Formula 3 - Selftitled (Progressive Rock, Italy 1971)

Size: 74 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Most of the principles that were recognizable in their debut are featured here as well: psychedelia, heaviness, but with some subtlety and emotion that is directly linked with the genre. But let's be honest: it was really difficult in those days to get acquainted with these Italian recordings.

As I have said about some German bands from the same era (and which I quite like BTW), is that this type of music should have sounded quite outdated in '71. At the end of the day, the great psyche days were '66 through '69. Later on, this type of music could have been taken as old fashioned.

Nonetheless, the long opener ''Nessuno Nessuno'' offers some fine and solid musical moment. If ever, like myself, you are orphan of these days: you might be interested. Especially while you have discovered the powerful and emotional ''Un Papavero'' which is my fave from this album.

As I have said in a previous review, this band plays quite a different music as one might expect from the genre: most of the time hard with some great vocal moments (like ''Venda Casa''). But when I have to listen to ''Eppur Mi Son Scordato Di Te'', I have to say that I have a difficult time.

I guess that the faithful Italian prog fan might get lost while listening to their first recordings, but this is still a valuable effort. Not a masterpiece of course but a good album: three stars.

01. Nessuno nessuno (11:01)
02. Tu sei bianca, sei rosa, mi perderò (4:16)
03. Vendo casa (2:55)
04. Eppur mi son scordato di te (3:38)
05. Un papavero (4:01)
06. Il vento (4:47)
07. Mi chiamo Antonio tal dei tali e lavoro ai mercati generali (5:51)

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The Pleasers - Thamesbeat (Good Rock Album UK 1977)

Size: 135 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Japan Only release. SKINNY TIE ALERT!! Back in 1997, for a very short time, a version of this album came out in the UK and went out of print a year later, a sad loss for fans of late 70s skinny tie power pop. The Pleasers were all about the Merseybeat side of that new strain of Beatles inspired power pop that was evolving at the time. They were a bit too worshipful of those sounds(and looks - they all dressed in matching suits and skinny ties ala The Knack) to make a dent on the upheaval of the music scene of the time but just listen to the samples below and you will find that this is a band that is great find for many Not Lamers. This CD has 24 tracks total. The original 1997 release had 17 songs, so this one is updated with even more trax!

In the present, the sound, while retro in orientation, is a timeless sound. As proud Londoners, the group described their sound as Thamesbeat but you might know it better by the name their music was given by press of the time: Powerpop.Yes The Pleasers were the group who gave birth to the title that defines strong melodic pop to this day. They were at the forefront of the new wave of guitar-based groups that swept through the Britain`s music industry in the late 70s.They wrote and performed great songs with superb harmonies, jangling guitars and pure sixties drum fills, and their live shows brought back the fashion for being surrounded by cool guy`s wearing thin ties and screaming mini skirted girls. Extremely Highly Recommended!

Hailing from West London and Surrey, The Pleasers called their own music Thamesbeat, but they definitely owed their haircuts ans suits, if not their sound, to the 60s Merseybeat. it's worth mentioning that the band, according to themselves, briefly pursued a glam direction in the mid-70s.

First Pleasers line-up consisted of Steve McNerney (vocals, guitar), Bo Benham (bass), Dave Rotshelle (ex-The Rockets - drums) and Nick Powell on lead guitar in October of '77. According to McNerney, "We're going to be the first new wave band [that] kids, who are interested in the music, but put off by the bands, will like." The band must have considered that target audience group rather large as Bo Benham told the NME "We're going to be big."

Today, The Pleasers anno 1977 definitely fall into the new wave category and one would never ever consider calling them punk. But back in the chaotic days of 1977 with the music scene turned upside down and the record companies desperately trying to grasp punk, The Pleasers, though without a single ominous note, were considered new wave. coming across as little more than new wave Beatles-wanna-bes, The Pleasers managed to ink a deal with Arista Records in mid-1977 and the band found themselves swallowed up in the new wave tide and got marketed as such. The Pleasers' 2nd 7" on Arista is thus much more new wavishly produced than their pure pop debut

01. Billy Benham/Mcnerney
02. Troublemaker
03. You Dont Know Benham
04. Lets Dance Jim Lee
05. Stay With Me
06. Kids Are Allright
07. Precis Benham
08. Rock 'n' Roll Radio
09. Breaking My Heart
10. My Girlfreind's Back
11. Im Still In Love
12. Change My Mind
13. Lies
14. Im In Love #2
15. Who Are You
16. You Know What Im Thinking Girl
17. Hello Little Girl

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Led Zeppelin - 1969-08-31 Texas Pop Festival (Bootleg)

Size: 146 MB
Bitrate: 320
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Found in OuterSpace
Artwork Included

August 31, 1969
Dallas, Texas
Motor Speedway

01.Train Kept A-Rollin'
02.I Can't Quit You
03.Dazed And Confused
04.You Shook Me
05.How Many More Times (Part 1.)
06.How Many More Times (Part 2.)
07.Communication Breakdown

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Led Zeppelin - 1969-04-24 Dancing Avocado (Bootleg)

Size: 272 MB
Bitrate: 320
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Found in OuterSpace
Artwork Included

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed as the New Yardbirds in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. The band are widely considered to be one of the most successful, innovative and influential groups in the history of music.

After changing their name, the band signed a favourable deal with Atlantic Records that allowed them considerable artistic freedom. Led Zeppelin did not release songs from their albums as singles in the United Kingdom, as they preferred to establish the concept of album-orientated rock. Their first two albums, with their heavy, guitar-driven blues rock sound, led to Led Zeppelin being regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock, even though the band's individualistic style drew from varied sources and transcends any single music genre. Their next two albums incorporated wider musical influences, particularly from folk music; the fourth, untitled album, which featured the track "Stairway to Heaven", is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and it cemented the status of the group as "superstars". Subsequent albums saw greater musical experimentation and were accompanied by record-breaking tours, which, like the group's earlier tours, earned them a reputation for excess. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, in the later 1970s, the band's output and touring schedule were limited by the personal difficulties and circumstances of the members. Led Zeppelin disbanded following Bonham's sudden death in 1980.

Since 1980, the surviving members have pursued solo careers and have been involved in a series of collaborations and one-off reunions. In 2007, 27 years after the group disbanded, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited (along with John Bonham's son, Jason) for the Ahmet Ertegün Tribute Concert at The O2 Arena in London. The band were honoured with the "Best Live Act" prize for their one-off reunion at MOJO Awards 2008, where they were described as the "greatest rock and roll band of all time".

Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling music artists—various sources estimate the group's sales at more than 200 or 300 million albums worldwide. Their 111.5 million certified units in the United States rank them as the second-best-selling band in the US. Each of their nine studio albums reached the top 10 of the Billboard album chart in the US, with six reaching the number-one spot. Rolling Stone magazine described them as "the heaviest band of all time", "the biggest band of the '70s" and "unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history". Similarly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stated that, in the 1970s the band were "as influential in that decade as The Beatles were in the prior one".

In 1966, Jimmy Page joined the blues-influenced rock band, The Yardbirds, to replace bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. Page soon switched from bass to lead guitar, creating a dual lead-guitar line-up with Jeff Beck. Following the departure of Beck in October 1966, The Yardbirds — tired from constant touring and recording — began to wind down.[8] Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who's rhythm section—drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. Vocalists Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero", in a session that also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones. The track was released on Beck's 1968 album Truth.

The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968 at Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire, England. They were still committed to performing several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use "The Yardbirds" name to fulfil the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for the lead singer was Terry Reid, but Reid declined the offer and suggested Robert Plant, a Stourbridge singer for The Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending former Band of Joy drummer John Bonham. When Dreja dropped out of the project to become a photographer (he would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin's debut album), John Paul Jones, at the suggestion of his wife, contacted Page about the vacant position. Having known Jones from his session days, Page agreed to let him join as the final member.

The four played together for the first time in a room below a record store on Gerrard Street in London. Page suggested that they attempt "Train Kept A-Rollin'", originally a jump blues song popularised in a rockabilly version by Johnny Burnette, which had been covered by The Yardbirds. "As soon as I heard John Bonham play", recalled Jones, "I knew this was going to be great... We locked together as a team immediately". Before leaving for Scandinavia the group took part in a recording session for the P.J. Proby album, Three Week Hero. The album's track "Jim's Blues", with Plant on harmonica, was the first studio track to feature all four members of the future Led Zeppelin.

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as The New Yardbirds, playing together for the first time in front of a live audience at Gladsaxe Teen Clubs in Gladsaxe, Denmark, on 7 September 1968.[20] Later that month, the group began recording their first album, which was based upon their live set. The album was recorded and mixed in nine days, and Page himself covered the costs. After the album's completion, the band were forced to change their name after Chris Dreja issued a cease and desist letter, stating that Page was only allowed to use the New Yardbirds name for the Scandinavian dates. One account of how the new band's name was chosen held that Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a "lead balloon", a British idiom for disastrous results. The group dropped the 'a' in lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, so that those unfamiliar with the phrase would not pronounce it "leed". The word "balloon" was transformed into "zeppelin", perhaps an exaggeration of the humour, and to Page the name conjured the perfect combination of heavy and light, combustibility and grace.

Grant secured for the new band an advance deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, which was then one of biggest deals of its kind for a new band. Atlantic were a label with a catalogue of mainly blues, soul and jazz artists, but in the late 1960s it began to take an interest in progressive British rock acts. It signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of singer Dusty Springfield. Under the terms of their contract, the band had autonomy in deciding when they would release albums and tour and had final say over the contents and design of each album. They also would decide how to promote each release and which tracks to release as singles. They formed their own company, Superhype, to handle all publishing rights.

On 14 October 1968, the band announced the new name and played their first show at the University of Surrey in Guildford on 25 October; this was followed by a short British tour. Richard Cole organised their first North American tour at the end of the year, and would become a major figure in the touring life of the group. The first show was in Denver on 26 December 1968, followed by other East Coast dates before they moved to California to play Los Angeles and San Francisco. The eponymous debut, Led Zeppelin, was released in the US during the tour on 12 January 1969. The UK release date was 31 March 1969. According to Steve Erlewine, its memorable guitar riffs, lumbering rhythms, psychedelic blues, groovy, bluesy shuffles and hints of English folk, made it "a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal". Plant received no credit for his songwriting contributions, said to be because of his being under contract to CBS Records. The album eventually peaked at number 10 on the Billboard chart and number 6 in the UK.

In their first year, Led Zeppelin completed four US and four UK concert tours, and also released their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II. Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American studios, it was an even greater commercial success than their first album and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. The album further developed ideas established on their debut album, creating a work with a direct sound that was "heavy and hard, brutal and direct" and which would be highly influential and frequently imitated. Steve Waksman has suggested that Led Zeppelin II was "the musical starting point for heavy metal".

The band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences, and Grant maintained an aggressive pro-album stance. Without the band's consent or under their protest, however, some songs were released as singles, particularly in the US. In 1969 an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" from their second album was released as a single in the US. It reached number four in the Billboard chart in January 1970, selling over one million copies and helping to cement the band's popularity. The group also increasingly shunned television appearances, enforcing their preference that their fans hear and see them in live concerts.

Following the second album's release, Led Zeppelin completed several more US tours. They played initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Some early Led Zeppelin concerts lasted more than four hours, with expanded and improvised live versions of their song repertoire. Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings. It was during this period of intensive concert touring that the band developed a reputation for off-stage excess. One alleged example of such extravagance was the shark episode, or red snapper incident, which is said to have taken place at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington, on 28 July 1969.

For the third album, Led Zeppelin III, Page and Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound that was strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, and showcased the band's versatility. The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with critics and fans surprised at the turn from the primarily electric arrangements of the first two albums, fuelling further hostility to the musical press. It reached number one in the UK and US charts, but its stay would be the shortest of their first five albums. The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released in November 1970 as a single against the band's wishes, reaching the top twenty on the Billboard chart.

01.tuneups 1:55
02.As Long As I Have You 18:16
03.Killing Floor 8:53
04.White Summer, Black Mountain Side 10:22
05.Babe I'm Gonna Leave You 7:14
06.Pat's Delight 12:15
+ Raw Version

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Picture of the day

Slapp Happy, Henry Cow - Desperate Straights (Great Folkrock UK 1975)

Size: 73.9 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Looking back, the decision to join forces made by German art-pop band Slapp Happy and Canterbury avant-garde jazz/prog etc. ensemble Henry Cow seems like an especially strange one, especially considering it was the mid-1970's. Bizarre though it seems, the merger produced two excellent albums, not to mention plenty of unreleased material and future collaborations. Although Desperate Straights, the first of the team-ups, isn't necessarily the best place to start for either Slapp Happy or Henry Cow, fans of each group should find that the album combines the best of both bands without sacrificing either group's individuality.

Like the first Slapp Happy album(s) (the history of their second album is too complicated to go into now--I recommend Acnalbasac Noom above the other options), Desperate Straights is primarily structured around the lyrics of Peter Blegvad, sung by the peerless Dagmar Krause, set to music by both Blegvad and Anthony Moore. Of course, since Henry Cow is along for the ride, there are many exceptions and much of the instrumental backing is made complete thanks to their collective virtuosity.

Compared with Slapp Happy's first two albums, this one's much more out there--Dagmar's chanteuse-style of previous releases often gives way to a much more elastic, otherwordly sound. Her German accent gives the English lyrics a unique sound, and she's obviously in complete control of her tone and phrasing as she waltzes through alien avant-garde, cabaret, prog-jazz and weird rock styles without breaking a sweat. Of course, it helps that Blegvad's lyrics are great--concise, multi-layered, surreal, bizarre and often hilarious. Take "Some Questions About Hats," which is just that, featuring such classic lines as "Can one pit hats against vicious things, pernicious things? Licorice? Fish with wings?"

While the spirit of Casablanca Moon is still at play, fans of that album who are unfamiliar with Henry Cow may find themselves scratching their heads at the dearth of straight-up pop tunes. "Bad Alchemy" sees Dagmar doubling an angular piano line while Fred Frith and Chris Cutler go hog wild on the guitar and drums, respectively (Cutler's drumming all over this album has to be some of the most creative and entertaining I've ever heard). "Giants" is a dialog between a father and daughter set to creepy, swirling clarinet and piano. Though the structure is very progressive, the songs are actually chock full of hooks and most clock in at less than 3 minutes. "A Worm At Work" has that irresistibly catchy "no no no no no stop that cynical line!" refrain, "Strayed" sounds like a Velvet Underground outtake without the cutesy lo-fi feel, "Riding Tigers" and "Excerpt From Messiah" rock with a generous helping of pathos. Throughout, Henry Cow lends a totally off-kilter hand with unconventional wind arrangements, crazy jazz, but the tightly-written nature of the songs reins them in from their usual sprawling and more challenging sounds (for a darker take on this sound, check out the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy In Praise of Learning).

Really, the only thing holding this fine, challenging and eclectic batch of experimental pop from five stars is the length--"Caucasian Lullabye" and "Desperate Straights" (less so) seem present to take up space, and without them this would be a very short album indeed. But with such entertaining music, it's hardly a serious complaint. If you're new to either band, check out Acnalbasac Noom for Slapp Happy or Leg End for Henry Cow. If you like what you hear, you'll probably enjoy Desperate Straights.

01. Some Questions About Hats
02. The Owl
03. A Worm Is At Work
04. Bad Alchemy
05. Europa
06. Desperate Straights
07. Riding Tigers
08. Apes In Capes
09. Strayed
10. Giants
11. Excerpt From The Messiah
12. In The Sickbay
13. Caucasian Lullaby

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Blue Öyster Cult - Agents of Fortune (Classic Rock UK 1976)

Size: 111 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Agents of Fortune is the fourth studio album released by Blue Öyster Cult, originally released in a gatefold sleeve in 1976.

The platinum selling album peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, while the single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" peaked at #12 on the Pop Singles chart, making it Blue Öyster Cult's biggest hit.

The band also became a larger concert attraction at this time - largely based on not only their stageshow, but aided by the airplay of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" which to this day is a staple of FM rock station playlists. Concert venues became larger, the show became more intricate and BOC was reaching its financial peak on the tour circuit.

If ever there were a manifesto for 1970s rock, one that prefigured both the decadence of the decade's burgeoning heavy metal and prog rock excesses and the rage of punk rock, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," the opening track from Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult's fourth album, was it. The irony was that while the cut itself came down firmly on the hard rock side of the fence, most of the rest of the album didn't. Agents of Fortune was co-produced by longtime Cult record boss Sandy Pearlman, Murray Krugman, and newcomer David Lucas, and in addition, the band's lyric writing was being done internally with help from poet-cum-rocker Patti Smith (who also sings on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini").

Pearlman, a major contributor to the band's songwriting output, received a solitary credit while critic Richard Meltzer, whose words were prevalent on the Cult's previous outings, was absent. The album yielded the band's biggest single with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a multi-textured, deeply melodic soft rock song with psychedelic overtones, written by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. The rest of the album is ambitious in that it all but tosses aside the Cult's proto-metal stance and instead recontextualizes their entire stance. It's still dark, mysterious, and creepy, and perhaps even more so, it's still rooted in rock posturing and excess, but gone is the nihilistic biker boogie in favor of a more tempered -- indeed, nearly pop arena rock -- sound that gave Allen Lanier's keyboards parity with Dharma's guitar roar, as evidenced by "E.T.I.," "Debbie Denise," and "True Confessions."

This is not to say that the Cult abandoned their adrenaline rock sound entirely. Cuts like "Tattoo Vampire" and "Sinful Love" have plenty of feral wail in them. Ultimately, Agents of Fortune is a solid record, albeit a startling one for fans of the band's earlier sound. It also sounds like one of restless inspiration, which is, in fact, what it turned out to be given the recordings that came after. It turned out to be the Cult's last consistent effort until they released Fire of Unknown Origin in 1981.

01."This Ain't the Summer of Love" (Albert Bouchard, Murray Krugman, Don Waller) – 2:21
02."True Confessions" (Allen Lanier) – 2:57
03."(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Donald Roeser) – 5:08
04."E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)" (Sandy Pearlman, Roeser) – 3:43
05."The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (A. Bouchard, Patti Smith) – 3:52
06."Sinful Love" (A. Bouchard, Helen Robbins) – 3:29
07."Tattoo Vampire" (A. Bouchard, Helen Robbins) – 2:41
08."Morning Final" (Joe Bouchard) – 4:30
09."Tenderloin" (Lanier) – 3:40
10."Debbie Denise" (A. Bouchard, Patti Smith) – 4:13

bonus tracks
11."Fire of Unknown Origin" (Original Version) (Eric Bloom, A. Bouchard, J. Bouchard, Roeser, Patti Smith) – 3:30
12."Sally" (Demo Version) (A. Bouchard) – 2:40
13."(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Demo Version) (Roeser) – 6:20
14."Dance The Night Away" (Demo Version) (Jim Carroll, Lanier) – 2:37

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Blue Öyster Cult - Secret Treaties (Classic Hardrock UK 1974)

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Bitrate: 256
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Secret Treaties is Blue Öyster Cult's third studio album, released in 1974.

While the speed-freak adrenaline heaviness and shrouded occult mystery of Tyranny and Mutation is the watermark for Blue Öyster Cult's creative invention, it is Secret Treaties that is widely and critically regarded as the band's classic. Issued in 1974, Secret Treaties is the purest distillation of all of BÖC's strengths. Here the songs are expansive, and lush in their textures. The flamboyance is all here, and so are the overdriven guitar riffs provided by Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom. But there is something else, texturally, that moves these songs out from the blackness and into the shadows. Perhaps it's the bottom-heavy mix by producer and lyricist Sandy Pearlman, with Allen Lanier's electric piano and Joe Bouchard's bass coming to rest in an uneasy balance with the twin-guitar attack. Perhaps it's in the tautness of songwriting and instrumental architectures created by drummer Albert Bouchard, Bloom, and Don Roeser (Buck Dharma). Whatever it is, it offers the Cult a new depth and breadth.

While elements of psychedelia have always been a part of the band's sound, it was always enfolded in proto-metal heaviness and biker boogie. Here, BÖC created their own brand of heavy psychedelic noir to diversify their considerably aggressive attack. Listen to "Subhuman" or "Dominance and Submission." Their minor chord flourishes and multi-tracked layered guitars and Bouchard's constantly shimmering cymbals and snare work (he is the most underrated drummer in rock history) and elliptical lyrics -- that Pearlman put out in front of the mix for a change -- added to the fathomless dread and mystery at the heart of the music. Elsewhere, on "Cagey Cretins" and "Harvester of Eyes" (both with lyrics by critic Richard Meltzer), the razor-wire guitar riffs were underscored by Lanier's organ, and their sci-fi urgency heightened by vocal harmonies.

But it is on "Flaming Telepaths," with its single-chord hypnotic piano line that brings the lyric "Well, I've opened up my veins too many times/And the poison's in my heart in my heart and in my mind/Poison's in my bloodstream/Poison's in my pride/I'm after rebellion/I'll settle for lives/Is it any wonder that my mind is on fire?" down into the maelstrom and wreaks havoc on the listener. It's a stunner, full of crossing guitar lines and an insistent, demanding rhythmic throb. The set closes with the quark strangeness of "Astronomy," full of melancholy, dread, and loss that leaves the listener unsettled and in an entirely new terrain, having traveled a long way from the boasting rockery of "Career of Evil" that began the journey.

It's a breathless rock monolith that is all dark delight and sinister pleasure. While the Cult went on to well-deserved commercial success with Agents of Fortune an album later, the freaky inspiration that was offered on their debut, and brought to shine like a black jewel on Tyranny and Mutation, was fully articulated as visionary on Secret Treaties.

01."Career of Evil" (Albert Bouchard, Patti Smith) – 3:59
02."Subhuman" (Eric Bloom, Sandy Pearlman) – 4:39
03."Dominance and Submission" (A. Bouchard, Bloom, Pearlman) – 5:23
04."ME 262" (Bloom, Donald Roeser, Pearlman) - 4:48
05."Cagey Cretins" (A. Bouchard, Richard Meltzer) – 3:16
06."Harvester of Eyes" (Roeser, Bloom, Meltzer) – 4:42
07."Flaming Telepaths" (A. Bouchard, E. Bloom, S. Pearlman, D. Roeser) – 5:20
08."Astronomy" (Joe Bouchard, A. Bouchard, Pearlman) – 6:28

Bonus Tracks
09."Boorman the Chauffer" (J. Bouchard, Murray Krugman) – 3:13
10."Mommy" (Bloom, Meltzer) – 3:32
11."Mes Dames Sarat" (Allen Lanier) – 4:07
12."Born to Be Wild" (Mars Bonfire) – 3:40
13."Career of Evil (Single Version)" (A. Bouchard, Patti Smith) – 3:00

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Wendy & Bonnie - Genesis (Rare Psychedelic Folkrock US 1969)

Size: 60.5 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
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Genesis, the sole album by SF-based sisters Wendy and Bonnie Flower, ranks as one of the most remarkable unheard albums of 1969. With melodic confections laced with radiant sisterly harmony, the breezy Brazilian splashes and soft-rock strains of Genesis convey a sophistication that belies the artists' tender ages (Wendy 17, Bonnie 13). Produced for reissue by Irwin Chusid (author of "Songs In The Key Of Z: The Curious Universe Of Outsider Music") with Wendy & Bonnie's full participation, Genesis makes its long-awaited official.

It's hard to remember a time when "teen pop" wasn't brain-dead. The genre has always been filled with ham-fisted emotional statements and triple-sanded pop hooks. And even though these are especially dire times for teen-oriented music, it's not like the Bay City Rollers or Frankie Avalon ever succeeded in making big statements to their generation--or even anything worth humming many years hence.

But what about the other kind of "teen pop"--the kind that's made by teenagers instead of for them? Buddy Holly was only nineteen when he began his recording career; Tommy Bolin had made two albums with Zephyr by the time he turned 20. And certainly, in every town in America, there was at least one band of high-school kids writing original songs and daring to dream big. Most of them were as bad as Johnny Bravo, though, and they're best left in the past.

Then again, San Francisco in the mid-60s was a different place, maybe the only place in America with a fully cross-pollinated music scene. Wendy and Bonnie Flower (their real names, believe it or not) were fortunate enough to grow up there at that time, and to have connections to Cal Tjader, the foremost non-Latino in the Latin jazz movement. Tjader helped the sisters land a record contract; in 1968, they dove into the studio with some of LA's top session musicians and recorded their Genesis album.

The album went nowhere upon its 1969 release; their record label tanked, their producer died, and Wendy and Bonnie might have vanished into history with all the other garage bands. But a few copies of Genesis fell into the right hands, giving the album a lasting underground buzz. For most of the 80s and 90s, it was an album more often talked about than heard, acquiring a near-legendary status among fans of 60s psychedelic pop.

Listening to Genesis is a walk backwards to the late 60s. Sonically, the album is sort of a folk/lounge/Debussy mashup whose most distinguishing characteristic is the powerful blend of Wendy and Bonnie's voices. The session players (aces like Jim Keltner, Larry Carlton, and Michael Melvoin) try their best to keep the sound out of the coffeehouse, but Wendy's songs simply reek of caffeine and study hall. There's a melodic and harmonic sophistication that one might not expect from a teenage songwriter, but it's clear that Wendy's stylistic horizons were somewhat limited. (Although the sisters' penchant for suddenly breaking into madrigal-type singing in the middle of folk-pop songs is certainly intriguing.)

01. Let Yourself Go Another Time
02. Paisley Window Pane, The
03. I Realized You
04. By the Sea
05. You Keep Hanging up on My Mind
06. It's What Really Happening
07. Five O'Clock in the Morning
08. Endless Pathway
09. Children Laughing
10. The Winter Is Cold

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Deep Purple - Shades of Deep Purple (1st Album UK 1968)

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Shades of Deep Purple is the debut album by English hard rock band Deep Purple, released in 1968 on Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Tetragrammaton in the United States.

It was released without much attention in the UK, where it did not perform sales-wise. In the US on the other hand, it was a massive success, contributing largely to the attention Deep Purple would get there and also eventually also over to the UK. Sound-wise, it is more leaned on psychedelia and progressive rock.

Rehearsing began in February, after Nick Simper, Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice (as of yet without an appropriate drum kit) had hired Rod Evans to sing after some auditions. Their first rehearsals (Paice having now gotten his favoured drum kit) involved mostly jamming and some occasional glimpses with the instrumentals "And The Address" and "Mandrake Root", which Blackmore had written earlier that year. (Mandrake Root was also the name of an earlier band that Blackmore had been trying to form in Germany when the call came from Deep Purple's management.)

Their previous test-singer, Chris Curtis had been wanting to add a cover of a Beatles song to an eventual album and therefore the first proper song that was set in motion turned out to be "Help!". "Mandrake Root" was given lyrics, so the album would feature only one instrumental. Then, with those three well inducted, the band started to think on "I'm So Glad", a song by Skip James, which had earlier been covered by Cream. Ian Paice and Rod Evans had also recorded the song earlier, with their band The Maze.

It was to be proven typical with Deep Purple in these early years that all the cover songs recorded were considerably longer and more grandiose than the originals. "I'm So Glad" was certainly no exception. When the track was recorded, the first movement of Scheherazade was added before the actual song began.

The next song added to the rehearsals was "Hey Joe", a song originally, but disputably, written by Billy Roberts and mistakenly credited to "Deep Purple" on original releases of the Shades album. The Jimi Hendrix Experience had recorded a version of this song in late 1966 and this was used as the main inspiration. But as well as "I'm So Glad", the song was heavily blown up and stretched in length. Joe South had written a song for Billy Joe Royal the previous year, called "Hush" and this song was also picked up by the band.

After an agreed set list, the band began the finesse-rehearsals. Ritchie Blackmore convinced a friend of his, Derek Lawrence, to produce. He and Blackmore had cooperated some years before. Lawrence ran an independent production company that recorded singles and sold the results over to the United States. Lawrence had seen some of their sessions and was very impressed with what he saw.

Deep Purple's employer, HEC, was set in contact with American record-label, Tetragrammaton. The Americans were looking for a British band to work with on their new label. HEC set their talented deployers in full action and arranged for the band to cut some demos in between March and April. Two of their previously developed songs, "Hush" and "Help" were recorded for this purpose, as well as two newcomers: "Love Help Me" and "Shadows", both written by the band. "Help" was previewed for EMI, who had offered them a deal concerning distribution in Europe. The demos (except "Shadows", which was dropped) were previewed by Tetragrammaton, who after careful consideration chose "Hush" as their commitment.

The demos were followed by promotions of the finished album, which first earned them some gigs in Scandinavia. The band name was also the developed at this time. "Deep Purple" was suggested by Blackmore, as it was also the name of his grandmother's favourite song. When they returned to England, the cable containing Tetragrammaton's decision to sign them had arrived. The request had apparently resulted in an agreement for a green-light and the band was now supported by a label overseas. This was a saving grace, as the budget provided by HEC was nearly spent. Good gear and promotion had not gone without some cost.

With the band on promotion-tour, some studio time had been successfully booked and on Saturday, 11 May 1968, Deep Purple went into Pye studios at ATV House in London. There, with aforementioned Derek Lawrence producing and Barry Ainsworth acting as engineer, they reworked and improved the material they had rehearsed and recorded before. "And The Address" and "Hey Joe" were cut first, followed by "Hush" and "Help" later that day. On Sunday, "Love Help Me", "I'm So Glad" (with the Scheherazade-prelude entitled "Happiness") and "Mandrake Root" were recorded. The latter required a large amount of mixing, with sound-effects being provided by the BBC. Finally, on Monday, 13 May, "One More Rainy Day" was cut, completing the recording of their debut album. The final finesses were made and the band concluded their duties in studio later the same day.

The album was now well and finished and tapes were taken to Tetragrammaton representatives that had come to London. The material proved to be more than satisfactory with the label. Due to this, it was with few worries the band approached their next stop, which was the famous Mr. Fish Emporium, where the band-members were clothed in hip styles and fashions. There they did the obligatory photo-shoot. The resulting shots were shipped to America and Tetragrammaton began their distribution of the album there.

The "Hush" single was released overseas by Tetragrammaton and it turned out to be a huge success, peaking at #4 on the US charts, #2 on the Canadian charts, and garnering the band considerable attention. The label's reluctance to release "Help" as the promotional single and instead go for "Hush", proved ingenious. Widely distributed and hyped, the song was played on radios all over the US, particularly the West Coast and the band was well noticed thanks to this. The album was released in the United States in July, 1968 and raced up the Billboard Pop Chart, ultimately peaking at #24. This was more than anyone could hope for back in England and probably more than the label itself had envisioned.

The single was released in the UK as well, but it was, not surprisingly, overlooked as their European label chose to promote "Help" more heavily there. Ian Paice had this to say about success in the US versus the lack of success back home, in an interview for Melody Maker:

"We have been given proper exposure over there. The Americans really know how to push records."

Then, the band did some promotional gigs for the BBC, but otherwise, England in general was not very prioritised. They did some gigs in local pubs and festivals, but the crowd didn't seem that interested. As Jon Lord reflected it to Beat Instrumental Magazine:

"We felt that England was unlikely to be as receptive to a new group as America, so we tried to get signed up with an American record company. We were lucky in that we were signed by a new label, who were anxious to get started with a hit and we had a lot of promotion and publicity. We had far greater freedom both financially and artistically than we could ever have got with a British company. An English company as a rule won't spend any time or effort with you until you're an established name, but isn't that leaving it a bit late?"

Ian Paice's explanation for their lack of touring and promotion in England, reflected to Melody Maker:

"This is because we haven't been offered the money we want and unless there is some sort of prestige attached, there is no point in doing the general run of gigs. And as far as we are concerned, dancing audiences are out. There are only about three numbers in our act that they can dance to. We make a point of warning promoters that we are not a dancing group."

The album was released in the United Kingdom in September 1968 and just as Lord states, the whole thing was not really noticed in the musical environment there. By October, Deep Purple set off to the States, where they were to tour. When they arrived and played their first gigs, attention that was completely in contrast to what they had been given in England, was blasting their way. The success of the "Hush" single was a giant boost in America. The band played at many different locations, including festivals, bars and even at the Playboy Mansion, alongside Hugh Hefner and a bunch of dancing women. The album was from then on a success. If they hadn't been taken seriously in the UK, they certainly were in The States.

01. "And the Address" Blackmore, Lord 4:38
02. "Hush" Joe South 4:24
03. "One More Rainy Day" Lord, Evans 3:40
04. "Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad" Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov[4] Skip James 7:19
05. "Mandrake Root" Blackmore, Lord, Evans 6:09
06. "Help" John Lennon, Paul McCartney 6:01
07. "Love Help Me" Blackmore, Evans 3:49
08. "Hey Joe" Billy Roberts 7:33

Bonus tracks
09. "Shadows" (album outtake) Lord, Evans, Simper, Blackmore 3:39
10. "Love Help Me" (instrumental version) Blackmore, Evans 3:30
11. "Help" (alternate take) John Lennon, Paul McCartney 5:24
12. "Hey Joe" (BBC Top Gear Session; 14 January 1969) Billy Roberts 4:06
13. "Hush" (live US TV 1968) Joe South 3:53

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Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn (2nd Album UK 1968)

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Bitrate: 256
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The Book of Taliesyn is the second album by English rock band Deep Purple, released by EMI's Harvest Records in the UK (1968), Tetragrammaton in the US (1968), and Polydor in Canada and Japan (1969).

The album follows the psychedelic/progressive rock sound of Shades of Deep Purple; however, there is a harder edge to several songs, beginning to show the new sound Deep Purple would introduce in 1970 with Deep Purple in Rock. Also, the original tracks are longer and more diverse than the ones on Shades of Deep Purple, proving that the band had expanded their creativity and ambitions when it came to writing their own material.

Although there isn't any title track in this album, the title-phrase "The Book of Taliesyn" appears in the lyrics for the song "Listen, Learn, Read On."

Deep Purple was booked for a rather excessive tour in the United States, starting in October, as a result of the unexpected success gathered there concerning their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, fronted by the single "Hush." The single was a massive hit in the States and was the spawn of their sudden popularity there. Their American label had pushed them back into the studio just a couple of months before the touring began. This was quite imminent, as their debut album hadn't even been released in the United Kingdom yet. Other reasons for the push for more studio recordings was of course the lack of songs for a live set and the fact that studio work would of course garner more songs.

In early August 1968, they entered the studio for rehearsals and sessions. Rushed into recording new material, the band was not exactly overflowing with ideas. The situation was much like the one they had been in during the recording of the Shades. With a lack of originals, they included several covers, as the material they had been working on was not good enough for an album. These songs were instead performed over BBC sessions for a radio show; "Top Gear", hosted by John Peel.

Deep Purple ventured in the studio with an ambition of coming up with much better original material than their previous effort, as well as including some covers. Finesse recordings began in early October and ended on the tenth. The band had not originally planned on being in studio all the way to October, but production was enthusiastic and everybody in the band had a sense for perfection, especially Ritchie Blackmore. "Shield" and "Anthem" were recorded first, followed by "Wring That Neck," "Listen, Learn, Read On," "Kentucky Woman," and "Exposition/We Can Work It Out." "River Deep - Mountain High" was always intended as the final track, so its recording was postponed until the other tracks were finished. The song was taped on the 10th of October, which ended their recording in studio. In charge of production was Derek Lawrence, who had also produced their previous album.

The tapes were mixed in both mono and stereo. The mono tapes were trashed, as neither of the two labels had any use for them in any matter. The mixing was supposed to be overseen by the band members, but their schedule in October was so tight that Lawrence did it without them. This dismayed the band at first, but the result sound-wise turned out better than on their debut.

Overall, the final album has a cleaner, heavier and more polished sound than their debut. Just as on Shades, time they had been awarded to write and record was very slick, so they had to perform under pressure. In addition, the last time they went into studio, some ideas accompanied them. But with a request for a new album coming only three months after their first album was recorded, they came in with fewer original ideas. But the longer time given to record helped, which provided them four lengthy original songs for the final album. Shades has four originals included as well (only one of these, "Mandrake Root," was played live after 1969), but that album also contains four covers, as opposed to Taliesyn which contains three. The expanded focus on originals for this album would be even further developed on their next venture in the studio.

The album name was taken from a famous 14th century Welsh manuscript, containing certain poems attributed to the 6th century poet Taliesin.

Deep Purple's American label, Tetragrammaton, issued two singles. "Kentucky Woman," with the instrumental "Wring That Neck" (titled as "Hard Road" in the US) as the B-side, was the album's main promoter, much like "Hush" had been for Shades of Deep Purple. It was released in December, after the album had been out for a couple of months. While strictly a B-side, "Wring That Neck" would be used regularly in their live concert set, even into the Mark II era, as it allowed Blackmore and Lord to display their instrumental talents to audiences.

The "Kentucky Woman" single did not flop, peaking at #38, but to the dismay of the label it was nowhere near as big a success as "Hush" had been. In an eager attempt to improve sales of the album, another single was released in December, a heavily-edited version of "River Deep - Mountain High" (which ran over 10 minutes on the album), with "Listen, Learn, Read On" as the B-side. The single was not a success, charting lower than "Kentucky Woman," but it actually beat Ike and Tina Turner's version for some time.

Their English label, EMI, issued the "Kentucky Woman" single as Tetragrammaton did, but they stuck with that. EMI did not release the "River Deep - Mountain High" single, feeling it didn't have the potential to impact the charts in England and that it wasn't worth giving a shot. Not surprisingly, the album sold to a much lesser degree in the UK than overseas and it was widely overlooked there. That had also been the case for Shades of Deep Purple.

John Peel, head of the Top Gear radio show, had previously met the band while they were playing at his show. After great expectations, he had mixed reactions for the final album:

"The group have done some fine things for Radio One and they excite when they play live. I don't understand where this record went wrong, it is all too restrained somehow. They recorded "Wring That Neck" much better for a recent Top Gear."

The cover of the 1968 album shown here, was created by the illustrator and author John Vernon Lord who coincidentally appears to share the same name as the band's keyboard player, Jon Lord. The Book of Taliesyn was the only record cover John Vernon Lord ever designed and, according to the artist's recent retrospective, the original artwork was never returned.

The brief from the artist's agent is detailed in Drawing upon Drawing as follows:

"The agent gave me the title saying that the art director wanted a 'fantasy Arthurian touch' and to include hand lettering for the title and the musicians' names. I mainly drew from The Book of Taliesin, which is a collection of poems, said to be written by the sixth century Welsh bard Taliesin."

The fee for the job was £30 (minus 25% for the agent). John Vernon Lord was, until recently, Professor of Illustration at the University of Brighton.

01. "Listen, Learn, Read On" Rod Evans, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice 4:05
02. "Wring That Neck" (originally titled "Hard Road" in the USA) Blackmore, Nick Simper, Lord, Paice 5:13
03. "Kentucky Woman" Neil Diamond 4:44
04. "(a) Exposition"
"(b) We Can Work It Out" Beethoven, Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice,
John Lennon, Paul McCartney 7:06
05. "The Shield" Evans, Blackmore, Lord 6:06
06. "Anthem" Evans, Lord 6:31
07. "River Deep, Mountain High" Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector 10:12

Bonus:
08. "Oh No No No" (studio outtake) Mike Leander, Leon Russell 4:25
09. "It's All Over" (BBC Top Gear session; 16 January 1969) Ben E. King, Bert Berns 4:14
10. "Hey Bop a Re Bop" (BBC Top Gear session; 16 January 1969) Evans, Blackmore, Lord, Paice 3:31
11. "Wring That Neck" (BBC Top Gear session; 16 January 1969) Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 4:42
12. "Playground" (remixed instrumental studio outtake; 18 August 1968) Blackmore, Simper, Lord, Paice 4:29

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Jethro Tull - Live at Isle of Wight (Great Live 1970)

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This release is a bit like stepping into a time warp -- before they were a folk-rock band and before they were a progressive rock or art rock band, Jethro Tull were pretty much a loud rock & roll band working from a blues base, with a few elements of jazz and folk thrown in, and that's mostly what you've got there. The dominant instrument is Martin Barre's heavily amplified, chord-driven lead guitar playing, which crunches and slashes with the best of them on most of this performance -- Ian Anderson's vocals, flute, and acoustic guitar are present, to be sure, and they find a balance on the then-new song "My God," but even at the their folkiest and droning-est, Tull were still a hard rock band in those days with an irresistible propulsive force in their work.

At their best, as on "With You There to Help Me" (which finds room for rippling lead guitar passages, folk melodies, and elegant piano playing by John Evan), the results are as good as anything in their core Chrysalis Records output. The other notable aspect of this show is how far back it reaches for its repertory -- if "My God" represents the newest material, then "Dharma for One" (featuring killer drumming by Clive Bunker), along with "My Sunday Feeling," carries you back to the group's roots, and these are bracing experiences to hear years later. Not everything here works entirely -- the encore, of "We Used to Know" and "For a Thousand Mothers" -- almost degenerates into a bunch of noise, but pulls together at the last moment; and a film of the event might have been preferable, if one existed, in terms of capturing some of the group's visual presentation.

01."My Sunday Feeling" – 5:20
02."My God" – 7:31
03."With You There to Help Me" – 9:58
04."To Cry You a Song" – 5:40
05."Bourée" – 4:34
06."Dharma for One" – 10:10
07."Nothing Is Easy" – 5:36
08."We Used to Know / For a Thousand Mothers" – 10:36

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John Lee Hooker - Burnin' (Classic Album US 1961)

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From the vaults of Vee Jay Records comes an abundance of classic John Lee Hooker reissues, featuring original art work, running orders, and budget prices from the Collectables label. With the amount of Hooker material available on the market, some of it is of dubious quality, but you can't go wrong with these reissues. Burnin' was released in 1962 and combines 12 tracks of electric material performed by Hooker backed by a band on "Crawlin' Kingsnake," "Boom Boom," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Drug Store Woman," and "What Do You Say." All of the Hooker Vee Jay reissues are recommended.

He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one-chord grooves were at once both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century.

"The Hook" was a Mississippi native who became the top gent on the Detroit blues circuit in the years following World War II. The seeds for his eerily mournful guitar sound were planted by his stepfather, Will Moore, while Hooker was in his teens. Hooker had been singing spirituals before that, but the blues took hold and simply wouldn't let go. Overnight visitors left their mark on the youth, too: legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake, who all knew Moore.

Hooker heard Memphis calling while he was still in his teens, but he couldn't gain much of a foothold there. So he relocated to Cincinnati for a seven-year stretch before making the big move to the Motor City in 1943. Jobs were plentiful, but Hooker drifted away from day gigs in favor of playing his unique free-form brand of blues. A burgeoning club scene along Hastings Street didn't hurt his chances any.

In 1948, the aspiring bluesman hooked up with entrepreneur Bernie Besman, who helped him hammer out his solo debut sides, "Sally Mae" and its seminal flip, "Boogie Chillen." This was blues as primitive as anything then on the market; Hooker's dark, ruminative vocals were backed only by his own ringing, heavily amplified guitar and insistently pounding foot. Their efforts were quickly rewarded. Los Angeles-based Modern Records issued the sides and "Boogie Chillen" — a colorful, unique travelogue of Detroit's blues scene — made an improbable jaunt to the very peak of the R&B charts.

Modern released several more major hits by "the Boogie Man" after that: "Hobo Blues" and its raw-as-an-open wound flip, "Hoogie Boogie"; "Crawling King Snake Blues" (all three 1949 smashes); and the unusual 1951 chart-topper "I'm in the Mood," where Hooker overdubbed his voice three times in a crude early attempt at multi-tracking.

But Hooker never, ever let something as meaningless as a contract stop him for making recordings for other labels. His early catalog is stretched across a road map of diskeries so complex that it's nearly impossible to fully comprehend (a vast array of recording aliases don't make things any easier).

Along with Modern, Hooker recorded for King (as the geographically challenged Texas Slim), Regent (as Delta John, a far more accurate handle), Savoy (as the wonderfully surreal Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar), Danceland (as the downright delicious Little Pork Chops), Staff (as Johnny Williams), Sensation (for whom he scored a national hit in 1950 with "Huckle Up, Baby"), Gotham, Regal, Swing Time, Federal, Gone (as John Lee Booker), Chess, Acorn (as the Boogie Man), Chance, DeLuxe (as Johnny Lee), JVB, Chart, and Specialty; before finally settling down at Vee-Jay in 1955 under his own name. Hooker became the point man for the growing Detroit blues scene during this incredibly prolific period, recruiting guitarist Eddie Kirkland as his frequent duet partner while still recording for Modern.

Once tied in with Vee-Jay, the rough-and-tumble sound of Hooker's solo and duet waxings was adapted to a band format. Hooker had recorded with various combos along the way before, but never with sidemen as versatile and sympathetic as guitarist Eddie Taylor and harpist Jimmy Reed, who backed him at his initial Vee-Jay date that produced "Time Is Marching" and the superfluous sequel "Mambo Chillun."

Taylor stuck around for a 1956 session that elicited two genuine Hooker classics, "Baby Lee" and "Dimples," and he was still deftly anchoring the rhythm section (Hooker's sense of timing was his and his alone, demanding big-eared sidemen) when the Boogie Man finally made it back to the R&B charts in 1958 with "I Love You Honey."

Vee-Jay presented Hooker in quite an array of settings during the early '60s. His grinding, tough blues "No Shoes" proved a surprisingly sizable hit in 1960, while the storming "Boom Boom," his top seller for the firm in 1962 (it even cracked the pop airwaves), was an infectious R&B dance number benefiting from the reported presence of some of Motown's house musicians. But there were also acoustic outings aimed squarely at the blossoming folk-blues crowd, as well as some attempts at up-to-date R&B that featured highly intrusive female background vocals (allegedly by the Vandellas) and utterly unyielding structures that hemmed Hooker in unmercifully.

British blues bands such as the Animals and Yardbirds idolized Hooker during the early '60s; Eric Burdon's boys cut a credible 1964 cover of "Boom Boom" that outsold Hooker's original on the American pop charts. Hooker visited Europe in 1962 under the auspices of the first American Folk Blues Festival, leaving behind the popular waxings "Let's Make It" and "Shake It Baby" for foreign consumption.

Back home, Hooker cranked out gems for Vee-Jay through 1964 ("Big Legs, Tight Skirt," one of his last offerings on the logo, was also one of his best), before undergoing another extended round of label-hopping (except this time, he was waxing whole LPs instead of scattered 78s). Verve-Folkways, Impulse, Chess, and BluesWay all enticed him into recording for them in 1965-1966 alone! His reputation among hip rock cognoscenti in the States and abroad was growing exponentially, especially after he teamed up with blues-rockers Canned Heat for the massively selling album Hooker 'n' Heat in 1970.

Eventually, though, the endless boogie formula grew incredibly stagnant. Much of Hooker's 1970s output found him laying back while plodding rock-rooted rhythm sections assumed much of the work load. A cameo in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers was welcome, if far too short.

But Hooker wasn't through; not by a long shot. With the expert help of slide guitarist extraordinaire/producer Roy Rogers, the Hook waxed The Healer, an album that marked the first of his guest star-loaded albums (Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and Robert Cray were among the luminaries to cameo on the disc, which picked up a Grammy).

Major labels were just beginning to take notice of the growing demand for blues records, and Pointblank snapped Hooker up, releasing Mr. Lucky (this time teaming Hooker with everyone from Albert Collins and John Hammond to Van Morrison and Keith Richards). Once again, Hooker was resting on his laurels by allowing his guests to wrest much of the spotlight away from him on his own album, but by then, he'd earned it. Another Pointblank set, Boom Boom, soon followed.

Happily, Hooker enjoyed the good life throughout the '90s. He spent much of his time in semi-retirement, splitting his relaxation time between several houses acquired up and down the California coast. When the right offer came along, though, he took it, including an amusing TV commercial for Pepsi. He also kept recording, releasing such star-studded efforts as 1995's Chill Out and 1997's Don't Look Back. All this helped him retain his status as a living legend, and he remained an American musical icon; and his stature wasn't diminished upon his death from natural causes on June 21, 2001

01. Boom Boom Hooker 2:32
02. Process Hooker 3:49
03. Lost a Good Girl Hooker 2:51
04. A New Leaf Arnold, Hooker 2:30
05. Blues Before Sunrise Carr, Hooker 3:49
06. Let's Make It Hooker 2:27
07. I Got a Letter Hooker 2:44
08. Thelma Hooker 3:31
09 Drug Store Woman Hooker, Josea 2:47
10 Keep Your Hands to Yourself Hooker 2:10
11 What Do You Say Hooker 2:27

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