The War of Fog -Adventures in Audiophile Moving. For forty days and nights, we’ve been packing boxes and squaring away our Hudson River home for sale to the new owners: roughly 12,000 records have gone through my hands recently; a few thousand left a while ago, and are now in the hands of a friend who returned to vinyl; as many were handed off to a wholesaler who dealt with the listings and shipping (none of the really rare stuff got sold, so you didn’t miss a thing). The wholesaler came back a couple weeks ago to take another 2,000 records out of here. That left me with about 6,000... Read More
Songs in the Key of Wonder
Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life In spite of his considerable talents, a vast body of commercially successful recordings spanning the decades and enduring recognition from the time he first appeared on Motown’s Tamla roster as “Little Stevie Wonder” at the age of 11, I still think Stevie Wonder is vastly underrated as a composer and performer. His maturation as a gifted writer and musician not only helped redefine the sound of “soul” and popular music in the ’60s, but led to a period of deeper, more introspective music in the ’70s... Read More
Songs in the Key of Life-Stevie Wonder National Recording Registry
“Songs in the Key of Life”—Stevie Wonder (1976) Added to the National Recording Registry: 2005 Essay by Bill Hart (guest post)* How does one judge the importance of a work of recorded music? Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” enjoyed enormous popularity and sales; had a profound influence on other musicians and garnered critical accolades from reviewers. Yet the musical significance of this album is still not fully explained by these conventional measures. The significance of “Songs” as a groundbreaking album seems only to have grown over the years. Its influence is... Read More
Rob Stoner: A Life of Music
Rob Stoner: A Life of Music Few musicians can claim to have opened for the original Jeff Beck Group in ‘68 (with Rod Stewart, Nicky Hopkins and Ronnie Wood), backed Don McLean on his perennial hit and album, American Pie and then helped Bob Dylan reinvent himself (again) in a series of albums and roadshows in the mid-‘70s—in what is now recognized as a peak of creativity for that mercurial troubadour. Rob Stoner did all that by the time he was 27 years old. Stoner didn’t stop there: he played with guitarists as legendary as Chuck Berry and Link Wray, as great as Mick Ronson and as... Read More
Opening the Door to Comments!
Opening the Door to Comments! When this site launched, it did not include any facility for user comments. I didn’t want to bother moderating comments, and had enough work just assembling content. But now, almost two years into publishing TheVinylPress, I’m willing to experiment a bit, so some articles will now include a comments feature. If you want to post a comment, you will have to register. (Registration and login links are at the bottom of the page in the “black bar”). Initial comments may be put into a queue until you are validated as a user. And, at least... Read More
The Congos- Heart of the Congos
The Congos- Heart of the Congos Dig into “reggae” or “roots reggae” and one album seems to stand out: The Congos: Heart of the Congos. This record enjoyed a following but was made far more accessible by subsequent reissues, the most notable being a re-master done in the ‘90s by the Blood & Fire label in the UK. Even if you don’t think you like reggae or Jamaican music, this one is worth owning. It combines beautiful vocal harmonies with a driving rhythm section and a production so in touch with the soul of the music that the recording is part of the performance itself.... Read More
Caravan “In the Land of Grey and Pink”- The Canterbury Scene
Caravan “In the Land of Grey and Pink” -The “Canterbury Scene” Caravan’s “In the Land of Grey and Pink,” released in 1971, is generally considered one of the best representations of the so-called “Canterbury Scene.” What, you may ask, is the “Canterbury Scene”? To me, it is a very imprecise label for an offshoot of progressive rock that had no specific style, and was not necessarily even linked to the cathedral city from which it drew its name. Commentators often point to the pastoral aspects of the music, or the peculiarly English sense of whimsy associated with... Read More
Still Life- s/t (Vertigo Swirl)
Still Life- s/t (Vertigo Swirl) The scarcity of this record and mystery surrounding the band seem to overshadow its merits, which are considerable. It is a “one and done,” not unusual for the period, when bands were constantly morphing through different members, band names and styles. The band consisted of Graham Amos and Martin Cure, who had played together in a group called The Sabres. Terry Howells, the keyboard player, was recruited. The band, called Rainbows, became Still Life. They seemed to have difficulty keeping drummers (a problem not confined to fictional bands); UK... Read More
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING!
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING! Mountain, like a number of powerful hard rock acts in the immediate post-Woodstock era, has fallen between the cracks, if not into outright obscurity. Perhaps it’s a question of changing taste, but there are plenty of great hard rock albums from the era that can give you goose bumps. This is one of them. Mountain’s records are readily found in the used bins and finding a clean-playing copy can be a challenge. Why bother? The band benefitted enormously from the production, bass playing and vocal abilities of the late Felix Pappalardi, whose credentials at the... Read More
JERRY LEE LEWIS- LIVE AT THE STAR CLUB, HAMBURG
JERRY LEE LEWIS- LIVE AT THE STAR CLUB, HAMBURG When the last words are written about “rock & roll,” Jerry Lee Lewis’s name will be first among them. He was a “rock star” before the concept existed, and delivered electrifying live performances in an era before The Beatles, when television was in its commercial infancy and the social and cultural upheavals of the ‘60s were still in the distant future. Riding the same crest of popularity that brought Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Little Richard and Chuck Berry to fame, Lewis was among the first of a breed of... Read More
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