What are you listening to?

[The Brain]

I have heard it, but only very recently.

[Savonarola]

The Incredible Alex Harvey Band - Next

What was the fascination with Jacques Brel in the early 70s?  There was Rod McKuen, David Bowie, Scott Walker and Alex Harvey all singing translations of his songs.

In any event this is a hard rocking glam album with the occasional cabaret song thrown in.  It's more Sweet than David Bowie (in fact it was produced by Sweet's producer, Phil Wainman), "Gang Bang" or "Giddy Up A Ding-Dong" sound like they could be Sweet songs.  On the other hand they were capable of a great deal more sophistication; both lyrically (such as the sinister Faith Healer) and musically (as they turned Jacques Brel's next into an over the top tango.) 

[Savonarola]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

I was amused at the Allmusic review which goes on a bit about the improvement Pete Sinfield's lyrics brought to the album.  While that's not wrong, he does write about Gypsy Queens, Vaseline and guillotines.

This does have some high points; I like the honky-tonk Benny the Bouncer.  The obligatory romantic ballad ("Still you turn me on") is as dreadful as ever.  Jerusalem is an interesting idea; but I've heard it done better.  Karn Evil 9 is okay; not something I'd listen to very often, but it's better than most of ELP's extended pieces.  I think this is their best album (of the one's I've heard.)  The other ones I really don't see the appeal, but this one I could see why someone would like this.

[Josephus]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973)

I was amused at the Allmusic review which goes on a bit about the improvement Pete Sinfield's lyrics brought to the album.  While that's not wrong, he does write about Gypsy Queens, Vaseline and guillotines.

This does have some high points; I like the honky-tonk Benny the Bouncer.  The obligatory romantic ballad ("Still you turn me on") is as dreadful as ever.  Jerusalem is an interesting idea; but I've heard it done better.  Karn Evil 9 is okay; not something I'd listen to very often, but it's better than most of ELP's extended pieces.  I think this is their best album (of the one's I've heard.)  The other ones I really don't see the appeal, but this one I could see why someone would like this.

Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with this band. I think the stuff they do that is good, is really good, but they can be quite terrible as well. I'm a prog rocker, but I don't rate these guys that high. Mind, they're all very good musicians, but just over the top with their pomposity, I guess.

[Admiral Yi]

I got a fever, and the only cure is more sheepskin.

[Savonarola]

Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with this band. I think the stuff they do that is good, is really good, but they can be quite terrible as well. I'm a prog rocker, but I don't rate these guys that high. Mind, they're all very good musicians, but just over the top with their pomposity, I guess.

I think they're usually more intent on showcasing their virtuosity than writing a good song; which is why it often comes across as over-the-top pomposity.  The Moody Blues, in my opinion, were more successful at the classical-rock fusion as they put priority on songwriting. 

[Savonarola]

James Brown - The Payback (1973)

Intended to be the soundtrack for the sequel to Black Caesar.  James Brown says it was rejected for not being funky enough; but no one else remembers it that way.  Though almost 75 minutes, there are only eight songs; each one a slow-cooking James Brown groove masterpiece.  The Payback and Forever Alone are the better known songs, but each of them is solid.  This, surprisingly, would be one of James Brown's last great records of the seventies as it sounds like that groove could go on forever (though maybe not in the disco era.)

[Savonarola]

The Chieftains - The Chieftains 4 (1973)

At times like a cèilidh at the pub at times like a chamber music concert at a college auditorium; but it works well together.  This is the first of their albums with their long serving harpist Derek Bell.  They'd have their breakthrough in the United States shortly after releasing this.  My parents were folkies and, while they always preferred The Clancy Brothers, they listened to The Chieftains a lot as well.

[The Minsky Moment]

We finally lost Roy Haynes at age 99.  I think Sonny Rollins only prominent musician left from that generation - guys who played with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s.

Haynes started out as a drummer for Lester Young playing in a 1930s swing style, but kept on top of things enough to be used on some live dates by John Coltrane in the 1960s and kept on playing to the 2010s.  He's probably on over 1000 recordings, but my top 3 are:

The Amazing Bud Powell (1949-51): one of the ur-musical texts of the bebop era.

Jackie McLean, Destination Out (1963): McLean had to battle a reputation as a Charlie Parker imitator - sadly including following Parker's heroin problem. He kicked the drug, had a breakout album with 1962's Let Freedom Ring, breaking with the old style and embracing the new. Destination Out was a follow up and probably his best; Haynes' drumming is a big contributor.

Dizzy Reece, Manhattan Project (1978): Jamaican trumpeter, well-respected among fellow musicians but sadly under documented and mostly forgotton.  Love the side personnel on this one, led by Haynes.  Recorded by a now long defunct mom-and-pop label based in Chicago.

Bonus Selection: Track 3 on Sonny Rollins, Road Shows Vol 2 (2011).  Live track from Sonny Rollins's 80th birthday show at the Beacon theater in 2010, where Rollins was surprised by special guest appearances from Ornette Coleman and Haynes (Christian McBride on bass). Only time Coleman and Rollins played on the same stage.

[Savonarola]

Cortijo and his Time Machine (y su Máquina del Tiempo) (1973)

Puerto Rican conga master and band leader united with some younger Latin jazz musicians and created this fusion album.  It's incorporates elements of funk and uses some of the more exotic instruments of Latin America which made me think of psychedelia.  The result is like a collaboration between Niles Rogers and Tito Puente with maybe some inspiration drawn from the 13th Floor Elevators.

[Savonarola]

Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors (1973)

This has a very seventies pop sound melded into country; it's densely layered with orchestration throughout.  It sometimes gets sappy (notably "We Really Love Each Other") but, for the most part it's solid.  "Behind Closed Doors," and "The Most Beautiful Girl" are the big hits off of this.  It's strange some of the things you remember.  I remember "The Most Beautiful Girl" being a hit; although I must have been very young when it was released.

[Savonarola]

Steeleye Span – Parcel of Rogues (1973)

Originally conceived as an theater piece as the background to Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.  This album takes traditional Scottish and English Ballads and puts them to electric guitars and drums (for the most part, the title track is sung a cappella.)  It's not really folk-rock; rather it's more like electric folk.  Steeleye Span was part of the late sixties-seventies British Folk Revival (originally it began a spinoff of Fairport Convention.)  It's different from the other bands (that I'm familiar with) from the movement with it's heavy use of electric guitar.