Gram Parsons- GP-1973

I'm closing out the year with a legend. Perhaps you're already one of the gazillions of fans who worship at the altar of Gram but I never tire of talking about him. I like GP because on this record Gram found a soul mate in Emmylou Harris and the magical harmonizing ensued. "She" remains my favorite Gram song. The New Soft Shoe,  Big Mouth Blues, We'll Sweep Out The Ashes In The  Morning are all Soul movers. People say that this album doesn't have the edge that say "Gilded Palace Of Sin" or "Grievous Angel" has  but I just think it's so damn sweet and that's what I think Gram was. He was a sweet guy. A Fuck up sure, but a sweet one. Gram, in his short but shiny career, influenced more musicians than I have room for on this blog. This record is a gem, not to be hidden away but to be played over and over.

Bryan Ferry- Boys and Girls-1985

I don't know if I'm happy or unhappy that I was born too late to enjoy the vastly vapid days of disco but the closest I get to a disco beat is Bryan Ferry and  how I love him. First of all, he's sexy as hell. He would get my vote just for the way he dresses but he completely does me in with Slave to Love I mean...right? Admittedly, he's spotty on his other solo releases and he should really stop with the covers that have been covered and covered but "Boys and Girls" is about the best album I own for dancing in your underwear under a mirror ball. Barring Slave to Love, the cuts on this album tend to blend into each other but there's a soulfulness to the throbbing. No one can mean it quite like Bryan. Guest musicians include Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour. Although they don't get all experimental on this album, their sound is unmistakable and they certainly add  a little somethin' somethin' to it. Check it out. Mirror ball not included.

And finally- The Graduate-1968

I know that I said that I was done with soundtrack week but I suddenly remembered that I'd forgotten "The Graduate". First of all, GREAT movie, and may I add that I am generally not a Mike Nichols fan but this movie is his swansong and apparently his rock and roll has put on weight since then. At Christmas, I generally like to drag out a vintage film and eat chocolate and this year, The Graduate was my Christmas film. 

I recognize that one really does have to be a Simon and Garfunkel fan to appreciate this one but really...who isn't? Best song on the LP, naturally "Mrs. Robinson" (buyer beware: Both versions on the soundtrack are shortened for the film. For the full album length see: Bookends). The composed cuts by Dave Grusin are also fun. I think the thing I like so much about this soundtrack is that it so eloquently evokes the era.  Okay, this is really it, I'm moving on. Stay tuned for my top ten LP re-issues.

THE BEST FOR LAST-One From The Heart- Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle

One From The Heart was a movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It was a very expensive bomb, probably because they tried to recreate Las Vegas on a Hollywood backlot. DO NOT let that deter you from running to your nearest used record outlet and snapping up this soundtrack. Every second of it is divine. The unlikely coupling of Crystal Gayle and Tom Waits was genius. Tom met his wife, Kathleen Brennan while recording it too, they're still together. The important thing though, is the music. For Instance: Picking Up After You....

"The Roses are Dead and the Violets are too

And I'm sick and tired of picking up after you"

Broken Bicycles, Old Boyfriends (They Look you up when they're in town. To see if they can still burn you down), I Beg Your Pardon.....great songs, great poetry, great instrumentation, all moody and attitudey with horns and pianos that sound like they're coming from an empty nightclub while an old guy sweeps up.. 

Something Wild for Soundtrack week.

From it's opening credits where the camera is skimming across the water, closing in on Manhattan featuring David Byrne singing Loca De Amor with Celia Cruz, this movie is a fun ride. The cool thing about Jonathan Demme is that he knows his music and his soundtracks always make his movies extremely memorable. Throw in Ray Liotta, early in his career, as an amoral con man and how can you possibly go wrong? Literally every track on the soundtrack is good. It features Oingo Boingo, the Fine Young Cannibals, UB40, New Order, Jimmy Cliff, Sonny Okossum and a bonus cool rap of "Wild Thing" over the closing credits by Sister Carol. The album art is also cool with Mexican Folk Art on the backside. Something Wild appeals to the bad girl in all of us.  

Soundtrack Week continues with Ry Cooder- Paris, Texas

Ry Cooder is a musician's musician, a student of music if you will. He can play damn near anything too. His revival of Cuban music in the Buena Vista Social Club brought the world's attention back to a sound that had been all but forgotten outside of Cuba. Ry's spent a lifetime exploring the musical stylings of world musicians around the globe and he does it all with the enthusiasm of a kid. My favorite sound, when it comes to Ry is that lonely haunted guitar style that he's famous for and my favorite LP featuring a heaping helping of it is the soundtrack to Paris, Texas. It conjures a deserted Texas highway and broken down old gas stations and highway signs shot through with bullet holes. I listen to it when I'm city weary and claustrophobic. This LP wears well. I never tire of it and I've heard it a lot....a LOT.  

Mark Knopfler- Local Hero (1983)

I have a wee soft spot for Celtic music but, like the blues, I can only do real celtic for about a half  an hour before developing a celtic headache. I call this soundtrack "Celtic Light". It's nothing like the Pogues or the Dropkick Murphys, rather it has a dreamy sweet quality to it with just a dollop of celtic in the background. Knopfler's guitar playing is stellar as usual but he practices tasteful restraint on the soundtrack. I love to lose myself in it.  Sometimes I imagine myself driving along the Irish coastline in a sportscar but then a car comes out of nowhere and smashes into me because I'm driving on the wrong side of the road and I fall over the cliff and into the ocean crashing below. Then I get up to turn the record over.

Hey, Guess WHAT?? IT's soundtrack week

 I humbly present my first submission to soundtrack week (Yes, I know it's Tuesday. Traditionally, soundtrack week runs Tuesday to Tuesday. I don't know why. I do as I'm told by the Vinyl King and Queen, whom I've never met and only know through E-mail but they don't seem to take much bullshit. "The Mission" by Ennio Morriconne (The King Of soundtracks BTW and also probably doesn't take much bullshit)..yes, the Mission: flat out gorgeous. I can't say enough about this soundtrack. I'll say a few things: It's artful, it's thought provoking. It's performed by the London Philharmonic, It was nominated for an Academy Award. Some people who know their shit call this the best soundtrack score ever written. Well, I won't argue with that. I also happen to love Oboes (who doesn't?) the most feminine of the reed instruments and featured strongly in the Mission. I can't recommend this LP enough. Get it now and listen to it till you weep. Oh, and not a bad movie either; Robert Deniro as a Jesuit priest dragging a big bag full of metal crap and rocks around like he's Santa Claus? C'mon, it's totally worth it.

Tom Waits- Closing Time

Yes, Closing Time, Tom Waits first album, is essential to most vinyl collections but if you don't have it, you can now buy it on 180 gram vinyl, hey, even if you do have it, it's worth it, about thirty bucks. I think I have every word mumbled, sung, uttered, or moaned by Tom, who is, if you ask me, the best storyteller ever. This album features the all too often covered '0l 55 (stop it already), Grapefruit Moon, I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You, Closing Time, and lots of other great tunes, each of them a story in itself. Don't play this at birthday parties, it inspires shoe-gazing and the selling of all ones worldly goods in order to hit the road and find ones self. If you're looking for the original, you can buy it used at any Amoeba store for mere dollars, I know this because I just checked. 

The Sex Pistols- Holidays in The Sun-7" White Vinyl

Holiday fun awaits. For the next few days I'll be exploring some collectible vinyl items that were released especially for Christmas. Giddy-up,  We'll start with The Sex Pistols- Holidays In The Sun- Cool already, right? But wait, it's a limited edition 7" white vinyl picture sleeve...Awesome! The B-side is Satellite. Wrap this baby up and put it under the tree for someone you really love. You can order it from the UK. I got mine from the big guy in the Red suit.

R.L Burnside- Come On In (Fat Possum Records '98)

R.L. Burnside pulled me in with his stripped down, raw, Mississippi blues style and his powerful  voice a few years ago and I've been a huge fan ever since. Like most Mississipi Bluesmen, R.L. travelled a long trail of broken dreams. He went from Mississippi to Chicago (where his father, his brother, and his uncle were murdered, creating a bottomless pool of material for his blues) and back again where he murdered a guy and did some time. R.L. died in 2005.  Fat Possum records can be credited with keeping the music of old Mississippi bluesmen like Burnside and Model T Ford alive and now they're re-releasing it on vinyl. It's Bad You Know is the best track by far but I also love Let My Baby Ride. The whole record makes you want to disappear into a writhing voodoo trance and dance around the room. Nice Holiday gift for your loved ones.

Rod Stewart- Never a Dull Moment

Rod Stewart used to be something else. If you want to hear what it was, go get this record and drop the needle on ANGEL and you're guaranteed to fall in love with that guy. I never listen to this song just once. Six or seven times and I'm just getting warmed up. Sure, it's Jimi Hendrix's song but he's in a different stratosphere and we'll get there real soon. Moving on, You Wear It Well is just classic rock at it's very best. People simply don't do songs like that anymore. Why in the bleeding hell not???? What's happened???? Mama, You've Been On My Mind is just about perfect. This is really the only Rod Stewart Record I listen to regularly. I love Maggie May on Every Picture Tells A Story but song by song, Never A Dull Moment (1972) is a winner. I found this one at a garage sale, great condition...two bucks. Two bucks!!!! 

Have you seen who's up for Grammy's this year? NO ONE worth listening to. I think Robert Plant and Allison Krauss got a nomination even though the album is a 2007 release. Great though, One piece of listen-able music in the whole lot...pathetic.

Billie Holiday-Stormy Blues

I'm not going to get into some long, drawn out, tragic story here. We all know it. Billie led a tragic life and it ended all too soon and, because of that, whenever I have a day like the one I'm having, (relax, I won't get into that either) I dig out some Billie, slap it on the turntable and, within moments, she seems to be saying "I know." Billie is about the best damn music to play when: It rains, life sucks, your calls are not getting returned, you haven't slept in three days, someone's done you wrong, you're suffering from massive PMS and the midol just isn't cutting it or you just want to look out the window and feel sorry for yourself for awhile. This particular album is probably one of my favorites. It features Me, Myself , and I, Say It Isn't So, Travellin ' All Alone and a wonderfully playful version of Let's Call The Whole Thing Off. I got this one at Village Music in Mill Valley when I was thirteen (gone now, sigh).

The Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers

I'm not a rabid Rolling Stones fan, let's just get that out of the way, but Sticky Fingers has always struck me as the rootsiest of the Stones albums and by rootsiest, I mean bluesiest because roots music was borne of the blues. Was it Townes Van Zandt who said "There's only two kinds of music: Blues and zippity-doo-da"? "Wild Horses" might be just about the best damn song ever written and even though it's been performed to absolute death, It still brings me to my knees. "Bring Me Dead Flowers" is my next best on this one, ditto on the performing, everyone's done it but it continues to wear well. I own the original "zipper" version of this album. Don't quite remember where I found it but it is a hell of a cover (conceived by Andy Warhol). I also own the Spanish Edition with the sticky fingers emerging from a can of treacle. Nice. You can get the zipper cover on E-Bay for about twenty bucks but good luck finding the Spanish Edition.

Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros- Global a Go-go

I love the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Who doesn't? but Joe Strummer followed up that reckless chapter of his life with something much more refined. He explored his interest in world music and African percussion through the three albums he made with the Mescaleros, most of whom were multi-instrumentalists. "Global a Go-go" (Hellcat 2001) is my favorite of the three. The first time I heard Johnny Appleseed, I was totally blown away and then I gave the lyrics a good listen and I realized that he was talking about the bees, as in honey bees. I wonder how he knew back then that the bees were in trouble (www.helpthehoneybees.com)?

The title track includes vocals by Joe's long-time friend Roger Daltrey and it's rumored that Pete Townsend plays on it but no one's confirming that. Bhindi Bhagee is a ton of fun too, meant to reflect the ethnic diversity of London. Joe was always speaking out for the little guy, the working class, the invisible poor. He died in 2002. The music world and the world misses him. This album is medium easy to find on vinyl. If you don't own it, put it on your wish list. I got mine at the Ashby Flea market in Berkeley. 

Vivaldi-The Four Seasons

I'm big on violin concertos and Fall. They go together like Laurel and Hardy. The best time to play this record is when the weather takes a turn toward winter. When it finally gets so cold that delicate snowflakes float towards the earth and you feel inclined to break out the hot chocolate and sit on the sofa, sipping and listening and watching the world turn toward winter. As violin concertos go, this is one of the most common ones out there, written by Antonio Vivaldi in 1723 and I certainly hope he had a Starbucks nearby so he could warm his chilled hands on his own mug of hot chocolate after writing all day. Although Antonio intended to cover all four seasons (duh, hence the name), I'm never inclined to play it in the summer or spring or even the early fall. I always go digging for it on the same day that I dig out my fur-lined boots. Go figure. Anyway, there's a gazillion versions of this on Vinyl out there, you'd have no problem finding one you like. I own six versions, all of them good, all of them a teensy bit different.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts- Brian Eno and David Byrne

This album, recorded in 1981, is a complex melange of layering and sampling and experimental instrumentation resulting in the perfect voodoo, dance in your underwear with the lights down low type of record. In a flash of brilliance, Eno and Byrne sampled Arabic singers, Disc Jockeys, and an exorcist (yup) and used found objects for the primal African percussion. It takes a minute to wrap your head around this music but if you let it take you somewhere it most certainly will. I like the sampling on Jezebel Spirit and Mea Culpa but truly, I see this album as a journey. I don't like to think of it as separate tracks. It's an excellent choice for when you're planning an elaborate revenge scheme. Try it.

The Who- Who's Next

The coolest thing about Who's Next is that it's the soundtrack for virtually anything the way that excellent classic rock can often be. I remember driving through the country in an old car on a gloomy fall day, a guy I would never see again at the wheel, listening to "Won't Get Fooled Again" and thinking "I'm going to remember this moment forever." and I did. Back then I didn't pay much attention to Keith Moon's drumming or Pete Townshend's guitar playing as much as I did the song as a whole. Now I know better. Any drummer will tell you that Keith drummed  like no one else. Pete Townshend played guitar like no one else and the songs he wrote and the way Roger Daltry sang them resulted in some of  the most sublime Rock songs ever recorded. Behind Blue Eyes, Baba O'Riley, Won't Get Fooled Again, and Going Mobile are my favorite cuts but I can air guitar my way ( yes, windmilling)  through this entire album, no problem. This album is s cinch to find on vinyl. I own three copies.

Neil Young- After The Gold Rush

After The Gold Rush (1970) was Neil's first solo studio album following the success of CSNY's Deja Vu and when I say "studio", I mean the one in the basement of Neil's modest Topanga Canyon home. A lot of people who know their shit put this record on their list of the top ten albums ever recorded. It definitely hovers near the top of mine but there's more than that. This is the first Neil Young Album I owned and I fell head over heals in love with Neil's voice, and then his lyrics. I still play this LP a lot, usually when I'm feel very sentimental and in need of a good emotional thrashing. After The Gold Rush is my favorite cut but I always play the whole album because every song kills: Tell Me Why, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Till The Morning Comes, all beautiful. This record is super easy to find used because everyone owned it at one time or another. I stole mine from my dad.  Quick Note: an eighteen year-old Nils Lofgren plays piano and sings on this record. Not bad for a kid.

Ella and Louis- Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

How extra special great is it that the universe brought these two together? I mean, could a collision of talent be any more exquisite than this pair? People called Ella "Satin" and Louis "Sandpaper" but put them together and it's pure magic. Plus the background combo, first class guys, is led by the one and only Oscar Peterson. "Under A Blanket Of Blue" is my favorite song, followed by "Tenderly", "The Nearness Of You","The Stars Fell On Alabama" hell, they're all winners.  This LP has been repressed on 180 gram vinyl if you want to treat yourself. Go ahead, it's the holidays! It's Satchmo and Ella for God's sake! This LP is also fairly easy to find in used record stores. I've had mine for a long time. Got it at Amoeba Music. This is a great gift too, for expressing the true spirit of the holidays. turntable not included. 

This album, The first CSN record, released on Atlantic in 1969 was  an instant hit and stayed that way for much of the 70's. This album catapulted my interest in singer songwriter type bands even though I didn't get to it till the 90's. From there I went on to the Band and then Neil Young and Gram Parsons. Although this album isn't hard to find on vinyl, I scored an original gatefold sleeve version with the boys in parkas on the inside at Streetlight in San Francisco. I'm a sucker for "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" (written for Judy Collins) and "Marrakesh Express". It inspired thousands of anti-establishment hippies to flee the USA for Morocco in the 70's. Wish I'd been around for that. "Long Time Gone" was a response to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. No one writes songs like that anymore.

You'll notice that the album cover has the names listed out of order. The reason is that the photo was taken before the band was named and when they went back to the same house to re-shoot, it had been torn down. I love the cover, the old sofa and just a hint of a palm in the corner to suggest California and those guys in their boots and jeans looking young and SO cool.

 

Janis Joplin- CHEAP THRILLS

Today I'd like to talk for a moment about Janis Joplin. I put her in a special category I call "Brilliance followed by Death". Gram Parsons is in this category too. So is Jim Morrison, so is Chet Baker. we'll get to those guys later. These four do have a self destructive quality in common and, as we all know, from pain comes great art. 

Cheap Thrills is a staggeringly good selection of songs. Gershwin's "Summertime" was never sung better (in my opinion). "A Piece Of My Heart" after thousands of listens, still brings me to me knees. "Ball and Chain" will do a broken heart good. I throw this record on whenever I'm aching (like today for instance) and it validates me. This record is essential for the new collector and worth digging out for the seasoned collector. Cover art by Robert Crumb. Does it get any better than that? This LP is easy to find in used record stores or online.

 ALSO: Check out my music reviews on caughtinthecarousel.com. This month I'm reviewing the new RAY LA MONTAGNE.

David Bowie- Young Americans

I bought this LP at a garage sale in Bakersfield, California. The guy was selling all his wife's stuff because she'd left him for a bartender. He wanted two bucks for it but I gave him three because I felt sorry for him. He said he was going to take all the money from the sale and buy himself a Harley. Judging by the stuff he was selling, I don't think he was being very realistic. 

This is my favorite Bowie album. I love a lot of Bowie but this one always gets me going. The intro into "Young Americans," that honky tonk piano and then sax....really great. I like to stare into Bowie's eyes on the cover while I listen, all that airbrushed androgynous perfection. He dares you not to fall in love with him.

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I am the Vinyl Princess

I'm devoted to the preservation and sharing of music in LP form. I've spent countless hours searching for the very best music available on vinyl and I'm committed to keeping it safe, sharing it, and keeping it real. Are you a Vinyl Junkie Too? Share your thoughts with me, share your music with me. You are home. Corporate Rock still sucks, downloading is harmful to music and other living organisms. Music is LOVE.

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