LITTLE RICHARD
18 GREATEST HITS
1985-RHINO
Produced By BILL INGLOT
1. Tutti Frutti
2. Long Tall Sally
3. Slippin' And Slidin'
4. Rip It Up
5. Ready Teddy
6. Heeby-Jeebies
7. She's Got It
8. The Girl Can't Help It
9. All Around The World
10. Lucille
11. Send Me Some Lovin'
12. Jenny, Jenny
13. Miss Ann
14. Keep A-Knockin'
15. Good Golly Miss Molly
16. Ooh! My Soul
17. Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey
18. Bama Lama, Bama Loo
The real King Of Rock & Roll, the Originator, the man who really set the next 50+ years in motion? Little Richard was playing this music years before Bill Haley or Elvis Presley came on the scene, and his early hits were the blueprint for the rock star. Little Richard was crazy, outrageous, and original, and several, including Elvis, patterend themselves after him. These songs were recorded in a flash of mostly 4 years...4 years that completely changed the landscape of popular music. In 1958, at the height of his popularity, Richard walked away from it all for God, but the legacy of the early music will live forever. He came back in the 60's, but his time was past. And he'd already done enough already.
This collection was made out of date by later and fuller compilations from his output in the 50's, but it's still a nice starting point if you can find it. (You'll be better off with 1992's The Georgia Peach.) This also contains a track from 1964 ("Bama Lama, Bama Loo") which is pretty cool. Not a thing wrong musically (and the liner notes HAD to have been written on coke...they're an awesome mess!), but it's incomplete.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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Of dying history
RYAN ADAMS & THE CARDINALS
COLD ROSES
2005-LOST HIGHWAY
Produced By TOM SCHICK
1. Magnolia Moontan
2. Sweet Illusions
3. Meadowlake Street
4. When Will You Come Back Home
5. Beautiful Sorta
6. Now That You're Gone
7. Cherry Lane
8. Mockingbird
9. How Do You Keep Love Alive
1. Easy Plateau
2. Let It Ride
3. Rosebud
4. Cold Roses
5. If I Am A Stranger
6. Dance All Night
7. Blossom
8. Life Is Beautiful
9. Friends
2005 was quite as year for Ryan Adams. He released 3 albums, and played the Hurricane Katrina benefit, AND somehow found the time to hang out and play shows with Phil Lesh. Cold Roses was his first album of the year, and his first with The Cardinals. The album is typical Adams: some amazingly catchy and beautiful songs, surrounded by songs that just seem to scream "look at me! I'm prolific, and I'm not afraid to release anything!". Adams ups the annoyance quotient by releasing this as a double album, when the music on both discs would easily fit on one.
But, the good moments far outshine the bad, as is usually the case with Ryan Adams. The Cardinals are a great band, and he even gets the excellent Rachel Yamagata to sing along. All in all, you'll be happy with this. It's an album that has grown on me steadily over the years, and it never disappoints. Just don't pay double album price for it..buy it online for a better price. Ripping people off like that is not cool.
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ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
SONGS TO LEARN & SING
1985-SIRE
VARIOUS PRODUCERS
1. Rescue
2. The Puppet
3. Do It Clean
4. A Promise
5. The Back Of Love
6. The Cutter
7. Never Stop
8. The Killing Moon
9. Silver
10. Seven Seas
11. Bring On The Dancing Horses
With a name like Echo & The Bunnymen, how do you take them seriously? You listen to them. This New Wave band from Liverpool had all of the right Beatles influences...but were also big fans of The Doors, which made them a melodic band with a definite darker side. And they were better than most of their contemporaries. Songs To Learn And Sing is an early compilation from their first 4 albums plus some bonus gems ("Bring On The Dancing Horses" is from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack.) From their first hit, "Rescue", through the excellent "The Killing Moon" and everything in between, this is early 80's music at its best.
Their biggest US hit, "Lips Like Sugar", would be released later in 1985. Had they waited a year or 2, this would have been even better. But it's still a great collection. Also, the band name...the rumor always was that "Echo" was their drum machine, as they didn't have a drummer in the early days. Ian McCullouch has denied that, saying that it was just a stupid name. Their last album came in 2014. The Bunnymen soldier on.
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PRETENDERS
1980-SIRE
Produced By CHRIS THOMAS & NICK LOWE
1. Precious
2. The Phone Call
3. Up The Neck
4. Tattooed Love Boys
5. Space Invader
6. The Wait
7. Stop Your Sobbing
8. Kid
9. Private Life
10. Brass In Pocket
11. Lovers Of Today
12. Mystery Achievement
In 1980, Pretenders (there is no "The"...never has been, never will be) exploded with this amazing debut album of punk, rock & roll, and the sexiest woman to have ever strapped on a guitar. Chrissie Hynde was all attitude and voice. She'd no doubt kick your ass in a heartbeat, and that smoky voice was the sexiest female voice by far in the history of rock. In a kick ass sort of way. The songs on Pretenders are amazing, from start to finish. Even her Kinks cover "Stop Your Sobbing" is first rate. "Precious", "Up The Neck", "Tattooed Love Boys", "The Wait", "Kid"...all excellent. Chrissie hates "Brass In Pocket", but even that outshines much of what was going on at the time. This is simply a great rock album.
The original lineup (3 British guys and an American girl) recorded a second album in 1981. Less than 2 years, half of the band was dead. Hynde has soldiered on, and can still rock with the best of them. This was the best, though. James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon were still alive and rocking, and the band was hungrier than ever.
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TALKING HEADS
MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD
1978-SIRE
Produced By BRIAN ENO & TALKING HEADS
1. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
2. With Our Love
3. The Good Thing
4. Warning Sign
5. The Girls Want To Be With The Girls
6. Found A Job
7. Artists Only
8. I'm Not In Love
9. Stay Hungry
10. Take Me To The River
11. The Big Country
More Songs About Buildings And Food is the second album by Talking Heads, and the first in a series of 3 albums in 3 years to be produced by Brian Eno. In this period, the Heads would become one of the best bands in the world. A huge step forward from their debut album, this is a quirky work that finds David Byrne locating his persona and his voice. "Found A Job" is a positively great song, and the band got it's first big hit with a great and unlikely cover of Al Green's "Take Me To The River". But the real genius is in the final track, "The Big Country", which finds Byrne looking out the window of an airplane flying over America..."Look at that kitchen and all of that food!", and coming to the conclusion that "I couldn't live there if you paid me to". There was a lot more of this to come in the Head's career, but it rarely got better than that.
On future records, the Heads sound got less stiff. Buildings And Food is an important album in their career, and paves the way for Fear Of Music and Remain In Light. A very cool discovery.
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THE BEATLES
PAST MASTERS VOLUME 2
1988-PARLOPHONE
Produced By GEORGE MARTIN
1. Day Tripper
2. We Can Work It Out
3. Paperback Writer
4. Rain
5. Lady Madonna
6. The Inner Light
7. Hey Jude
8. Revolution
9. Get Back (with Billy Preston)
10. Don't Let Me Down (with Billy Preston)
11. The Ballad Of John And Yoko
12. Old Brown Shoe
13. Across The Universe
14. Let It Be
15. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
When the time came to release The Beatles catalog on CD, the 2 volume Past Masters series was born. Even if you have all 13 of their albums, this is a necessary part in owning a complete Beatles collection. Past Masters (Volume 1 was included here some time ago) collects songs that were only released as singles or that were on American only releases. The conversion made the American albums obsolete, and left many great songs without official homes. The first 8 tracks of Volume 2 are singles with no albums to call home. The next two are different versions from the Let It Be album, as is the title track. "John & Yoko" and "Old Brown Shoe" was a single, and "Across The Universe" is the "wildlife" version that appeared on a charity album in 1969.
The last track is a strange recording that took place between 1967 and 1969 that was issued in 1970 as the B side to "Let It Be". "You Know My Name" was once 6 minutes long, but was edited down by John Lennon for use as a solo track. The saxophone solo was played by Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, and the song was released almost a year after his death.
Past Masters is now available as a double CD instead of seperate single discs. You must have it in order to have the complete Beatles. Not just great, but necessary. _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
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1. Radio Ga Ga
2. Tear It Up
3. It's A Hard Life
4. Man On The Prowl
5. Machines (Or Back To Humans)
6. I Want To Break Free
7. Keep Passing The Open Windows
8. Hammer To Fall
9. Is This The World We Created...?
By the time of The Works, Queen was pretty much done in America, but had now gained a foothold in the rest of the world as a great band. This album follows the highly electronic Hot Space, and may be the best of the latter period Queen records. The two hits were written by the less famous members ("Radio Ga Ga" by Roger Taylor and "I Want To Break Free" by John Deacon). The album also features a couple of highlights in "Tear It Up", an attempt by Brian May to return to the heavier rock days, and "It's A Hard Life", probablty Freddie Mercury's best later day song.
The rest of The Works is trashy and overly covered in synthesizers and electronics...and bad songs. Still, the best of the period from a band that had once been known for being adventerous.
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OASIS
THE MASTERPLAN
1998-EPIC
Produced By OWEN MORRIS & NOEL GALLAGHER
1. Acquiesce
2. Underneath The Sky
3. Talk Tonight
4. Going Nowhere
5. Fade Away
6. The Swamp Song
7. I Am The Walrus (Live)
8. Listen Up
9. Rockin' Chair
10. Half The World Away
11. (It's Good) To Be Free
12. Stay Young
13. Headshrinker
14. The Masterplan
Oasis came out of the gate looking like it just might conquer the world, and for two albums, they almost had it. Then came the disappointing Be Here Now record, and things were never quite the same, although each of their albums since has hit number one in the UK. Released after Be Here Now, The Masterplan is a collection of early B-sides that makes for a pretty good collection, and shows how deep the bands early catalog really was. Guitarist Noel Gallagher stated that he thought Masterplan was more inspired than Be Here Now...and he may have been right. The band would have done better to release this in its place.
Oasis has gone on to make several more albums since, and continued to be a sensation in England with success worldwide until their breakup in 2009. But the early songs of their first 2 albums will always be their legacy. Masterplan is a fitting cap to that short era.
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THE CARDIGANS
LIFE
1996-MINTY FRESH
Produced By TORE "DOCTOR" JOHANSSON
1. Carnival
2. Daddy's Car
3. Fine
4. Rise & Shine
5. Our Space
6. Celia Inside
7. Over The Water
8. Tomorrow
9. Sick & Tired
10. Beautiful One
11. Gordon's Gardenparty
12. Hey! Get Out Of My Way
13. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
14. Happy Meal
The Cardigans are truly one of the strangest bands ever. Coming out of Sweden in 1994, they played a strange loungy mix with dark lyrics. They made their big splash with the song "Lovefool" from their third album...but this is before that. Life is their second album, but this American release contains tracks from their debut record Emmerdale. Led by singer Nina Persson, and two founding members who were actually metal musicians, The Cardigans were a strange mix, especially early on. The easiest way to explain this would be to go out and buy a bunch of mod 60's furniture, then throw a cocktail party and invite only people with short hair and horned rim glasses. This is the music you would play.
On later releases, The Cardigans tried to rock. And the more they tried, the less appealing they were. But this early stuff is catchy and strange. And, yes, track 13 is "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", the Black Sabbath song. One of the strangest tracks you'll ever hear.They were fun for a while...this is that time.
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1. Blooze
2. Hot Rod
3. Simple Man
4. Shot In The Dark
5. Hollywood
6. Life Sentence
7. Long Way Home
8. Can't Hold Back
9. Texas
10. Hands Off
One of the unfortunate by products of Hollywood hair metal was that some of the really excellent music was buried by the stupidity of bands like Poison, Warrant, and Skid Row. You get points if you remember Junkyard. Steeped more in southern boogie and The Rolling stones than in Motley Crue and Van Halen, this band's debut album scorched an unheard and forgotten trail that paved the way for much better music in the early 90's like The Black Crowes. Lumped in with hair metal because no one really knew where else to put them, Junkyard, for a short time, rocked as hard as anyone. Tracks like "Shot In The Dark", "Blooze", and "Hollywood" rocked harder than most of their contemporaries, and even their power ballad ("Hands Off") was not the norm: while most bands tried to show how sincere they were with flowery sappy love ballads, Junkyard told the tale of a girlfriend turned whore who gives the singer's best friend head, then won't shut up about how innocent it was. Genius.
Junkyard made one more album (with Steve Earle) and split in the early 90's, although they are back together now. For a moment, it was bands like this that gave us hope that people like Sebastian Bach, Jani Lane and Kip Winger would actually fall off ther planet. Junkyard still sounds sharp today...if you can find this, it's worth picking up.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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