The Old Man and The Sea - Selftitled (Hardrock, Denmark 1972)

Size: 96.0 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Source: Japan SHM-CD Remaster

Record collectors into Nordic rock are well aware of this band that recorded one album that is very much sought after (it was also counterfeited at least twice), with its highly rated Hammond-driven hard rock rather typical of that era. They do have their own sound but can be compared to a rough TULL (Aqualung-style) or ATOMIC ROOSTER, playing tight music, but also leaving some space for instrumental interplay on some tracks.

The Old Man & The Sea is the sole self-titled studio album by Danish band The Old Man & The Sea. The album was released in 1972. The band enjoyed moderate succes with the album and played lots of live shows in the following years. Most notable on the Roskilde Festival, Denmark in 1973 and 1974. They have also opened for both Led Zeppelin and Ten Years After in Denmark.

The music has Yes influenced vocal harmonies and Kansas like hard rock parts. There are lots of Blues solos but also some soul inspired vocals. Princess is especially in the Yes mold and The Monk Song 1 is also in that vein. The Monk Song 1 also has some great flute. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Atomic Rooster and Deep Purple has also had an impact on the style on The Old Man & The Sea as the music is very organ laden.

The musicianship is excellent on this album. Lead singer Ole Wedel is a very skilled singer with a distinct voice and the rest of the band really knows how to rock but also play more subtle when that is needed. Organ and piano player and main composer Tommy Hansen is today one of the most famous Danish producers of rock and metal and owns his own sound studio called Jailhouse Studios.

The production is very good and really gives the music oppertunity to unfold.

I would probably have put The Old Man & the Sea in the eclectic prog catagory instead of the crossover prog one. The music has both hard rock, jazz and more symphonic influences and it´s actually hard to pin down one specific genre they belong to. I think The Old Man & The Sea is a good album and I´ll rate it 3 stars. This is not my favorite genre and I´m sure that people more into this genre will rate this album higher because this is certainly a quality product.

01. Living Dead (7:51)
02. Princess (6:02)
03. Jingoism (6:54)
04. Prelude (1:12)
05. The Monk Song 1 (5:54)
06. The Monk Song 2 (3:36)
07. Going Blind (10:31)

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Johnnie Taylor - Raw Blues (Superb R&B US 1969)

Size: 72.8 MB
Bitrate: 256
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While the "Raw" part of the title may be overstating the case just a bit, "Blues" describes this disc pretty well, thank you -- on his fourth album, Johnnie Taylor shifts his focus away from Stax's trademark Southern soul stylings towards leaner and grittier blues-based performances, a style he'd already shown a knack for on his earlier sets. Raw Blues still walks a line between soul and blues, with the sweet-and-sour tone of The Memphis Horns sometimes stacking the deck in favor of the former, but "Part Time Love", "Hello Sundown" and "You Can't Keep A Good Man Down" generate a potent late-night mood vibe which match the downcast authority of Taylor's voice.

And if the always air-tight performances of the Stax studio crew (including Steve Cropper and Isaac Hayes) pack enough heat to turn "You Can't Win With A Losing Hand" and "That Bone" into potent dance floor material, Taylor's rough but passionate delivery never lets this get too close to the Land of the Slick. A strong and heartfelt set that serves as an important precursor to Taylor's later blues-oriented sets for Malaco.

Biography:
Young gospel phenom, gritty Stax/Volt soulster, lady-killing balladeer, chart-topping disco king, Southern soul-blues stalwart -- Johnnie Taylor somehow always managed to adapt to the times, and he parlayed that versatility into a recording career that lasted nearly four decades. Nicknamed the "Philosopher of Soul" during his Stax days, that version of Taylor is best remembered for his 1968 R&B chart-topping smash "Who's Making Love," but far and away his biggest success was 1976's across-the-board number one "Disco Lady," the first single ever certified platinum (which at the time meant sales of over two million copies). When the national hits dried up, Taylor wound up as one of the most prolific artists on the Malaco label, a refuge for many Southern soul and blues veterans whose styles had fallen out of popular favor by the '80s. Taylor called Malaco home for over 15 years and kept on recording and performing right up to his passing in 2000.

Johnnie Harrison Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, AR, on May 5, 1934 (though he usually gave his birth year as 1938); he grew up mostly in nearby West Memphis. He began singing in church as a young child and later moved to Kansas City, where he performed with a gospel group called the Melody Kings; it was through this outfit that he initially met and befriended Soul Stirrers frontman Sam Cooke. In 1953, Taylor left home and moved to Chicago, where he joined the doo wop group the Five Echoes; shortly thereafter, he began performing concurrently with the gospel group the Highway Q.C.'s, which had once been home to Sam Cooke. In 1957, Taylor would replace Cooke in the hugely influential Soul Stirrers, after Cooke departed for a career in secular music.

After four years with the Soul Stirrers, Taylor escaped gospel music's waning popularity and followed Cooke into the world of secular soul, becoming the first artist to sign with Cooke's label, Sar, in 1961. Taylor released a few singles on Sar and another Cooke label, Derby, over the next few years, including the minor R&B hit "Rome (Wasn't Built in a Day)." Unfortunately, Cooke was murdered in late 1964, and his labels folded, leaving Taylor without a record deal. He returned to the Memphis area and signed with the enormously popular Stax label in 1965, debuting early the following year with "I Had a Dream." Taylor scored a few minor R&B hits over the next few years, including "I Got to Love Somebody's Baby," "Somebody's Sleeping in My Bed," and "Next Time." He hit it big in late 1968 with the gritty, funky "Who's Making Love," his first number one R&B hit, which also made the pop Top Five. Taylor was able to land some decent-sized follow-up hits in the years to come, among them "Take Care of Your Homework," "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone," "Steal Away," and "I Am Somebody." By the early '70s, Taylor's bread and butter had become smooth, elegant crooning, as typified by his 1973 album Taylored in Silk and his two attendant ballad smashes, "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" and "Cheaper to Keep Her."

When Stax went bankrupt in 1975, Taylor moved over to CBS/Columbia, debuting in 1976 with the album Eargasm. Its first single, "Disco Lady," was an instant smash, capturing the spirit of the era and selling over two million copies (although some soul fans still debate whether it was a true disco song). "Disco Lady" was Taylor's first number one pop hit, despite losing airplay over its supposedly suggestive lyrics, and it proved such a phenomenon that CBS eagerly pushed him to record more disco-oriented material, something Taylor wasn't extraordinarily comfortable with. He recorded several more albums for the label through 1980, but never came close to duplicating the success of "Disco Lady" and left to sign with the smaller Beverly Glen imprint in 1982.

Taylor recorded one album for Beverly Glen, 1982's Just Ain't Good Enough, which produced a minor R&B hit in "What About My Love." Still searching for a home more in line with the environment at Stax, Taylor soon jumped to Malaco Records, a Southern label dedicated to preserving the region's classic soul and blues sounds (albeit sometimes with a bit less grit than in days of old). Debuting with 1984's This Is Your Night, Taylor and Malaco clicked right away, and he wound up recording a total of 12 albums for the label over the next 15 years, ranking as one of their best-selling artists. Taylor's style during this era had evolved into a hybrid of soul and blues, with more emphasis on the latter than at any other point in his career; he continued to tour steadily through the '80s and '90s, and landed a few more singles on the lower reaches of the R&B chart up until 1990. In 1996, his album Good Love! topped the Billboard blues chart. Taylor's final album was 1999's Gotta Get the Groove Back; on May 31, 2000, he suffered a heart attack at his home in Duncanville, TX (a suburb of Dallas), and died at the hospital.

01. Where There's Smoke There's Fire Hayes, Porter, Rosenberg 3:04
02. Hello Sundown Bell, Jones 2:49
03. Pardon Me Lady Parker, Shamwell 2:55
04. Where Can a Man Go from Here Banks, Jones 3:16
05. That Bone Hayes, Porter 2:58
06. That's Where It's At Alexander, Cooke 3:30
07. Part Time Love Hammond 3:30
08. If I Had It to Do All Over Hayes, Porter 3:05
09. You're Good for Me Collins, Covay, Davis, Ott 3:31
10. You Can't Keep a Good Man Down Cropper, Marks, Parker, Ward 2:38
11. You Can't Win With a Losing Hand Cropper, Floyd, Isbell 2:33

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Gang of Four - Entertaiment! (New Wave UK 1979)

Size: 101 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Entertainment! is the debut album by English post-punk band Gang of Four, released in September 1979. This album was released on EMI in the UK and on Warner Bros. in the U.S..

The music on the first album shows clearly the influence of punk, yet also incorporates funk and less-obvious influences of reggae and dub, similar to other bands at the time such as Public Image Ltd., Pere Ubu, and The Pop Group. As with these other influential post-punk bands, the bass is mixed much more prominently than it typically is in rock or punk.

The album has attracted praise from rock musicians. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers stated that the first time he heard the record, "It completely changed the way I looked at rock music and sent me on my trip as a bass player." In 2003, the album was ranked number 490 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In March 2005, Q magazine placed the track "At Home He's a Tourist" at number 52 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

The album's artwork was designed by band members Jon King and Andy Gill, typical of their DIY approach. The cover depicts an "Indian" shaking hands with a "cowboy" in three heavily processed versions of the same image, the faces are reduced to blobs of red and white—that is, to the stereotypical racial colours. A text that winds around the images reads, "The Indian smiles, he thinks that the cowboy is his friend. The cowboy smiles, he is glad the Indian is fooled. Now he can exploit him." In this way, it approaches themes of exploitation, but taken with the lyrical content of the album, it may also point to simplistic depictions of ethnic, social or political conflict in the media as "cowboys and Indians".

The album's back cover depicts a family whose father says, "I spend most of our money on myself so that I can stay fat", while the mother and children declare, "We're grateful for his leftovers". On the album's inner sleeve, small photographs depicting scenes shown on television are interlaced with text illustrating what the band suggests are the misleading subtexts of media presentation: "The facts are presented neutrally so that the public can make up its own mind"; "Men act heroically to defend their country"; "People are given what they want".

01."Ether" – 3:52
02."Natural's Not in It" – 3:09
03."Not Great Men" – 3:08
04."Damaged Goods" – 3:29
05."Return the Gift" – 3:08
06."Guns Before Butter" – 3:49
07."I Found That Essence Rare" – 3:09
08."Glass" – 2:32
09."Contract" – 2:42
10."At Home He's a Tourist" – 3:33
11."5.45" – 3:48
12."Anthrax" – 4:23

Bonus
13."Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" – 3:27
14."He'd Send in the Army" – 3:40
15."It's Her Factory" – 3:08

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R.E.O. Speedwagon - Live (You Get What You Play For (UK 1977)

Size: 161 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Live: You Get What You Play For is a live album by rock band REO Speedwagon, which was released as a double-LP in 1977 (and years later as a single CD). It was recorded at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, the Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kiel Auditorium in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Alex Cooley's Electric Ballroom in Atlanta, Georgia.

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. Hi Infidelity is the group's most commercially successful album, selling over ten million copies and charting four Top 40 hits in the US. Over the course of its career, the band has sold more than forty million records and has charted thirteen Top 40 hits. REO Speedwagon's popularity has declined over the years but the band still tours regularly, and remains popular on the fair and casino circuits and teams up with other acts to play larger venues. In summer 2010, the band – then touring with Pat Benatar – announced that it will release a 30th anniversary deluxe edition reissue of Hi Infidelity.

REO Speedwagon took its name from the REO Speed Wagon, a flatbed truck and fire engine, manufactured by the REO Motor Car Company. ("R.E.O." are initials of the company's founder, Ransom Eli Olds, who also founded Oldsmobile, once a division of General Motors.)

REO Speedwagon was formed by students attending the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois in the fall of 1967 to play cover songs in campus bars. The first line up consisted of Alan Gratzer on drums and vocals, Neal Doughty on keyboards, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals, and Mike Blair on bass and vocals. In the spring of 1968, Terry Luttrell became lead singer, and Bob Crownover and Gregg Philbin replaced Matt and Blair. Joe McCabe played sax at this time until moving to Southern Illinois University. Crownover played guitar for the group until the summer of 1969 when Bill Fiorio replaced him. Fiorio then departed in late 1969, eventually assuming the name Duke Tumatoe, and went on to form the All Star Frogs. Another guitarist, Steve Scorfina, came aboard briefly, and was replaced by Gary Richrath in late 1970.

Richrath was a Peoria, Illinois-based guitar player and prolific songwriter who brought original material to the band including REO's signature song "Ridin' the Storm Out". With Richrath on board, the regional popularity of the band grew tremendously. The Midwestern United States was the original REO Speedwagon fan stronghold and is pivotal in this period of the band's history.

The band signed to Epic Records in 1971. Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. The lineup on the first album consisted of Richrath, Gratzer, Doughty, Philbin, and Luttrell.

With their equipment being hauled to dates in a friend's station wagon, REO played bars and clubs all over the Midwest. The band's debut album, REO Speedwagon, was released on Epic Records in 1971. The most popular track on this record was "157 Riverside Avenue". The title refers to the Westport, Connecticut address, where the band stayed while recording in Leka's studio in nearby Bridgeport and remains an in-concert favorite.

Although the rest of the band's line-up remained stable, REO Speedwagon switched lead vocalists three times for their first three albums. Luttrell left the band in early 1972, eventually becoming the vocalist for Starcastle. He was replaced by Kevin Cronin. Cronin recorded one album with the band, 1972's R.E.O./T.W.O. but left the band during the recording sessions for 1973's Ridin' the Storm Out because of internal conflicts.[4] Ridin' the Storm Out was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal. Murphy stayed on for two more albums, Lost in a Dream and This Time We Mean It, before Cronin returned to the fold in January 1976 and recorded R.E.O., which was released that same year. Cronin's return came after Greg X. Volz turned down the position for lead vocalist due to his commitment to Christianity.

In 1977, REO convinced Epic Records that their strength was in their live performances. Amazingly, Epic agreed to let them produce their own record, Live: You Get What You Play For. REO Speedwagon's first live album, Live: You Get What You Play For (1977), was certified platinum. In 1977 Philbin was replaced with Bruce Hall to record You Can Tune a Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish, released in 1978, which received FM radio airplay. The album was REO's first to make the Top 40, peaking at #29. The album sold over 2 million copies in the U.S., which led it to go 2x Platinum. In 1979 the band took a turn back to hard rock with the release of Nine Lives.

UK vinyl version

Side One Record 1
01."Like You Do" (Richrath) – 6:54
02."Lay Me Down" (Richrath, Philbin) – 3:39
03."Any Kind of Love" (Richrath) – 3:34
04."Being Kind (Can Hurt Someone Sometimes)" (Cronin) – 6:35

Side 3 On Record 1 Mispressed as Side 2
01."Keep Pushin'" (Cronin) – 4:06
02."(Only A) Summer Love" (Richrath) – 6:05
03."Son of a Poor Man" (Richrath) – 5:30
04."(I Believe) Our Time Is Gonna Come" (Cronin) – 4:49

Side 3 On Record 2 was mispressed as Side 2
01."Flying Turkey Trot" (Richrath) – 2:35
02."Gary's Guitar Solo" (Richrath) - 6:10
03."157 Riverside Avenue" (Richrath, Philbin, Doughty, Gratzer, Luttrell) – 7:38
04."Ridin' the Storm Out" (Richrath) - 5:47

Side 4 Encores On Record 1 Side 2
01."Music Man" (Cronin) – 2:58
02."Little Queenie"(*) (Chuck Berry)- 4:45
03."Golden Country" (Richrath) – 8:26

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Edgar Winter - They Only Come Out at Night (US 1972)

Size: 73.5 MB
Bitrate: 256
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They Only Come Out at Night is the fourth studio album by The Edgar Winter Group. It went to No. 3 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, eventually sold two million copies, and features two of the band's biggest hits, "Frankenstein" (#1 Pop Singles) and "Free Ride" (#14 Pop Singles).

"Frankenstein" is a rock instrumental by The Edgar Winter Group from their album They Only Come Out at Night.

In live performances of the song, Edgar Winter further pioneered the advancement of the synthesizer as a lead instrument by becoming the first person ever to strap a keyboard instrument around his neck,[citation needed] giving him the on-stage mobility and audience interaction of guitar players. The song topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for a week starting in May 1973, and sold over one million copies. It was knocked from the #1 spot by Paul McCartney's "My Love". In Canada it fared equally well, reaching #1 on the RPM 100 Top Singles Chart the following month, the same month that saw it peak at #18 in the UK.

The song's title, coined by the band's drummer Chuck Ruff, derives from the fact that the original recording of the song was much longer than the final version, as the band would often deviate from the arrangement into less structured jams. The track required numerous edits to shorten it. The end result was pieced together from many different sections of recording tape using a razor blade and splicing tape. Winter frequently refers to the appropriateness of the name also in relation to its "monster-like, lumbering beat". (One riff was first used by Winter in the song "Hung Up", on his jazz-oriented first album Entrance. He later tried a variation on it, "Martians" on the Standing on Rock album.)

Winter played many of the instruments on the track, including keyboards, saxophone and timbales. As the release's only instrumental cut, the song was not initially intended to be on the album, and was only included on a whim as a last-minute addition. It was originally released as the B-side to "Hangin' Around", but the two were soon reversed by the label when disc jockeys nationwide were inundated with phone calls and realized this was the hit. The song features a "double" drum solo, with Ruff on drums and Winter on percussion. In fact, the working title of the song was "The Double Drum Solo". The single was one of the few No.1 chart records to include an extended passage featuring the ARP 2600 synthesizer.

The song was actually performed three years previously when Edgar was playing with his older brother Johnny Winter at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970.  It is considered one of the greatest instrumental rock songs ever.

01."Hangin' Around" (Edgar Winter, Dan Hartman) – 3:02
02."When It Comes" (Winter, Hartman) – 3:16
03."Alta Mira" (Winter, Hartman) – 3:18
04."Free Ride" (Hartman) – 3:08
05."Undercover Man" (Winter, Hartman) – 3:49
06."Round & Round" (Winter) – 4:00
07."Rock 'n' Roll Boogie Woogie Blues" (Winter, Barbara Winter, Ronnie Montrose) – 3:25
08."Autumn" (Hartman) – 3:00
09."We All Had a Real Good Time" (Winter, Hartman) – 3:05
10."Frankenstein" (Winter) – 4:44

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