Opeth- Damnation I had heard of Opeth and even had a couple of their albums- very heavy metal, of the death/speed/black metal variety, that is not my usual fare. An Internet colleague with an impeccable taste for avant-garde music of all types had recommended Damnation and another denizen of the Net, known for his depth of knowledge in all things progressive, clued me into the recent Steve Wilson remix. The album was, at the time, apparently an outlier for Opeth; the crunch and growling voices were replaced by natural vocals and far more melodic themes. Although Wilson had mixed the... Read More

  Blodwyn Pig- Ahead Rings Out   On the heels of our recent look at early Jethro Tull, it is worth spending a little virtual ink on Blodwyn Pig’s first album. Tull’s debut, This Was, a blues-drenched mix of hard rock was, in many ways, a “one-off.” Mick Abrahams, Tull’s guitarist left, and the band’s direction on the next album–the seminal Stand Up—and thereafter, was shaped by Ian Anderson. Some Tull fans were disappointed that it didn’t continue as a blues-rock band. I’m not. The common wisdom was that Abrahams wanted to continue in a blues vein and Anderson... Read More

Led Zeppelin fans have long tolerated less than ideal recordings to enjoy moments from the band during its heyday. I’ve considered doing an extensive shoot-out of some of the original Zep albums in my quest to obtain the best sounding copies, but while I’m still pondering that, here’s one that is worth the coin- cheap, in fact, for what you get: Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes- Live at the Greek. These performances, recorded in the post-Zeppelin era, are well worth owning. Although touted as the first release of these recordings on vinyl (not true, a vinyl set was released in... Read More

  I was a young lawyer working in the business when this album was released. An older colleague, more buttoned down than me, was slated to speak on a panel at the then industry-important “New Music Seminar” (a sort of New York City version of SXSW). He asked me for a recommendation because, as a speaker, he got a free pass to hear a show. I urged him to see Bad Brains, who were performing at a club on the Lower East Side with the Circle Jerks and Vernon Reid and Living Colour. The next day, he told me what happened: “I showed up at the club early, wearing my suit and tie,... Read More

  Billy Joel was unavoidable in the ‘70s- Piano Man and The Stranger were hugely popular in the era, and many of the tracks were (and remain) soft radio staples. Although Joels’ first album, Cold Spring Harbor, contained some eventual hits as well (“She’s Got a Way”), that album was sonically compromised and did not enjoy the commercial success of his later work. This album more than makes up for that- a live performance of some songs from “Harbor” album, along with other early, classic Billy Joel tracks performed by Joel’s then-regular touring band and recorded with... Read More

  Brian Davison’s every which way is a monster album and, as far as I know, is under most people’s radar (at least it wasn’t on mine). Ken Golden, a consummate authority on progressive music who has reissued and produced an extensive catalog of new progressive albums as well as unearthing some rare and desirable obscurities, tipped me to it. Ken mentioned the album on http://avshowroomsforums.com, a new gear and music forum organized by a couple of long-time audio hands. Knowing Ken’s taste and sensibilities, I bought it based on the strength of his recommendation.... Read More

    Not exactly under the radar, or forgotten, but Captain Beyond is a record that delivers far more than it promises- by a group of musicians assembled from members of other, more famous bands. This is unapologetically a hard rock album, but one that deftly moves into “progressive” territory by combining jazz and long form compositions that were a signature of label mates, the Allman Brothers. Unlike the Allmans, this album sounds more like a mix of UK and LA, thanks in part to the lead vocals of Rod Evans (who sang on the first three Deep Purple albums) and the guitar work... Read More

  Last weekend, some younger friends, both very involved in music and starting to collect vinyl, brought over a “pile.” One record they were interested in playing was an old lime green Capitol of The Band’s “brown” album. I cleaned it for them; though they believed it was mastered by Bob Ludwig (“RL”), I found no such inscription in the deadwax. We fired it up- nice sounding. I pulled out my copy- an “RL” which I hadn’t heard in a while. The difference between the two records was immediate and obvious, from the depth and impact of the bass to the overall... Read More

I keep being reminded of Curtis Mayfield’s genius in the music of others: Jimi Hendrix’s broken chord stylings, the soul beat of the great Stevie Wonder, the funk of Sly Stone and the spirituality of Bob Marley. I don’t have a clear picture of the man, but only fragments: his early material, including the powerful “People Get Ready” (see note 2, below) when he was recording with the Impressions, the huge success of Superfly, his long-enduring activism and tragic last years. Trying to get a handle on his music in a couple of records isn’t easy; I have a few compilations on vinyl... Read More

  In spite of his considerable talents, Terry Reid is often best remembered as the guy who passed up an invitation from Jimmy Page to become the singer of a new group Page was forming out of the ashes of the Yardbirds. This bit of lore may be as legendary as the story of the Decca executives who passed on signing The Beatles. But Reid takes credit for referring Page to Robert Plant, who with John Bonham, formed the core of Page’s new band, with fellow session man, John Paul Jones. The “what if’s” are, in my estimation, irrelevant, and seemed to have affected Reid’s artistry not... Read More