CAROLE KING
TAPESTRY
1971 – ODE
Produced By LOU ADLER
1. I Feel The Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It’s Too Late
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You’ve Got A Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
13. Out In The Cold
14. Smackwater Jack (Live)
Carole King’s contributions to the world of popular music can never be overstated. From the late fifties through the sixties, she was one of America’s leading songwriters, in a partnership with her then husband Gerry Goffin. In the early seventies, she started hanging out with James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, who played on her first album, The Writer, in 1970. And then came Tapestry. It was recorded at the same time as Taylor’s Mud Slide Slim, and utilizes a lot of the same musicians, including Taylor and Mitchell. King now had a powerful set of songs, and the sound and feel of the album is warm and beautiful. King’s voice had suddenly become a great lead instrument, and there was no stopping this from being a massive hit. It helped lead the way for the California sound of the early seventies.
“You’ve Got A Friend” was on both King’s and Taylor’s albums, and was a hit for both. She was smart to revise three songs from her days as a writer with Goffin (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, “A Natural Woman” and “Smackwater Jack”), and to put them at the end of the record so that her newer material could be better showcased. “I Feel The Earth Move”, So Far Away”, It’s Too Late”…every song here is perfect. King’s piano is amazing throughout, but it’s her voice that makes Tapestry such a gem. It’s simply a perfect album, and it’s everything that those who followed aspired to. King recorded most of her albums up to 1983, slowing down to a stop by 2011. Tapestry remains, and rightfully so, her best work. It’s easily one of the best albums of the seventies…and one of the best albums ever. A true treasure.
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CAROLE KING
TAPESTRY
1971 – ODE
Produced By LOU ADLER
1. I Feel The Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It’s Too Late
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You’ve Got A Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
13. Out In The Cold
14. Smackwater Jack (Live)
Carole King’s contributions to the world of popular music can never be overstated. From the late fifties through the sixties, she was one of America’s leading songwriters, in a partnership with her then husband Gerry Goffin. In the early seventies, she started hanging out with James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, who played on her first album, The Writer, in 1970. And then came Tapestry. It was recorded at the same time as Taylor’s Mud Slide Slim, and utilizes a lot of the same musicians, including Taylor and Mitchell. King now had a powerful set of songs, and the sound and feel of the album is warm and beautiful. King’s voice had suddenly become a great lead instrument, and there was no stopping this from being a massive hit. It helped lead the way for the California sound of the early seventies.
“You’ve Got A Friend” was on both King’s and Taylor’s albums, and was a hit for both. She was smart to revise three songs from her days as a writer with Goffin (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, “A Natural Woman” and “Smackwater Jack”), and to put them at the end of the record so that her newer material could be better showcased. “I Feel The Earth Move”, So Far Away”, It’s Too Late”…every song here is perfect. King’s piano is amazing throughout, but it’s her voice that makes Tapestry such a gem. It’s simply a perfect album, and it’s everything that those who followed aspired to. King recorded most of her albums up to 1983, slowing down to a stop by 2011. Tapestry remains, and rightfully so, her best work. It’s easily one of the best albums of the seventies…and one of the best albums ever. A true treasure.
Very nice writeup. Very much how I think of the album as well, although I was well into middle age by the time I realized it.
Me too! I'd basically ignored this record for years (along with most of the California folk-rock genre in general) until I finally noticed that she'd written "The Porpoise Song" from the Monkees' Head album. (She also wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday.") Only then did I take the trouble to listen to the whole thing and find out how good it is.
Admittedly, I'd be even more enthusiastic about it if it had something like "Porpoise Song Pt. II" on it, but that's the music biz for you I suppose.
JOHN WESLEY HARDING
HERE COMES THE GROOM
1990 – SIRE
Produced By ANDY PALEY, JOHN WESLEY HARDING & TOM ROBINSON
1. Here Comes The Groom
2. Cathy’s New Clown
3. Spaced Cowgirl
4. Scared Of Guns
5. You’re No Good
6. When The Sun Comes Up
7. The Devil In Me
8. An Audience With You
9. Dark Dark Heart
10. Same Thing Twice
11. Affairs Of The Heart
12. Nothing I’d Rather Do
13. Things Snowball
14. The Red Rose And The Briar
15. Bastard Son
Lost in the rush of albums that came out in the nineties was one of the very first, Here Comes The Groom, released on January 5th of 1990. John Wesley Harding was really Englishman Wesley Stace. He caught a lot of flack for using not just the name from the famous Bob Dylan album, but for also the main line in his song “Bastard Son”, which stated “Bob Dylan was my father, Joan Baez was my mother, and I’m their bastard son”. He didn’t mean it literally, guys. But for whatever reason, this, his first studio album, was buried in the sea of the nineties. Which is a shame, because this is a pretty terrific album. Harding’s band, the Good Liars, included two of Elvis Costello’s Attractions, which may be why it has such a Costello feel to it. But what makes this such a fine record is the songwriting. Musically and lyrically, this is one hell of a sharp, catchy and intelligent gem.
Harding reels off one great song after another, many of which rock gleefully. “Scared Of Guns”, “Cathy’s New Clown”, the fine title track…why was this not a hit in 1990? Well, it should have been. Hooks and high points are everywhere, including a perfect acoustic duet with Peter Case (“Things Snowball”), the burning “Dark, Dark Heart”, touches of country, smart ballads, great lyrics. Harding’s upfront vocals suit the material well, and this band is really good. Stace started recording under his real name in 2013, and he’s released several sadly unnoticed discs over what is now 30 plus years. He’s also written four novels as Wesley Stace. If you can find it (it shouldn’t be too hard these days), check out Here Comes The Groom. This should have been the first hit album of the nineties. Unfortunately, it was not. Fortunately, it’s still out there, waiting to be heard.
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JOURNEY
GREATEST HITS
1988 – COLUMBIA
Produced By MIKE STONE, KEVIN ELSON, ROY THOMAS BAKER, STEVE PERRY, GEOFFREY WORKMAN & KEVIN SHIRLEY
1. Only The Young
2. Don’t Stop Believin’
3. Wheel In The Sky
4. Faithfully
5. I’ll Be Alright With You
6. Any Way You Want It
7. Ask The Lonely
8. Who’s Crying Now
9. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
10. Lights
11. Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
12. Open Arms
13. Girl Can’t Help It
14. Send Her My Love
15. Be Good To Yourself
The early career of Journey, which was born from the original Santana lineup, is of small importance. They were not very good, and no one knew who they were. Dismiss, if you will, also the later years of Journey, which since their 1995 reunion, has been an embarrassment of lineup changes and lawsuits being filed between seemingly everyone who ever took the stage as a member…and that’s a lot of people. The only important part of Journey is the decade from 1978 through 1988. Which is exactly the period covered by this Greatest Hits behemoth. To say that this record was successful is a huge understatement. It reached 15 times Platinum…15 years ago. It spent over 750 weeks on the Billboard chart, and probably everyone who reads this will have owned a copy. It’s one of the best selling albums…ever.
For a decade, Journey was one of the biggest bands in the world. Starting with 1978’s Infinity (which coincided with the arrival of singer Steve Perry) and ending in 1986 with Raised On Radio, Journey cranked out six consecutive multi-platinum albums, and there were many hits, the biggest of which are on this disc. Journey was a hit machine, and Perry made the girls swoon. For a decade, it worked to perfection. It ended when they went on hiatus in 1988, and of course, it never came back. But what a decade it was for them. These are all pretty terrific radio hits, even the ballads, which don’t seem as soupy now as they did back then. The songs are not in any kind of chronological order (a pet peeve of mine when it comes to compilations), but otherwise, this is as loaded with hits as any best of you will ever find.
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DONNIE IRIS
BACK ON THE STREETS
1980 – MCA
Produced By MARK AVSEC
1. Ah! Leah!
2. I Can’t Hear You
3. Joking
4. Shock Treatment
5. Back On The Streets
6. Agnes
7. You’re Only Dreaming
8. She’s So Wild
9. Daddy Don’t Live Here Anymore
10. Too Young To Love
Donnie Iris (Dominic Ierace) played with The Jaggerz and with Wild Cherry, but he’s best remembered for “Ah! Leah!”. The first song on his first solo album, Back On The Streets, was quite a hit. It’s also, for me, the least interesting song on this weird and somehow wonderful little record. I admit, I have a soft spot for this. It’s filled with fun and different songs, stinging and punching rock guitar, a wall of vocals, songs that are about things you wouldn’t really think to write about, and some of the cheesiest keyboards in history. I love this album so much. It’s the high point of Iris’ long career, and it’s part of the strange life I lived as a 20 year old trying to navigate living in the wastelands of Wyoming. It’s one of the least me sounding records ever made…and it’s a perfect fit.
“Ah! Leah” is a terrific song. But the rest steals the show for me. This geeky guy who looks like Buddy Holly shouldn’t rock this hard, but he does. “I Can’t Hear You” and “Joking” are about saying the wrong things to your loved one. “Shock Treatment” is really about just that. “Back On The Streets” is a glorious heavy rocker. “Agnes” is maybe the coolest and weirdest rocker ever made. “She’s So Wild” has the greatest chorus…and “Too Young To Love” is over the top drama that actually works. “Ah! Leah!”? Eh. That’s just a nice pop song. What I strongly recommend is that after the first song, put on your headphones and crank the rest of Back On The Streets. What a terrific lost gem from the dawn of the strangest of musical decades. A strange and glorious rock and roll snapshot. I will always love Back On The Streets.
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BAD RELIGION
RECIPE FOR HATE
1993 – EPITAPH
Produced By BAD RELIGION
1. Recipe For Hate
2. Kerosene
3. American Jesus
4. Portrait Of Authority
5. Man With A Mission
6. All Good Soldiers
7. Watch It Die
8. Struck A Nerve
9. My Poor Friend Me
10. Lookin’ In
11. Don’t Pray On Me
12. Modern Day Catastrophists
13. Skyscraper
14. Stealth
It’s hard to imagine a harder working band than Bad Religion. This Los Angeles group has been together since 1980, and they have released 17 studio albums. It took them awhile to gain a real foothold, as their first five albums sold poorly. They started gaining some momentum with 1992’s Generator, then finally began turning heads with their seventh release, Recipe For Hate. Bad Religion plays fast and smart (and loud). They are not afraid to play music related to politics and social injustice. Musically, they are known for their surprisingly tight vocal harmonies and relentless guitars. The recipe for hate? The album cover features a photo of the bodies of 2 Southern racists with the heads of Nazi guard dogs superimposed on top. Bad Religion isn’t going to give you sweetness and light in their songs…but they do deliver some pretty impressive musical chops.
“American Jesus” was the hit here, with some vocals by Eddie Vedder (who also takes a verse on “Watch It Die”). “Struck A Nerve” is also noteworthy, and feature a guest shot from Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano. But Bad Religion’s songs don’t vary much, so what you sometimes get is a record filled with tracks that sound too much alike. Which is what happens here. They broke through on their next album, Stranger Than Fiction (1994), and they’ve had pretty solid sales ever since. Bad Religion is the one band standing from the American punk scene of the early eighties, and they carry that banner well. Recipe For Hate is a good, not great, album, but it most certainly does rock…nonstop. So if that’s what you seek, this will do just fine.
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XTC
ORANGES & LEMONS
1989 – GEFFEN
Produced By PAUL FOX
1. Garden Of Earthly Delights
2. Mayor Of Simpleton
3. King For A Day
4. Here Comes President Kill Again
5. The Loving
6. Poor Skeleton Steps Out
7. One Of The Millions
8. Scarecrow People
9. Merely A Man
10. Cynical Days
11. Across This Antheap
12. Hold Me My Daddy
13. Pink Thing
14. Miniature Sun
15. Chalkhills And Children
The positive that came from XTC’s not touring for so many years was that their albums began sounding much more full and interesting. Oranges & Lemons is a perfect example of that. If you go back and listen to the best songs here…”Mayor Of Simpleton”, for instance, you’ll hear just how complete the tracks can be. They are able to, much like The Beatles of the late sixties, take their time and pay full attention to detail without having to worry about recording arrangements that they could play in front of live audiences. They were also still in their Dukes Of Stratosphear phase, so their interest in recreating the psychedelic sounds of the sixties was at the forefront. Oranges & Lemons, their eleventh studio album, is the perfect follow up to their 1986 album Skylarking.
While this sounds great, it does lack the overall songwriting depth of Skylarking. It’s been said that Oranges & Lemons pays homage to The Beatles. Yes…but it seems more in tune with the pop of McCartney and less with the biting balance that Lennon provided. Still…along with “Mayor Of Simpleton”, there’s also the excellent “King For A Day”, “Merely A Man” and “The Loving”. It’s very strong lyrically, but many of the songs lack substance musically beyond the upfront hook. Still, XTC makes this somewhat lesser collection of songs sound better than most bands could, and they are clever enough to work when it’s all said and done. Oranges & Lemons is a solid and just short of spectacular effort from a band that is truly one of the greats.
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THE DAMNED
DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED
1977 – STIFF
Produced By NICK LOWE
1. Neat Neat Neat
2. Fan Club
3. I Fall
4. Born To Kill
5. Stab Yor Back
6. Feel The Pain
7. New Rose
8. Fish
9. See Her Tonite
10. 1 Of The 2
11. So Messed Up
12. I Feel Alright
Never mind the Sex Pistols…here’s The Damned. Not only were The Damned the lesser known of the three main original British punk bands from 1976-77, they were the first of the three (The Clash being the other) to release full length studio albums. After their famous tour with the Pistols, Clash and The Heartbreakers (not the Tom Petty variety), they went into the studio with producer Nick Lowe and ten days later came away with Damned Damned Damned, which is every bit as good as the debuts by punk’s other two leading lights. The record includes “New Rose”, the band’s first single which had been released the previous year (it was the first punk single, beating “Anarchy In The UK” by five weeks), and the excellent “Neat Neat Neat”. So…what happened?
Their second album, produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, was a major flop. They lost their record deal and split up. They reformed and made the great Machine Gun Etiquette, but despite still being together, numerous personnel changes and having released just 9 albums since the dawn of the 80’s has made The Damned the lost children of the original punk movement. But this band deserves better, and their two great works, Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette, will hopefully live on for future generations to know that there was more than just a pair of great British punk pioneers. Punk became a shadow of itself in the 90’s, but this debut stands as a blueprint for how to do it the right way. And that, as a legacy, is good enough.
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BAD RELIGION
GENERATOR
1992 – EPITAPH
Produced By BAD RELIGION
1. Generator
2. Too Much To Ask
3. No Direction
4. Tomorrow
5. Two Babies In The Dark
6. Heaven Is Falling
7. Atomic Garden
8. The Answer
9. Fertile Crescent
10. Chimaera
11. Only Entertainment
Generator is the sixth album by American punk band Bad Religion. It’s not a particularly great record, but it’s always been maybe my favorite from them. Bad Religion gives you fast and furious punk with the unexpected twist of pretty good harmony vocals. Many of their albums are interchangeable, given that there’s not a lot you can do to make punk songs not all sound alike. But on this one, there is the standout “Atomic Garden”, an anti-war song that has a pretty great melody. Lead singer Greg Graffin is joined by guitarist Brett Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley for some nifty harmonies, which is really the best part of Bad Religion. On Generator, they were beginning to experiment a bit with their songwriting, so not everything is at breakneck speed.
But the songs themselves are what keeps Generator from rising above the ordinary. “Atomic Garden” is, by far, the best thing here. There are glimpses and hints of better songs to come, but on this one, they fall just short of the mark. After a career that has spanned over thirty years, Graffin, Gurewitz and Bentley are still at it. Generator, along with the follow up Recipe For Hate, is Bad Religion on the verge of putting it all together. Their later work is better, but don’t completely discount the energy and promise of this band’s earlier discography. Bad Generator are the survivors of American punk, and they are worth hearing. Generator has some good moments, but it’s not their best by any means. A must have if you’re a fan…otherwise, search for later albums.
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