February 8th, 2010 | 1 Comment »
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Beyond Belief
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Shabby Doll
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Man Out Of Time
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Almost Blue
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Released in 1982
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Elvis Costello is a great all-around songwriter. His work features creative and catchy melodies, deftly honors a range of musical genres, and delivers lyrics that can be both narrative and poetic.
Imperial Bedroom is among his better LPs. Elvis’s artistic restlessness often results in his albums lacking in cohesion. But Imperial Bedroom succeeds due to its diversity and craft; no wonder it is regarded as one of Elvis’s best.
Released in 1982 — his seventh album in five years — Elvis teamed up with a new producer, Geoff Emerick. Emerick was an engineer on many of The Beatles’ later records (the first track he engineered was “Tomorrow Never Knows”), and his influence on Elvis Costello & The Attractions’ sound is clear.
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Published in Crate Diggin', Music |
September 16th, 2009 | No Comments »
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Barbra Streisand (w/Barry Gibb)
Guilty
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Album: Guilty (1980)
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Tanya Morgan
Stay Tuned (Sunset Version)
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Album: Sunset (EP, 2005)
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A couple of months ago, I was diggin’ in the dollar bin at Amoeba and came across Guilty, a Barbra Streisand/Barry Gibb duet album from 1980. My Mom totally had this record, and played it frequently enough that the title song came back to me instantly. As I stood hunched over the crate on the floor, I wondered what other beats might lurk within the dated airbrushed sleeve. For a buck, I could satisfy my curiosity and prevent lingering back damage.
I had thought about featuring Guilty in a new gBlog feature dedicated to cheesy pop, but couldn’t find enough tracks on the record that were bad-good enough to share. Oh well. At least the title cut — which won a Grammy and features the brothers Gibb (aka the Bee Gees) on background vocals — entertained me enough to rip it and upload to my iPod.
I had pretty much given up on the idea of blogging about the record. But a few weeks after I had put it aside, I heard a familiar sample in a podcast from The Sound of Young America. It was included in a 2006 performance by an unknown rap group with a misleading name: Tanya Morgan. (According to their MySpace profile, “THE NAME MEANS NOTHING…AND EVERYTHING. JUST ENJOY THE MUSIC! THATS AN OLD QUESTION PLEASE DONT ASK IT ANYMORE! LOL”)
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Published in Music, Musical Cousins |
April 13th, 2009 | No Comments »
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You Make Me Feel So Young
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All Of Me (Instrumental)
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Angel Eyes
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Album: Sinatra At The Sands (1966)
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It’s been awhile since I’ve spotlighted my collection of recorded live albums, so I’ve dug up a killer LP from the legendary Frank Sinatra. As if that wasn’t enough of a draw, he’s accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with songs arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Wow, that’s a lot of talent in one room.
Recorded in early 1966 at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel (Sinatra had an ownership stake in the Sands until Howard Hughes bought it a year later), this was Sinatra’s first live album. Sinatra, Basie, and Jones had previously collaborated on the studio album, It Might As Well Be Swing, which produced the huge hit, “Fly Me To The Moon.
As you can imagine, Sinatra in Vegas was a huge event, and the packed crowd is ecstatic. As expressed by Stan Cornyn in the liner notes for Sinatra At The Sands, “Two thousand knees with nowhere to go.”
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Published in Music, Sorta Live |
February 26th, 2009 | No Comments »
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The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
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Slow Love
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If I Was Your Girlfriend
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Adore
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Album: Sign O’ The Times (1987)
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Most casual Prince fans would peg Purple Rain as their favorite of his albums. But those that have followed Prince’s career would probably pick Sign O’ The Times, his double LP from 1987. I play this record all the time, and picking only a few tracks to share was challenging.
I was fortunate enough to see Prince on the Sign O’ The Times tour in 1988. My high school friend, Adrian, and I had spent the day in Manhattan and we were approaching Penn Station to take the train home to Long Island. A scalper approached us and offered us tickets to that night’s show for $60 each. We were typical broke high school students and bargained him down to $60 for both. Amazing seats, right on the floor. Here are my memories of the show: it was in the round, there was a basketball court on the stage, a huge pipe organ was lowered from the ceiling, Eric B. and Rakim was sitting close to us, and a car actually drove him on and off the stage (talk about extravagant!). Overall, it was among the best live performances I’ve ever seen.
Back to the record. As I wrote earlier, it’s chock full of 5-star classics, so I tried to pick ones that folks may not know as well. And just to be really OCD about it, I selected one song from each of its four sides.
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Published in LP Classics, Music |
