Bloggerhythms

I liked the Grateful Dead, but I was never a Deadhead. I wholeheartedly believe the sextet was better in the studio than they were live. To adherents of the late 20th-Century religion known as Deadism that statement is enough to send me to Hell for eternity. The Dead's faithful do not believe in Purgatory because it's not possible to cleanse a sinner's soul in the Afterlife. Only total devotion to the band while earthbound can save a person from eternal damnation. I know I'm one of the condemned because I believe The San Franciscans' sacrosanct triple LP/double CD,  Europe '72 , is boring. It's the album that never ends. I came to that conclusion after listening to it a few times back in my college days and again just a few weeks ago to see if my opinion had changed. It did not. Garcia, Weir and company continued to release live material regularly, but they abandoned the studio completely after 1980's Go to Heaven ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan - deservedly elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 along with his band Double Trouble - is sorely missed. Sadly, Vaughan left us more than a quarter of a century ago with a discography that's limited in size due to his early passing in a tragic helicopter crash. In Step was the fourth and last studio album Vaughan recorded with Double Trouble, and it was the last one to be released in his lifetime. It went to #33 on Billboard's top 200 album chart. SRV's actual final recording was Family Style , an album on which he shared equal billing with his brother, Jimmie, who is best known for his work with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Another excellent set, The Sky Is Crying , was issued posthumously two years later, but it was assembled from unreleased tracks found in the vaults. In Step is a fine record, and it opens with a blast. "The House is Rockin'" is nothing fancy, just good old fas...

For much of its existence World Party was primarily a solo project of Welshman Karl Wallinger rather than a full-fledged band. He frequently played most of the instruments himself, and at other times he operated much like Steely Dan did with the leader hiring musicians for each project as needed. World Party made five albums beginning in 1986. Their recording career ended in 2000 due to Wallinger's poor health. Unfortunately, he died in 2024 at age 66. Not long after  Dumbing Up  was released, the ex-Waterboy suffered a brain aneurysm that kept him inactive for many years. Later, Wallinger returned to performing live. He also recorded with Peter Gabriel, but there were no more World Party records. Upon its release,  Dumbing Up  reached only #64 in the UK, and it never charted at all in the United States. It was World Party's least successful commercial effort even though - artistically - the record rivaled all of Wallinger's earlier work.  The singer...

Roy Orbison passed away not long after Traveling Wilburys   Vol. 1  was completed, but the remaining quartet of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Bob Dylan carried on. Even without their operatic voiced, pop singing bandmate the Wilburys were still the most star-studded, rock supergroup of all time. Orbison was easily the strongest singer of the five, and the former Sun Records prodigy was definitely missed when it came time to record the band's follow up. Both Harrison and Lynne sing well enough to get the job done - but neither one is outstanding - and at times Petty and Dylan can sound a little similar to each other. To play a joke on their fans, the ex-Beatle - the Wilburys' founder and nominal leader of the band - decided to name their second and final album Vol. 3 . It wasn't a hilarious joke, but it received a few light chuckles from me and some other fans. That light-hearted album title kind of matches the music found on...

How great was Brian Wilson? If you listen to At My Piano -  the late star's final, solo, studio album of fifteen unadorned piano tracks played by The Beach Boys' resident genius - you'll quickly understand the extent of his talent as a melodicist. The simplicity of this set allows the listener to fully appreciate the beauty of Wilson's creations performed on a musical instrument that is truly irresistible when played by a great talent. Some critics have said that Wilson took the easy way out, that these songs have been redone too many times to be appreciated again, but I counter with this: how many artists have issued multiple live albums with arrangements played very close to their original records or released remixes of old songs just to sell more product? At least Wilson offered listeners something different, although he admits that the original idea belonged to his record label, Decca. However, it was a request he willingly undertook. There are many w...

Sometimes it's best not to make an album. That's sad, because The Byrds - the justifiably much-loved and highly influential folk-rockers who rose to fame in 1965 - disappointed nearly everyone with their eponymous final album. I remember buying it on faith before I ever heard a note, and immediately upon listening to it I sided with the majority opinion. It was 1973, and the reunited original quintet hadn't worked together since 1966. Roger McGuinn , Chris Hillman,   David Crosby ,   Gene Clark, and Michael Clarke got the old band back together while McGuinn was still touring with his latest version of The Byrds that evolved from the original band. That outfit had long ago turned away from the sounds that initially made them stars into a group of full-blown country pickers that achieved only a modicum of commercial success. To me - just like The Beatles' White Album  - this eleven-song set sounded as if it was the work of individual si...

John Lennon recorded six albums with his wife, Yoko Ono.  Milk and Honey,  released in January 1984, was both his final one with her and his last record overall. The late, ex-Beatle's six songs on this set were largely recorded during his 1980 Double Fantasy sessions and were intended for later release, but because of his death - unlike the tracks on its predecessor - they remained unfinished when Ono delivered them to the public over three years later. Most of Ono's six tunes on the album were newly recorded in 1983 and were given all the polish Lennon's were orignally intended to receive. They were far more accessible and mainstream than any music the Japanese-American star ever released up to that point. Milk and Honey  made it to #11 in America. Of Lennon's three singles pulled from the disc, only "Nobody Told Me" (#5) reached the top forty. The other two were "I'm Stepping Out" (#55) and "Borrowed Time" (#1...

In 2022 I wrote a blog post on The Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome as part of Bloggerhythms' Last Albums series. Then Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and their friends ruined the whole thing by by releasing Hackney Diamonds two years ago. Despite that, I'm taking my chances that 76 year old James Taylor won't let me down too and release another album, even though that might not be such a bad thing. In 2020, Taylor released a set of tunes from the Great American Songbook, and it's a good one.  American Standard is a fourteen track record of cover tunes from the man who is often credited with jump-starting the entire 70s singer-songwriter movement. Taylor is no stranger to covers. Even though he's a songwriter of great importance he's recorded many singles written by others, most notably, Carole King's "You've Got A Friend," his only Billboard #1 hit from very early in his career. He also charted with "How S...

Let's start with a little clarification. Santana IV , released in 2016, is only the last album by the original  Santana band - the one that disintegrated after III was released - it's not hall-of-fame guitarist Carlos Santana's last studio record. These sixteen compositions were recorded by a group who last worked together way back in 1971, forty-five years before IV was released. They were the outfit that hit the charts with classics like "Evil Ways," "Black Magic Woman," and "No One To Depend On." The sessions were born out of Neal Schon's suggestion that he and Santana work together again. Not only was the great guitarist receptive to the idea, he suggested that they get the old band back together. Santana plays guitar along with Schon, and both men sing. Organist Gregg Rolie is the lead vocalist. Drummer Michael Shrieve worked in tandem with Michael Carabello who played congas and percussion. Original timbale player...

Long Road Out Of Eden made me realize just how much I missed the Eagles. Throughout the 70s my favorite Eagle, Glen Frey, his good friend Don Henley, and all of their various bandmates created a classic sound that with the exception of  The Long Run  -   their last full length studio album during their original run of popularity - never wore out its welcome. Readers of this article will have to understand that I came to this double CD set back in 2007 not knowing what to expect and I'm happy to report that I wasn't disappointed. The Eagles' vocal harmonies are perfect as usual and so is their classic 70s sound that was loved by so many of us. Long Road Out Of Eden 's back story was chronicled in many news publications around the world. The group sold millions of copies of the CD through their exclusive deal with Walmart - the only brick and mortar retailer allowed to sell it when it was officially released. The album sold well despite heav...

The R & B world seems to produce all-star level talent who should be legends but instead perform for many years - often decades - in undeserved obscurity. Many never found an audience even among the genre's own fans. Such is the case with hard luck Arthur Alexander who died in 1993 before Lonely Just Like Me could make him a star. Alexander's resume contained a few minor hit records in the early 60s but he is mostly known for one song. Beatles fans will surely recognize him as the composer of "Anna" a song they covered on their very first album, Please Please Me , all the way back in 1963 before America and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show . Lesser known is "Soldier Of Love" a Beatles cover that only appears on their  Live At The BBC double set. The Rolling Stones released "You Better Move On" as part of  their 1964 eponymous EP and "Sally Sue Brown" was reworked by Bob Dylan for his 1988 album, Down In Th...

When the final Ray Charles album, Genius Loves Company,  was released the duets album by Frank Sinatra immediately came to mind, and because I was disappointed with his effort I wasn't all that excited about Charles's new album. These kind of projects always seemed like gimmicks to me, especially when I learned that on Sinatra's album the guest vocalists were not in the studio with him when they added their voices to a song. It was obvious why the results were stilted and lacked emotion.  Genius Loves Company is very different. Apparently, duetting with Charles live in the studio was quite a privilege so each guest poured their hearts and souls into every note they shared with him. Michael McDonald possesses a voice I have never cared for but he delivered a surprisingly restrained performance on "Hey Girl." Together, B.B. King and his long-time girlfriend, Lucille, helped out on the appropriately bluesy "Sinners Prayer." Charles a...

Normally, bands strike while the iron is hot, but it took Dire Straits six years to follow up their blockbuster  Brothers in Arms  CD that sent "Money for Nothing" screaming up the charts and turned the band into a household name. On Every Street - the last album by Mark Knopfler's British quartet that by this time was really nothing more than the leader's backup band with a very fluid lineup - went to #1 in much of the world and #12 in America.  Knopfler said that one of the reasons he shut Dire Straits down the first time in 1987 is that while he wanted to be successful he wasn't fond of the superstardom that went along with it.  In 1988 he  told Rolling Stone   "A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world.  There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest," but he eventually reorganized the group with original bassist, John Ills...

The music is called country-rock, but I fail to hear the rock on most of Gram Parson's classic LP,  Grievous Angel . To me, he was a country star with a rock attitude - Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones were his good friends - and that is why he appealed to the Woodstock generation. Grievous Angel was only Parsons' second solo album after having a very brief but artistically productive stint as a member of The Byrds and later with his own Flying Burrito Brothers. The album was recorded just a few months before Parsons overdosed in a Joshua Tree, CA motel at only age twenty-six - just a little too young to qualify for the infamous  27 Club .  Despite outwardly suffering from heroin and alcohol addiction all through the sessions in the summer of 1973 critics considered the record an artistic triumph even though it never climbed higher than 195 on Billboard's album chart. The sessions prominently ...

Released almost a year after his passing in 2001,  Brainwashed is among George Harrison's top albums. It was completed by his son, Dhani, along with Jeff Lynne, his good friend and former bandmate in The Traveling Wilburys. Knowing that he was dying, The late Beatle - who would have turned eighty years old today - gave Dhani and Lynne the tapes to an unfinished album along with instructions on how he wanted it completed. Anyone who is more than a little educated about Harrison knows his reputation as a loner and as the serious Beatle is not completely accurate. He wasn't really a recluse, he just never behaved in ways or traveled in circles that would attract the press's attention. He never held public bed-ins for peace on his honeymoon as another member of his first band did. Harrison's serious side and his adherence to Hinduism was often reflected in his songwriting but he also possessed a lightheartedness that showed through in much of ...

I've always liked Daryl Hall and John Oates from afar but in the 21st Century I've come to appreciate them a lot more than I have in the past. Home For Christmas was their third really strong CD in a row following 2003's Do It For Love and 2004's Our Kind Of Soul . All three CDs rival their best albums from the 70s and 80s suggesting that the 21st century edition of H & O is arguably just as good as their earlier incarnations. Even considering that hot streak I still wasn't expecting anything as stunningly and consistently great as Home For Christmas , one of my all-time favorite holiday albums. While Home For Christmas never loses sight of what Hall & Oates do best - making blue-eyed soul colored with lots of mainstream pop-rock - their choice of material for this album indicates the duo has far more eclectic tastes than they ever showed us during their glory years of the early 80s. Recording carols and religious songs for pop Christmas albums are cons...

With the remaining members all well into their 70s and Charlie Watts already gone Blue & Lonesome is more than likely The Rolling Stones' last studio album, and it's their only full length record since The Bigger Bang  was released way back in 2005. It's also a surprise because there isn't a single Keith Richards / Mick Jagger original song anywhere. Instead, Blue & Lonesome offers up twelve raw covers of old blues tunes, many that predate the infamous British rockers' career. I've written here before that when an artist releases an album of all cover songs it's often because he or she has run out of inspiration while still having contractual obligations to fulfill. It is to the Stones' credit that they didn't fall into that fatal trap by releasing an album that often puts the nail in the coffin of many formerly great and productive careers. Blue & Lonesome sounds like a true labor of love. The blues are what inspired Jagger and...

Hittin' The Note  is the only album by  The Allman Brothers Band without the services of original member Forrest Richard (Dickey) Betts.  Think back. The band was going to die along with Duane Allman in 1971, right? Fortunately, it didn't, and Betts was a major reason why. Then, after he was unceremoniously fired in 2000 fans once again questioned the future of the great band from Macon, Georgia. Well, not only did Greg Allman revitalize his group after Betts' departure he made sure they were very much alive and kicking butt. On this album the septet sounds like Duane is still alive because the dual lead guitars were brought back courtesy of Warren Haynes - the leader of Gov't Mule - and the addition of Derek Trucks who also leads his own band with wife Susan Tedeschi. They, and the three remaining original members who recorded this gem - Greg Allman and drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks (Derek's Uncle) - almost qualify the band as a supergroup. Mark Quinones...