heavy reverberation and very full orchestral arrangements mixed with the original performances and overdubs has sometimes been [...]
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