Saturday, 31 March 2012
Not to be missed: Stray Dog - Stray Dog (Tremendeous Hardrock UK 1973)
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped By: ChrisGoesRock
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Japan 24-Bit Remaster
Another one of my top ten albums of all time, this first album by the Anglo-American power trio was originally released onELP's Manticore label and (well) produced by Greg Lake. At first listen, a lot of these songs almost sound more like jams, but there's actually quite a bit of controlled chaos going on.
P.S. If the name Snuffy Walden sounds familiar, it may be because you saw his name as musical director for "The Wonder Years", and now does the same on "The West Wing". The grandiose orchestral scores are quite a bit different than Stray Dog's supercharged boogie!
Hard Rock band signed to EMERSON LAKE & PALMER's Manticore label, hence production on both albums by Greg Lake. A trio of vocalist / guitarist Snuffy Walden, bassist Alan Roberts and ex ROAD drummer Les Sampson. STRAY DOG added second guitarist Tim Dulaine and keyboard player Luis Cabaza for the second effort.
Snuffy Walden became a renowned session guitarist performing for numerous major artists. Pre STRAY DOG he had laid down the guitars on the 1973 RABBITT album 'Broken Arrows'. Roberts went on to AALON for one album. Excellent Hardrock, not to be missed!
01. Tramp (How It Is)
02. Crazy
03. Letter
04. Chevrolet
05. Speak of the Devil
06. Slave
07. Rocky Mountain Suite (Bad Road)
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/2043911916/StrayDog.rar
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Velvet Underground - Live w. Lou Reed 1969 (Classic Album US 1974)
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1969: The Velvet Underground Live is a live album by The Velvet Underground. It was originally released as a double album in September 1974 by Mercury Records. The September 1988 CD re-release was issued as two separate single CD volumes, with one extra track per disc. Since many of the band's studio albums were out of print in the USA from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s, 1969 was one of the more popular albums by the band, and is a fan favorite. Spin Magazine's Alternative Record Guide included it in the top 100 alternative albums of all time in 1995.
During 1969, The Velvet Underground toured the United States and Canada, playing well over 70 dates. By this time, the band had picked up a sizeable fan base and every now and then a fan would bring along, with consent of the band, recording equipment to record a set.
Most of the time, this would mean relatively simple hand-held recorders resulting in lo-fi audience recordings. On two occasions, however, professional equipment was used. On October 19, 1969 in the End of Cole Ave. club, Dallas, a fan who happened to be a recording engineer brought along his professional gear; and in November at The Matrix in San Francisco, the band was given permission to use the in-house four-track recording desk.
The band were given two-track mixdown tapes from the recordings for reference, but nothing was done with them until 1974, after the band had dissolved and Lou Reed had gained popularity/notoriety in his own right. According to bassist Doug Yule, "The release of 1969 Live... was started by Steve Sesnick [former band manager], who had the tapes and was trying to sell them to get money for himself claiming that he owned the [band] name and the rights to the album... Somehow somebody else got involved and contacted other people in the group and basically Sesnick got done. [Lou Reed's management] took the tapes and said 'It's not yours' and released it".
The mixdown tapes were submitted to Mercury Records, who agreed to release a compilation of the best performances as a double album. The songs on the album were compiled by music critic Paul Nelson, who at the time was working in A&R at Mercury. When 1969 was released, it immediately became subject of a lawsuit as The Matrix's management had never given permission for their material to be used on a commercial release. The matter was, however, settled out of court.
At the time of the album's release, three of its songs ("We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together", "Over You", "Sweet Bonnie Brown"/"It's Just Too Much") were previously unreleased in any form, two ("Lisa Says" and "Ocean") were previously only known as Lou Reed solo songs, and "New Age" and "Sweet Jane" were radically different from the eventual Loaded studio versions. In addition, much of the rest of the album lends credence to a popular saying about the band—that they wouldn't (or couldn't) play a song the same way twice. In particular, "I'm Waiting For The Man" (credited here as "Waiting For My Man") is performed in a country-rock manner; "Femme Fatale" is louder and more aggressive, and "White Light/White Heat" is extended from two-and-a-half minutes to over eight minutes of avant-garde guitar improvisation. The album is also notable for featuring songs sung by different singers than the album versions: Reed sings "Femme Fatale" (originally sung by Nico) and "New Age" (later sung by Yule on Loaded), and "I'll Be Your Mirror" is sung by Yule (another song originally sung by Nico.)
The album contained liner notes by Paul Nelson and by singer/songwriter Elliott Murphy.
Volume one
01."Waiting for My Man" – 7:03
02."Lisa Says" – 5:52
03."What Goes On" – 8:55
04."Sweet Jane" – 4:00
05."We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together" – 3:15
06."Femme Fatale" – 3:04
07."New Age" – 6:36
08."Rock and Roll" – 6:06
09."Beginning to See the Light" – 5:30
10."Heroin" – 8:14
Volume two
01."Ocean" – 10:55
02."Pale Blue Eyes" – 5:51
03."Heroin" – 9:49
04."Some Kinda Love" – 4:48
05."Over You" – 2:17
06.Medley: "Sweet Bonnie Brown"/"It's Just Too Much" – 7:55
07."White Light/White Heat" – 8:35
08."I Can't Stand It" – 7:51
09."I'll Be Your Mirror" – 2:21
Part 1: https://rapidshare.com/files/382733673/Velvet.part1.rar
Part 2: https://rapidshare.com/files/691191124/Velvet.part2.rar
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Part 1: http://uploadmirrors.com/download/1KMPQRG7/Velvet.part1.rar
Part 2: http://uploadmirrors.com/download/0XOVNT6S/Velvet.part2.rar
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Traffic - Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory (UK 1973)
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Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory, released in 1973, was the seventh album and sixth studio album by English rock band Traffic. It followed their 1971 hit The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and contained only five songs. Shoot Out, while achieving poorer reviews than its predecessor, did reach number six on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, one space higher than Low Spark had peaked in 1972. Like its predecessor, the original jacket for the Shoot Out LP had its top right and bottom left corners clipped.
Rolling Stone had a subdued reaction, saying that most of the songs are too even-tempered and uniform in structure and tone, but that "Evening Blue" and "(Sometimes I feel so) Uninspired" are high points. They summarized that the album "embodies the inconsistencies that beset the band as well as the high points that have kept Traffic moving."
The original, full-length master of Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory was originally only heard on the original U.S. vinyl version. This was at a time when Island Records was an independent label and the album was manufactured and distributed by Capitol Records.
When Island's distribution deal with Capitol ended, Traffic submitted a revised master in which "Roll Right Stones" and "Uninspired" were remixed and faded out early. "Uninspired" was shortened by about 15 seconds and "Roll Right Stones" by a full two minutes. This shortened master was used for all subsequent copies of the album until May 2003. With Island's 2003 remaster of the album, the original full-length versions of these songs finally became available on CD. LPs and CDs with the shortened versions of these songs falsely list the longer times for them.
01."Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory" – 6:05
02."Roll Right Stones" – 13:40
03."Evening Blue" – 5:19
04."Tragic Magic" (Chris Wood) – 6:43
05."(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired" – 7:31
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/743433919/Traffic_1973.rar
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2. http://uploadmirrors.com/download/1TRMLETW/Traffic_1973.rar
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John Gary Williams - Selftitled (Rare Soul Album US 1973)
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John Gary Williams had been a longtime member of the Stax soul vocal group the Mad Lads before starting a solo career after the group broke up in the early '70s. His self-titled 1973 album is one of the most obscure Stax LPs, in part because it was issued as the company started to cease operations. He wrote five of the eight tracks on the record, producing five of them as well (and co-producing the others). Though not a major effort in the scheme of either early-'70s soul or the Stax catalog, it's a pleasant assortment of sweet soul tracks, with a slightly earthier edge than many recordings in the genre boasted. Most of the songs are upbeat romantic numbers highlighting Williams' smooth, high vocals, inserting covers of songs by the Four Tops, the Spinners, and (more unexpectedly) Bobby Goldsboro. The most impressive cuts, by a long shot, are the ones that steer away from the usual romantic themes to make general social observations. The opener "I See Hope" is a lively, dramatic expression of optimism; the closing "The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy," in contrast, reflects the pessimism infiltrating much early-'70s soul, the gently percolating grooves and soaring strings offsetting lyrics of confusion at the backstabbing state of the modern world. [The 2010 CD reissue on BGP adds historical liner notes and both sides of the subsequent single "Come What May"/"Just Ain't No Love Without You Here," two midtempo tunes with a similar vibe to those on the album.]
01. I See Hope 3:02
02. I'm So Glad Fools Can Fall In Love 4:13
03. Honey 6:37
04. Loving You (It Ain't Easy) 2:44
05. Ask The Lonely 3:31
06. How Could I Let You Get Away 4:00
07. Open Your Heart (And Let Love Come In) 3:12
08. The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy 3:10
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Hound Dog Taylor - Genuine Houserockin' Music (Unreleased Songs US 1971-73)
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They ran on equal parts of brotherly love, vicious adolescent rivalry and Canadian Club. For over ten years, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers made joyous music together five or six nights a week, first in the tiny taverns that dot Chicago's South Side ghetto, later in clubs, colleges and concert halls literally around the world. They were quite a sight on the bandstand. Hound Dog, perched on his folding chair, stomping both feet to keep time, grinning his millions-of-teeth grin, pausing between songs only long enough to light up a Pall Mall and tell a totally incomprehensible joke (which he'd interrupt halfway through, cackling with laughter and burying his face in his hand) before tearing into another no-holds-barred boogie. Phillips (no one ever called him Brewer) with his broken teeth and crooked smile dancing in the aisles, his vintage Fender Telecaster strung around his neck like some giant pendant, his shirt tail hanging out, kicking his leg in the air as he squeezed out a high note, occasionally grabbing the mike to sing in a voice as battered as his guitar. Ted Harvey, his hair clipped tight to his head, yelling out encouragement from behind his minimal drum set, chomping out the rhythm on the wad of gum in his mouth, sometimes drifting off to sleep without ever missing a beat, until Phillips would sneak up behind him in mid-song and wake him with a slap across the back of the head.
They were inseparable, and they played together like brothers, sensing each other's musical twists and turns before they happened, feeding energy and good spirits from one to the other. They fought like brothers too, as they crisscrossed the country from gig to gig in Hound Dog's old Ford station wagon, arguing constantly about who was the best lover, who had the best woman, who was the best mayor Chicago ever had, who was or wasn't out of tune the night before. The arguments weren't always in fun, either. From time to time a knife appeared, and finally even a gun.
They made a lot of noise for three men with two guitars and a drum set. Between the incredible distortion from Hound Dog's supercheap Japanese guitar, the sustain from his brass-lined steel slide (made from the leg of a kitchen chair), the sheet-metal tone of Phillips' ancient Fender, their cracked-speaker amplifiers, and Ted's simple, kickass drumming, they could indeed rock the house
They played amazingly long sets, two or three hours of driving boogies and shuffles mixed with the occasional slow blues. It was music born in the Deep South juke joints, when electric guitars were still something new and bass guitars were unheard of, music for all-night dancing and partying. The purists called them a blues band, but Hound Dog called it rock and roll.
Hound Dog was already playing guitar and piano when he came to Chicago from Mississippi in 1942 at the age of 27 (He used to haul an upright piano to Delta fish fries on a mule-drawn wagon). But he was strictly an amateur musician. He moved in with his sister Lucy in the neighborhood around 39th & Indiana in the heart of the ghetto, a neighborhood he lived in for the rest of his life. He found a day job as a short order cook, and on Sunday mornings he played for tips at the Maxwell Street open-air market, competing for attention with unknowns like Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk.
It wasn't until 1955, when Hound Dog lost his last job building TV cabinets, that he began trying to make his living as a musician. He played with almost every guitarist and drummer in the city until he chose a construction worker named Phillips in 1959 and a shipping clerk named Ted in 1965 as the official HouseRockers.
By pricing his band lower than any other on the South Side (when I met them in 1970, the whole band was making $45 a night), Hound Dog was able to get gigs at taverns that usually couldn't afford a band. And by pumping out non-stop music and clowning, he drew one of the most loyal crowds in town. Hound Dog and the HouseRockers played some of the seediest clubs in Chicago, clubs that held fifty or a hundred people (who were usually dancing frantically in the aisles), clubs that didn't even have a bandstand, just a space cleared of tables where the band could squeeze in. Their favorite gig was the Sunday afternoon jam at Florence's at 54th Place and Shields, a gig they held for over ten years. On Sundays at Florence's, you were likely to run into Big Walter Horton, Magic Slim, Carey Bell, Lefty Dizz, Son Seals, Lee Jackson, Big MooseWalker, Lonnie Brooks, Left Hand Frank or Johnny Embry, all waiting to sit in with Hound Dog.
When Wes Race and I recorded them, we did our best to create the atmosphere of one of those club gigs in the sterile environment of Sound Studios. We couldn't bring in all their friends and fans, but we did bring in the same battered amps, cranked them up to the same maximum volume, poured the whiskey, and the band cut the same songs they played every Sunday at Florence 's because they wouldn't rehearse and hated to play the same song twice. We cut two albums in two nights, recording twenty songs a night and choosing among the best takes for the albums. We released Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers in 1971 and Natural Boogie in 1973, and the songs on this album were recorded and mixed at the same sessions.
After the release of their first album, their three lives changed dramatically. They went on the road, first to Midwest clubs, then to New England colleges, then to New York concert halls, and finally even to Australia and New Zealand. They established fanatical followings in college-town clubs like the Kove in Kent, Ohio and Joe's Place in Cambridge (where they often played six nights a week for three weeks straight to packed houses, and an unknown acoustic guitarist named George Thorogood opened the shows). They gave three fantastically successful performances at the Ann Arbor Blues Festivals and headlined festivals in Miami, Washington and Buffalo. They played Philharmonic Hall in New York, the Auditorium in Chicago and literally hundreds of other gigs around the country. Rolling Stone printed a feature on them. They even appeared on nationwide Canadian early morning television (where Hound Dog told everyone how happy he was to be visiting the home of Canadian Club).
When I think back on the four years I managed, booked, recorded, drove and carried equipment for Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers, dozens of incidents crowd into my mind:
- Hound Dog shaking the sleeping Ted Harvey after seven or eight hundred miles on the road, and commanding him to ''wake up and argue!";
- the delight of the band in locating a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Melbourne after they had decided they were going to starve to death rather than eat Australian food;
- a late-night slide guitar duel to the death with J.B. Hutto at Alice's Revisited in Chicago, with no clear-cut winner;
- Hound Dog's pride at being introducd by B.B. King to the audience at the posh London House night club;
- Ted falling asleep in a huge shipping carton backstage before a crucial concert and being found only seconds before showtime;
- Hound Dog sitting up all night in a Toronto hotel room with the lights, TV and radio on, because he was afraid to go to sleep and have another one of his dreams about being chased by wolves;
- Phillips stepping in to save me from a knife-wielding drunk outside of Florence's;
- and Hound Dog, dying in his hospital bed, desperately hanging on to life until Phillips finally relented and came to visit him and put to rest their most serious (and violent) argument. Brothers indeed.
Hound Dog died on December 17, 1975. Phillips and Ted are still playing on the South Side, and they still visit Hound Dog's wife, Fredda. And they still talk about him and his musicians as do thousands of fans. But Hound Dog said it best -- ''When I die, they'll say, 'he couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!' ''
When Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor sat down on his battered folding chair, slipped his steel slide onto his six-fingered left hand and tore into one of his foot-stomping shuffles, supercharged boogies or a searing slow blues, he had one thing in mind--making people forget their troubles, either by dancing or by immersing themselves in the deepest of bottleneck blues. And whether he was playing for old friends at one of Chicago's inner-city bars or for thousands of college kids and hippies at clubs and campuses around the country, Taylor's music never changed. With just two guitars and a drum set, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers created a rocked-out, hypnotic, ultra-danceable sound that is as emotionally powerful and wildly energizing today as it was the day they produced it.
Without a drop of slickness, Taylor's electrified blues was feral, rocking and raw. Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau referred to the band as "the Ramones of the blues," and it's easy to understand why. Taylor played fast, loud and sloppy, and would sometimes hit bad notes or get out of tune. But he always made primeval, soul-satisfying music. Nobody could match him when it came to emotional fervor and the pure joy of making music. Songs like Give Me Back My Wig, She's Gone, and Walking The Ceiling are now considered blues classics. "Live wire exuberance and hard-as-nails force," said Rolling Stone, "natural for partying, drinking and talking loud."
Now, for the first time in 22 years, there's finally more Hound Dog Taylor music to be heard. RELEASE THE HOUND is a sizzling collection of some of the best previously unreleased Hound Dog Taylor material in existence. Featuring over 68 minutes of music, RELEASE THE HOUND boasts 14 live and studio performances, including stunning versions of Wild About You, Baby, What'd I Say?, She's Gone, Sen-Sa-Shun and Gonna Send You Back To Georgia. Taylor's wild guitar exuberance and joyous, soulful abandon fuel each and every song. Three instrumentals on the CD showcase Brewer Phillips' crazed lead guitar playing. From the audience reactions on the live cuts to the untamed blues energy of the studio tracks, RELEASE THE HOUND will delight old fans and introduce new ones to Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers' one-of-a-kind blues experience.
Born in Mississippi in 1917, Taylor didn't start playing guitar until he was 20. He worked as a sharecropper by day and played at Delta juke joints and house parties in the evenings. After a harrowing encounter with the Ku Klux Klan in 1942 (he had a cross burned in his yard), Taylor moved north to Chicago, where he performed at the famous outdoor market on Maxwell Street, competing for tips with Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk. Hound Dog played in ghetto bars at night while working a factory job until the late 1950's, when he became a full time musician. He recorded one single, Christine/Alley Music, for Firma Records and another, Take Five/My Baby's Coming Home, for Bea & Baby Records in the early 1960's. Both records were good local sellers but went largely unnoticed outside of Chicago. A session for Chess remained unissued until the 1990's. Taylor toured Europe without his band as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, playing behind Little Walter and others, but never got a chance to show European audiences the magic of his own music.
Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers appeared at the second Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1970 (and became a featured attraction at the third, fourth and fifth Ann Arbor Blues festivals), playing to thousands of cheering college kids. When his Alligator album hit the streets in 1971, Taylor's transition from local hero to national and international blues icon was almost immediate. He began touring the country, continuing to win new, young fans. And he never changed a bit. Taylor played his music with furious abandon whether he was at Florence's on the South Side of Chicago or entertaining college kids at Yale or Harvard. "Nobody but nobody brings the house down with a frenzy and madness like these cats," raved Living Blues. "Deliciously raucous," said Guitar Player.
In all, Taylor recorded a total of three Alligator albums before dying of cancer in 1975. Aside from his self-titled 1971 debut, Taylor's records are 1974's NATURAL BOOGIE and 1976's live, Grammy©-nominated BEWARE OF THE DOG!, released shortly after his death. The success of these records gave life to Alligator, allowing the fledgling label to survive and eventually thrive. In 1982 Alligator issued the Grammy©-nominated GENUINE HOUSEROCKING MUSIC, a collection of unreleased studio tracks. The continuing demand for more of Taylor's material has brought forth a number of poorly recorded, bad sounding bootlegs over the years--recordings for which Taylor and his bandmates never saw any payments or royalties.
Years after his death, Taylor's legendary status still continues to grow. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall Of Fame in 1984. And his debut album received the Blues Foundation's Classics of Blues Recordings Award in 1996. His influence on slide guitarists who came after him is immeasurable. Artists from George Thorogood to Sonny Landreth to Vernon Reid to Gov't Mule continue to be inspired by Hound Dog's music. That's why these artists and others, including Elvin Bishop, Luther Allison, Ronnie Earl, Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials, Son Seals, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Dave Hole, Michael Hill's Blues Mob and Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin contributed songs to Alligator Records' HOUND DOG TAYLOR - A TRIBUTE in 1998. A 1999 "Best Of" collection entitled DELUXE EDITION continued to spread Hound Dog's legend around the world.
Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers played foot-stomping boogies to make fans forget their troubles and dance. They played grinding slow blues to exorcise their demons. "I'm with you, baby I'm with you," Taylor would shout when someone yelled a request out of the audience. "Let's have some fun," he'd holler after sitting down and plugging in his ultra-cheap Japanese guitar into his cracked-speaker Sears Silvertone amp. And with Brewer Phillips playing bass lines on his old Fender and Ted Harvey pounding away at the drums, this three-piece blues band made a lot of wonderful noise. "When I die," Taylor once said, "they'll say, 'he couldn't play shit but he sure made it sound good.'" Almost 30 years after his death, RELEASE THE HOUND proves just how good that sound can be.
01. Ain't Got Nobody
Author/Publisher: Taylor, Eyeball Music, BMI
3:30
02. Gonna Send You Back To Georgia
Author/Publisher: Taylor, Eyeball Music, BMI
5:03
03. Fender Bender
Author/Publisher: Phillips, Eyeball Music, BMI
3:01
04. My Baby's Coming Home
Author/Publisher: Taylor & Eatmon, publisher unknown
2:54
05. Blue Guitar
Author/Publisher: Taylor, Eyeball Music, BMI
3:38
06. The Sun Is Shining
Author/Publisher: James, Arc Music, BMI
5:31
07. Phillips Goes Bananas
Author/Publisher: Phillips, Eyeball Music, BMI
2:36
08. What'd I Say
Author/Publisher: Charles, Progressive Music, BMI
2:53
09. Kansas City
Author/Publisher: Leiber & Stoller, Halnat Publishing, BMI
3:49
10. Crossroads
Author/Publisher: Traditional, public domain
2:22
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/1191056355/HoundDog.rar
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2. http://uploadmirrors.com/download/1SWMW5AP/HoundDog.rar
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Friday, 30 March 2012
Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers (Great Album US 1969)
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Volunteers is a 1969 album by American psychedelic rock band, Jefferson Airplane. It was controversial at the time because of anti-war messages in the songs. The original title of the album was supposed to be Volunteers of America, but pressure from RCA led to this name being dropped.
This was the sixth album recorded by the group and the first to be wholly recorded in San Francisco, at Wally Heider's then state of the art 16-track studio. Guests included Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar, veteran session pianist Nicky Hopkins, future Airplane drummer Joey Covington on percussion, David Crosby, and Stephen Stills. It was one of the earliest 16-track recordings. The back cover of the album shows a picture of the MM-1000 professional 16-track tape recorder built by Ampex Corporation which was used to record the album.
The album has been seen as stereotypical of the hippie philosophy of the time with its anti-war and pro-anarchism songs. The theme of nature, communities and ecology was also explored with the songs "The Farm" and "Eskimo Blue Day". Ironically, the title track was actually inspired by a "Volunteers of America" garbage truck that awoke singer Marty Balin one morning. The album provoked even more controversy with lyrics such as "Up against the wall, motherfucker" (from the song "We Can Be Together", the lyrics of which are almost entirely taken from a pamphlet put out by a member of the anarchist collective Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers) which appeared on the opening track and "shit" which is said several times on "Eskimo Blue Day". Musically, the album is characterized by lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's razor-sharp guitar work (the duelling solos on "Hey Fredrick", plus "Good Shepherd" and "Wooden Ships") and the distinctive piano playing of Nicky Hopkins.
This was to be both Jefferson Airplane's founder Marty Balin and drummer Spencer Dryden's last album with the group, signifying the end of the best-remembered "classic" lineup. It was to be the last all-new LP for 2 years; Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen would now devote more of their energy to their embryonic blues group "Hot Tuna", while Paul Kantner and Grace Slick celebrated the birth of their daughter "China" in 1971.
A specially re-mixed Quadraphonic (4 channel) version of the album was also released in the early 1970's. The Quad version was available on LP Record, and Reel to reel, and 8-track cartridge tape. The Quad mixes are noticeably different than the usual (2 channel) stereo mixes. A few tracks from the Quad version were included on the 3 CD box set Jefferson Airplane Loves You, however on the box set the 4 channel recordings have been reduced to 2 channels.
Controversial at the time, delayed because of fights with the record company over lyrical content and the original title (Volunteers of America), Volunteers was a powerful release that neatly closed out and wrapped up the '60s. Here, the Jefferson Airplane presents itself in full revolutionary rhetoric, issuing a call to "tear down the walls" and "get it on together." "We Can Be Together" and "Volunteers" bookend the album, offering musical variations on the same chord progression and lyrical variations on the same theme. Between these politically charged rock anthems, the band offers a mix of words and music that reflect the competing ideals of simplicity and getting "back to the earth," and overthrowing greed and exploitation through political activism, adding a healthy dollop of psychedelic sci-fi for texture.
The musical arrangements here are quite potent. Nicky Hopkins' distinctive piano highlights a number of tracks, and Kaukonen's razor-toned lead guitar is the recording's unifying force, blazing through the mix, giving the album its distinctive sound. Although the political bent of the lyrics may seem dated to some, listening to Volunteers is like opening a time capsule on the end of an era, a time when young people still believed music had the power to change the world. Volunteers was reissued in late 2001 by BMG Records' Spanish division in a crisply remastered edition containing 30 minutes of outtakes, which consist mostly of early versions, usually with very different lead guitar — often a lot louder — and vocal parts, of "Wooden Ships," "Volunteers," "We Can Be Together," "Turn My Life Down," "Good Shepherd," and "Hey Frederick." Some of these are very different from their official released versions and all are certain to please fans of Jorma Kaukonen, whose electric playing is heavily showcased on all of them.
Volunteers takes a more overtly political stance. RCA holds up the release for weeks to get the band to change the lyric "Up against the wall, motherfucker!" but the band refuses to budge.
Released November 1969.
01. "We Can Be Together" (Paul Kantner) – 5:48
02. "Good Shepherd" (Traditional / Arranged by Jorma Kaukonen) – 4:21
03. "The Farm" (Paul Kantner / Gary Blackman) – 3:15
04. "Hey Fredrick" (Grace Slick) – 8:26
05. "Turn My Life Down" (Jorma Kaukonen) – 2:54
06. "Wooden Ships" (David Crosby / Paul Kantner / Stephen Stills) – 6:24
07. "Eskimo Blue Day" (Grace Slick / Paul Kantner) – 6:31
08. "A Song for All Seasons" (Spencer Dryden) – 3:28
09. "Meadowlands" (Traditional / Arranged by Grace Slick / Paul Kantner) – 1:04
10. "Volunteers" (Marty Balin / Paul Kantner) – 2:08
Bonus Tracks: (All Live)
11. "Good Shepherd" [Live] (Traditional / Arranged by Jorma Kaukonen) - 7:20
12. "Somebody To Love" [Live] (Grace Slick) - 4:10
13. "Plastic Fantastic Lover" [Live] (Marty Balin) - 3:21
14. "Wooden Ships" [Live] (David Crosby / Paul Kantner / Stephen Stills) - 7:00
15. "Volunteers" [Live] (Marty Balin / Paul Kantner) - 3:26
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Jethro Tull - A Passion Play (Concept Album UK 1973)
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A Passion Play is the sixth studio album by Jethro Tull, released in 1973. Like its predecessor, Thick as a Brick, it is a concept album with a single song (which was split into two parts on the original vinyl LP release). The theme of the concept is apparently the spiritual journey of one man in the afterlife.
Upon its original release, it received generally negative reviews. Nevertheless, it sold well enough to reach #1 on the charts in the United States. In the United Kingdom it reached only #13.
Script of the concept:
Act 1: Ronnie Pilgrim's funeral: a winter's morning in the cemetery.
Act 2: The Memory Bank: a small but comfortable theatre with a cinema-screen (the next morning).
Act 3: The business office of G. Oddie & Son (two days later).
Act 4: Magus Perdé's drawing room at midnight.
A Passion Play is presented as a theatrical narrative in four acts over the span of a single, continuous song (split into two album tracks). Regarding the narrative plot of the album, "the lyrics themselves are extremely complicated, the story is often unclear, and much is left to the individual's interpretation." This obscurity is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that none of the characters, even the main character himself, is ever referred to by name in the entirety of the lyrics (with the sole exception of Lucifer). There are also many purely instrumental segments of the album, in which the tone or style of the music alone implies possible action of the play. Because of this vagueness, most of the knowledge of the characters and setting actually comes less from the lyrics themselves and more from the few brief words in the satirical, six-page Linwell Theatre "programme" included in the original album. The programme names Rena Sanderone (an anagram of "Ian Anderson") as A Passion Play's author.
A Passion Play borrows its title from a tradition type of play depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ, though the title is evidently ironic. The play presents a generically Christian view of the afterlife, though with little promotion for such a view thematically. The following is a loose summary and largely literal interpretation of the album's lyrics (and playbill) in terms of a basic storyline. One of the most frequently recurring and variously interpreted motifs in the lyrics is the phrase "There was a rush along the Fulham Road", which appears four times throughout the lyrics, including near the beginning and in the very last sentence of the album.
The main plot is interrupted at this point by an unrelated, spoken-word comedic interlude with a musical background. Presented as an absurd fable, the interlude details (with much wordplay) the failure of a group of anthropomorphic animals to help a hare find his missing eyeglasses. The development of the fable into a full-fledged story, or of any possible moral lesson to the story, is prevented because the hare actually has a spare pair of glasses, a revelation that abruptly ends the fable ("The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles"), returning the play to its main plot.
Having left Heaven to seek excitement, Pilgrim immediately finds Hell even worse with his loss of autonomy. Fleeing from Lucifer's clutches, Pilgrim now understands himself as suitable for neither domain, because is neither completely good nor evil. He talks to Magus Perdé (a character whose role is never quite made clear—his name is an apparent Latinism that could be translated as "lost magician") about his desire to go back to where he came from. Having sampled and rejected both extremes of his afterlife options, Pilgrim invents a third option: he now stands on a Stygian shore, apparently prepared to return to the realm of the living, as a "voyager into life". On this beach, other people and animals, who "breathe the ever-burning fire", also wait to "renew the pledge of life's long song", and the play ends thus, with a heavy suggestion of eternal rebirth (Act 4).
01."A Passion Play" (Part I) – 21:35
Act 1
1."Lifebeats" (instrumental) – 1:14
2."Prelude" (intrumental) – 2:14
3."The Silver Cord" – 4:29
4."Re-Assuring Tune" (instrumental) – 1:11
Act 2
5."Memory Bank" – 4:20
6."Best Friends" – 1:58
7."Critique Oblique" – 4:38
8."Forest Dance #1" (instrumental) – 1:35
02."A Passion Play" (Part II) – 23:30
9."The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" (Anderson, Hammond, Evan) – 4:18
Act 3
10."Forest Dance #2" (instrumental) – 1:12
11."The Foot of Our Stairs" – 4:18
12."Overseer Overture" – 4:00
Act 4
13."Flight from Lucifer" – 3:58
14."10:08 to Paddington" (instrumental) – 1:04
15."Magus Perdé" – 3:55
16."Epilogue" – 0:43
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/2908158760/JethroTull.rar
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Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come (Classic Album US 1972)
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoresRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster
The Harder They Come is the soundtrack album to the iconic film of the same name, released in 1972 in the United Kingdom as Island Records ILPS 9202. It was issued in February 1973 in North America as Mango Records SMAS-7400. It peaked at #140 on the Billboard 200.
The heart of the soundtrack comes from performances by the film's star, reggae singer Jimmy Cliff. Only the title track "The Harder They Come" was recorded by Cliff specifically for the soundtrack, with three earlier songs by Cliff added. The remainder of the album is a compilation of singles released in Jamaica from the period of 1967 through 1972, assembled by the The Harder They Come director and co-writer, Perry Henzell, from songs by favored reggae singers. In addition to Cliff, these artists include The Melodians, The Slickers, DJ Scotty, and seminal early reggae stars Desmond Dekker and Toots and the Maytals.
On August 5, 2003, Universal Music Group issued a Deluxe Edition of the album, with the original remastered and reissued on one disc. A bonus disc continued the idea of the original soundtrack itself, compiling additional singles from the early days of reggae, entitled Reggae Hit the Town: Crucial Reggae 1968-1972.
01."You Can Get It If You Really Want" (Jimmy Cliff) – 2:40 performed by Jimmy Cliff
02."Draw Your Brakes" (Derrick Harriott, Texas Dixon, Keith Rowe) – 2:57 performed by Scotty
03."Rivers of Babylon" (Brent Dowe, James McNaughton) – 4:16 performed by The Melodians
04."Many Rivers to Cross" (Cliff) – 3:02 performed by Jimmy Cliff
05."Sweet and Dandy" (Frederick Hibbert) – 3:01 performed by The Maytals
06."The Harder They Come" (Cliff) – 3:41 performed by Jimmy Cliff
07."Johnny Too Bad" (Trevor Wilson, Winston Bailey, Hylton Beckford, Derrick Crooks) – 3:04 performed by The Slickers
08."007 (Shanty Town)" (Desmond Dekker) – 2:43 performed by Desmond Dekker
09."Pressure Drop" (Hibbert) – 3:44 performed by The Maytals
10."Sitting in Limbo" (Jimmy Cliff, Guillermo Bright-Plummer) – 4:57 performed by Jimmy Cliff
11."You Can Get It If You Really Want" – 2:43 (Cliff) performed by Jimmy Cliff
12."The Harder They Come" (Cliff) – 3:07 performed by Jimmy Cliff
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/196295400/Jimmy_Cliff.rar
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Sam Cooke - Night Beat (Classic R&B US 1963)
Bitrate: 256
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Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster
Night Beat is an album by Sam Cooke, released in 1963 on RCA Records. The album is often considered one of Cooke's best, and also one of the best R&B albums of the period. Billy Preston, the organ player of the album, was just 16 years old at the time of recording. The album was recorded in three nights.
The results are wonderful -- except for his early Soul Stirrers sides, Night Beat is the best place to marvel at one of the two or three best voices of the century. The songs are intimate blues, most taken at the pace of a late-night stroll, but despite the dark shading and heart-rending tempos, Cooke's voice is so transcendent it's difficult to become depressed while listening. Cooke also wrote three of the songs, including the excellent "Mean Old World," and rendered the traditional "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" practically unfamiliar with his own re-arrangement. Cooke also stretches out on a pair of jump blues classics, "Little Red Rooster" and "Shake, Rattle and Roll," summoning some honest grit for the former and putting the uptown swing into the latter. He also allows some solo space, from Barney Kessel's simple, unadorned solo on "Get Yourself Another Fool" to Billy Preston's playful organ vocalizing on "Little Red Rooster." If Sam Cooke had lived longer, there would've been several more sessions like this, but Night Beat is an even richer treasure for its rarity.
01."Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen"
02."Lost And Lookin'"
03."Mean Old World"
04."Please Don't Drive Me Away"
05."I Lost Everything"
06."Get Yourself Another Fool"
07."Little Red Rooster"
08."Laughin' And Clownin'"
09."Trouble Blues"
10."You Gotta Move"
11."Fool's Paradise"
12."Shake, Rattle & Roll"
1. https://rapidshare.com/files/199970394/SamCookeNightBeat.rar
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2. http://uploadmirrors.com/download/15HT4ZZH/SamCookeNightBeat.rar
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