What Are You Listening To?

[Dennie]

Layla and other assorted Love Songs -- 24k Gold OMR CD

Derek and The Dominos

1970/1993 MFSL UltraDisc II

The greatest guitar album of the rock era, November 10, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Derek and the Dominos/Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (Audio CD)

If you only know this album from hearing "Layla" on the radio, then your first question after hearing this will be: "Why don't they play the rest of it?" Even if you are sick of "Layla", this album is a treasure chest of searing pain songs, caused by Eric Clapton being dumped by Patti Harrison, wife of Beatle George. Even the relatively hookless tunes like "Keep On Growing" and "Anyday" get over on sheer desperate passion. Plenty of guitarists can make their instrument scream, but only Clapton, on "Bell Bottom Blues", had ever made it sob. This was Clapton's absolute peak--all the power and virtuosity of his Cream years are encapsulated here, cast in a personal blues tone that anticipates almost everything he ever did thereafter. Duane doesn't suck either. If you can, read the 1985 interview with Clapton in Rolling Stone. He relates how the band was all nodded out on drugs the entire time. Do _not_ try this at home; they are trained professionals!

Side one

"I Looked Away" (Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock) – 3:05
"Bell Bottom Blues" (Clapton) – 5:02
"Keep on Growing" (Clapton, Whitlock) – 6:21
"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Jimmy Cox) – 4:57

Side two

"I Am Yours" (Clapton, Nizami) – 3:34
"Anyday" (Clapton, Whitlock) – 6:35
"Key to the Highway" (Charles Segar, Willie Broonzy) – 9:40

Side three

"Tell the Truth" (Clapton, Whitlock) – 6:39
"Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" (Clapton, Whitlock) – 4:41
"Have You Ever Loved a Woman" (Billy Myles) – 6:52

Side four

"Little Wing" (Jimi Hendrix) – 5:33
"It's Too Late" (Chuck Willis) – 3:47
"Layla" (Clapton, Jim Gordon) – 7:05
"Thorn Tree in the Garden" (Whitlock) – 2:53

All four sides of the original LP were combined into one disc in most CD versions. The LP was re-released on 180g vinyl by Simply Vinyl in the 1990s and re-mastered and re-released on 180g vinyl by Universal Music in 2008.

 

[Dennie]

Hard Promises -- HDCD

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

1981/2001 MCA Records

HIS FINEST WORK!, July 5, 2006
By James T. Mott (O'Fallon, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Hard Promises (Audio CD)

I have been into Petty since day one and I can honestly say that this is the one. Every band has that one album that is brilliant. Torpedos came close, but this is it. Best song in my opinion is Kings Road. A close second is Something Big. Other noteworthy tracks (I mean classics) are

The Waiting
A Woman In Love
Letting You Go
A Thing About You
Insider

If you've heard Petty over the years and haven't purchased anything. Don't start with the best of collections. Start right here. It doesn't get any better.

Side one

"The Waiting" – 3:58
"A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" (Petty, Mike Campbell) – 4:22
"Nightwatchman" (Petty, Campbell) – 3:59
"Something Big" – 4:44
"Kings Road" – 3:27

Side two

"Letting You Go" – 3:24
"A Thing About You" – 3:33
"Insider" – 4:23
"The Criminal Kind" – 4:00
"You Can Still Change Your Mind" (Petty, Campbell) – 4:15

 

[Dennie]

Greatest Hits -- CD

STYX

1995 A&M Records

Amazon.com

If it's your belief that one of the reasons today's rock is so bereft of personality is that all sense of show business has been drained from the music, then a look back at the career of Styx offers proof positive that it wasn't always thus. Greatest Hits offers a comprehensive overview of the band, from its art-rock days--which produced a top 10 hit in "Lady," a new version of which is included in this package--to its years as a perennial album-rock favorite--with offerings ranging from flights of fancy ("Come Sail Away," "Renegade") to proto-power ballads ("Babe," "Crystal Ball") to songs reflecting the working-class roots of its audience ("Too Much Time on My Hands," "Blue Collar Man"). The band eventually succumbed to a shift in musical tides and just plain silliness ("Mr. Roboto"), but for a time, this disc suggests, a satin-suited pomp-rocker was something to be. --Daniel Durchholz

"Lady '95" (Dennis DeYoung) – 3:05 Re-recorded for the compilation. Originally from Styx II.
"The Best of Times" (DeYoung) – 4:18 From Paradise Theater.
"Lorelei" (DeYoung, James Young) – 3:22 From Equinox.
"Too Much Time on My Hands" (Tommy Shaw) – 4:33 From Paradise Theater.
"Babe" (DeYoung) – 4:24 From Cornerstone.
"Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)" (Shaw) – 5:28 From The Grand Illusion.
"Show Me the Way" (DeYoung) – 4:36 From Edge of the Century.
"Renegade" (Shaw) – 4:14 From Pieces of Eight.
"Come Sail Away" (DeYoung) – 6:05 From The Grand Illusion.
"Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" (Shaw) – 4:06 From Pieces of Eight.
"The Grand Illusion" (DeYoung) – 4:35 From The Grand Illusion.
"Crystal Ball" (Shaw) – 4:32 From Crystal Ball.
"Suite Madame Blue" (DeYoung) – 6:33 From Equinox.
"Miss America" (Young) – 4:59 From The Grand Illusion.
"Mr. Roboto" (DeYoung) – 5:30 From Kilroy Was Here.
"Don't Let It End" (DeYoung) – 4:54 From Kilroy Was Here.


Dennis DeYoung - synthesizer, keyboards, vocals
Chuck Panozzo - bass, vocals
John Panozzo - percussion, drums, vocals
James Young - guitar, vocals
Tommy Shaw - acoustic guitar, guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Todd Sucherman - drums on "Lady '95" (uncredited)

 

[Dennie]

Today's work truck music.....

After The Gold Rush -- CD

Neil Young

1970/1990 Reprise Records

Neil Young's third solo album followed his Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young masterpiece Déjà Vu. Top 10 and double platinum, with the Top 40 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' and his condemnation of racism in 'Southern Man,' 1970's After The Gold Rush has been ranked among the '100 Greatest Albums Of All Time' by both Rolling Stone and Time magazine.

All songs written by Neil Young except when noted

Side one

"Tell Me Why" — 2:54
"After the Gold Rush" — 3:45
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" — 3:05
"Southern Man" — 5:31
"Till the Morning Comes" — 1:17

Side two

"Oh Lonesome Me" (Don Gibson) — 3:47
"Don't Let It Bring You Down" — 2:56
"Birds" — 2:34
"When You Dance I Can Really Love" — 4:05
"I Believe in You" — 3:24
"Cripple Creek Ferry" — 1:34

 

[heeman]

 

[Dennie]

Sheer Heart Attack -- CD

Queen

1974/1991 Hollywood Records

Amazon.com essential recording

Sheer Heart Attack is a Queen album that has something for nearly everyone. There's glam, progrock, guitar pyrotechnics to spare (check out Brian May's shape-shifting performances on "Brighton Rock" and "Flick of the Wrist"), proto-speed-metal ("Stone Cold Crazy"), and Queen's unique brand of campy humor ("America's new bride to be / Don't worry, baby, I'm safe and sound," Freddie Mercury declares on "Now I'm Here," a Queen concert staple). The group takes a rocked-up turn at ragtime on "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and downshifts memorably on the spare piano-and-voice interludes "Lily of the Valley" and "Dear Friends." Best of all is the wicked rock-and-harmony showcase "Killer Queen," the group's first international smash. If you need a reminder of everything that was right about rock's old guard before punks stormed the gates, look no further. --Daniel Durchholz

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Brighton Rock" Brian May 5:08
2. "Killer Queen" Mercury 3:01
3. "Tenement Funster" Roger Taylor 2:48
4. "Flick of the Wrist" Mercury 3:19
5. "Lily of the Valley" Mercury 1:43
6. "Now I'm Here" May 4:10
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "In the Lap of the Gods" Mercury 3:20
2. "Stone Cold Crazy" Mercury, May, Taylor, John Deacon 2:12
3. "Dear Friends" May 1:07
4. "Misfire" Deacon 1:50
5. "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" Mercury 2:13
6. "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)" May 4:08
7. "In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited" Mercury 3:42
Bonus track (1991 Hollywood Records CD reissue)
No. Title Length
14. "Stone Cold Crazy (1991 remix by Michael Wagener)" 2:15

 

[Batman]

Heard these guys on Pandora so I ordered off of Amazon..."Two Weeks" may be recognizable to some, hearing the rest of the album for the first time, meh.

 

[Dennie]

The Miracle -- CD

Queen

1989 Capitol Records

It Grows on You and then you realise it's one of their best!, October 3, 2005
By Frederick Baptist (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Miracle (Audio CD)

By this time, Freddie Mercury had already taken sick and the band stopped touring and so decided to put all their energies into a great studio album and this was the result. Very polished with a lot more production elements than you usually get from a Queen album but the result is in hindsight a very good album indeed. Very different from say "A Night At the Opera" or even "The Game" but still a very good album in any case. They seem to have completely regained their confidence lost since "Hot Space" and slowly regaining it in "The Works" and the "Highlander" soundtrack aka "Kind of Magic" albums. It sounds almost as if the band felt they had nothing to prove anymore and with the pressure off, they could relax and make an album for themselves. It almost sounds like they intended this to be their swansong with "Was it All Worth It". Many strong tracks and the album is very smooth flowing. The sound quality is quite good and the bonus tracks are a nice touch. Highly recommended.

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Party" John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury 2:24
2. "Khashoggi's Ship" Queen 2:47
3. "The Miracle" Mercury, Deacon 5:02
4. "I Want It All" May 4:40
5. "The Invisible Man" Roger Taylor 3:55
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Breakthru" Mercury (intro), Taylor 4:07
2. "Rain Must Fall" Deacon (Music), Mercury (Lyrics) 4:20
3. "Scandal" May 4:42
4. "My Baby Does Me" Deacon, Mercury 3:22
5. "Was It All Worth It" Mercury 5:45
Extra tracks (CD versions only)
No. Title Writer(s) Length
11. "Hang on in There" Queen 3:46
12. "Chinese Torture" Mercury, May 1:46
13. "The Invisible Man (12" Version)" Taylor 5:29

 

[Dennie]

Heard these guys on Pandora so I ordered off of Amazon..."Two Weeks" may be recognizable to some, hearing the rest of the album for the first time, meh.

I hate it when that happens!! But, I say give it some time. In six months you may like it more.... or not!

Often, I don't like an album on first listen, so I shelve it. Sometime down the road I'll throw it in again and possibly have a different reaction to it, but not always.

Thanks for posting it! bscene-drinkingcheers:


Dennie

 

[Batman]

^ Dennie, the rest of the album isn't bad, but when I hear a single I REALLY like I usually hope that 3-4 additional tracks will speak to me, so far I'm not feeling that but it's (the album) okay...

 

[Dennie]

^ Dennie, the rest of the album isn't bad, but when I hear a single I REALLY like I usually hope that 3-4 additional tracks will speak to me, so far I'm not feeling that but it's (the album) okay...

I hear you! :handgestures-thumbup:



Dennie

 

[Dennie]

Go To Heaven -- CD

Grateful Dead

1980 Arista Records

Alabama Getaway, November 5, 2002
By Bilbo Baggins (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Go to Heaven (Audio CD)

I remeber this album as one of the first Dead albums that the production started sounding full and worthy of the dead rythym section in the studio. Alabama Getaway is a perfect blend of commercially slick radio friendly sound while still retaining Jerry and Bob's superior technique and road earned mastery of subtle riffing and rythmic augmentation. Althea is so Deadly it defines the power of artistic hippy musical apptitude. I love this album because it is presentable to the mainstream but retains its freak flag flying high buried deep in the highest production fidelity money can buy. If you don't have a fully developed dead ear for psychadelic sound you can start your journey on track number one of Go to Heaven and work your way back to the first Dead Album. Enjoy the research. My the force be with you.

Side one

"Alabama Getaway" (Garcia, Hunter) – 3:36
"Far From Me" (Mydland) – 3:40
"Althea" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:51
"Feel Like a Stranger" (Barlow, Weir) – 5:07

Side two

"Lost Sailor" (Barlow, Weir)– 5:54
"Saint of Circumstance" (Barlow, Weir) – 5:40
"Antwerp's Placebo (The Plumber)" (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 0:38
"Easy to Love You" (Barlow, Mydland) – 3:40
"Don't Ease Me In" (Traditional) – 3:13

 

[Dennie]

Back Home -- CD

Eric Clapton

2005 Reprise Records

Eric's Good Mood,
By James Arria
"authentic blues man"
This review is from: Back Home (Audio CD)


Ok, I admit, I had some misgivings when I first heard some song samples from this album. I wondered, "where's the guitar?" and "Has Eric gone soft?" But after buying the album and listening to it more fully my answer would be definitely not!

Now I'll admit, it's not 'Layla' or '461' or 'From the Cradle'. But you know what? It isn't supposed to be!! Mr. Clapton is not an artist who rests on his laruels. I'm sick of reading negative reviews from people who expect him to do nothing but play recycled blues standards or solo until his fingers fall off.

This album has a warm, relaxed feeling to it. Some mistake this for being bland or lazy. I dispute this on several songs:

1) So Tired-a toe tapping humorous look at family life
2) Love Don't Love Nobody-his singing on this song is ridiculous-the Spinners would be proud
3) One Day-have you heard the solos on this?
4) Run Home To Me-a powerful moving performance
5) Lost and Found-for the people who need the bluesy/guitar fix, great riffs
6) I'm Going Left-again, very upbeat, I got this one stuck in my head
7) Revolution-great groove, EC knows his way around a raggae beat

Has everything EC has tried worked? No, but while the blues may be his base, he shows his versitility on this record. He isn't stuck to playing 'Crossroads' or 'Hoochie Coochie Man' 900 times.

Eric Clapton is one of music's greatest contributions. He continues to do what he feels, regardless of 'popular' opinion. Stop sometime and listen.

"So Tired" (Eric Clapton, Simon Climie) – 4:47
"Say What You Will" (Clapton, Climie) – 4:35
"I'm Going Left" (Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright) – 4:03
"Love Don't Love Nobody" (Joseph Jefferson, Charles Simmons) – 7:13
"Revolution" (Clapton, Climie) – 5:00
"Love Comes to Everyone" (George Harrison) – 4:35
"Lost and Found" (Doyle Bramhall II, Jeremy Stacey) – 5:21
"Piece of My Heart" (Bramhall II, Susan Melvoin, Mike Elizondo) – 4:22
"One Day" (Vince Gill, Beverly Darnall) – 5:20
"One Track Mind" (Clapton, Climie) – 5:04
"Run Home to Me" (Clapton, Climie) – 6:18
"Back Home" (Clapton) – 3:33

 

[heeman]

 

[heeman]

Listening to the CD, the DVD Concert is great for those of you who have not seen it!!

 

[Dennie]

Long Road Out of Eden -- 2 CD Set

Eagles

2007 Eagles Recording Co. II

Amazon.com

What a long, strange wait it's been. Don Felder has left, a generation has grown into adulthood, and at long last, Eagles return with a new studio album, their first since 1979's The Long Run. Given the interim, though, fans couldn't possibly have asked for more. The two-disc, 20-track Long Road Out of Eden not only retains the entire menu of the Eagles' staple sounds--effortless, multi-part harmonies; colorful, if not intricate, guitar embellishment; meticulously crafted songwriting; squeaky-clean, almost geriatric production--but many of these songs also viscerally recall past hits from Eagles' or the extant members' solo records. Like revenant doubles, "Frail Grasp on the Big Picture" echoes "Life in the Fast Lane," "How Long" channels "Take It Easy," the guitar arpeggio threading through "Center of the Universe" hints at the ubiquitous "Hotel California," and "Business As Usual" could have been culled from the cutting room floor from Don Henley's The End of the Innocence. The effect of all this familiarity is one of masterfully crafted self-tribute with one eye riveted on posterity, calculated to please both the deep-pocketed who can still afford the Eagles' concerts and those who'd given up on ever hearing new material again. --Jason Kirk

Disc one

"No More Walks in the Wood" (Don Henley, Steuart Smith, John Hollander) – 2:00
"How Long" (J. D. Souther) – 3:13
"Busy Being Fabulous" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Steuart Smith) – 4:19
"What Do I Do with My Heart" (Glenn Frey, Don Henley) – 3:54
"Guilty of the Crime" (Frankie Miller, Jerry Lynn Williams) – 3:43
"I Don't Want to Hear Any More" (Paul Carrack) – 4:21
"Waiting in the Weeds" (Don Henley, Steuart Smith) – 7:45
"No More Cloudy Days" (Glenn Frey) – 4:02
"Fast Company" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey) – 4:00
"Do Something" (Don Henley, Timothy B. Schmit, Steuart Smith) – 5:12
"You Are Not Alone" (Frey) – 2:22

Disc two

"Long Road Out of Eden" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Timothy B. Schmit) – 10:17
"I Dreamed There Was No War" (Glenn Frey) – 1:38
"Somebody" (Jack Tempchin, John Brannen) – 4:09
"Frail Grasp on the Big Picture" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Steuart Smith) – 5:46
"Last Good Time in Town" (Joe Walsh, John David Souther) – 7:07
"I Love to Watch a Woman Dance" (Larry John McNally) – 3:16
"Business as Usual" (Don Henley, Steuart Smith) – 5:31
"Center of the Universe" (Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Steuart Smith) – 3:42
"It's Your World Now" (Glenn Frey, Jack Tempchin) – 4:22

 

[Botch]

The Man in the Brown Shorts delivered my copy tonight, Spock's Beard Live:

DVD, Dolby 5.1, 16:9, good camera angles/editing, with "each instrument in a separate speaker" style mixing, not such a bad thing with this style of music (prog). Sounds like a board feed, don't hear the ambience of the hall at all, or the crowd, until the end of the song. That's okay.
Spock's Beard is a relatively new discovery for me, they remind me of Kansas: catchy tunes and great vocals, interspersed with spots of prog precisionist math. Me likey! :handgestures-thumbup:

 

[Dennie]

Two Against Nature -- CD

Steely Dan

2000 Giant Records

Amazon.com essential recording

Never so much a band as the slyly crafted specter of one, Steely Dan's mid-1990s "return" to live performance was as surprising as it was perverse. They'd previously toured only once, round about the era of Watergate, pet rocks, and Shaft. A half-decade after their concert comeback and a mere 19 years after Gaucho seemingly closed out their recording career, the jazz-pop conceit of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen deliberately dropped back into a recording landscape where they weren't so much seasoned vets as alien ambassadors. Two Against Nature, indeed. The tack is instantly familiar: a musical/lyrical reconciliation of Monk and Newman, with familiar harmonic flourishes, nimble studio chops, and an icy, world-class cool, as willfully insulated from hip-hop and techno as it was from disco and Top 40. Less concerned with melodic hooks than a canny sophistication of mood and manner, Becker and Fagen never let a trite melody get in the way of a good story, whether their protagonists are plotting some nefarious obliquity ("Gaslighting Abby"), Southern-fried incest (the deliciously funky "Cousin DuPree"), or bleakly confronting dashed expectations ("What a Shame About Me"). A little more musically languorous perhaps, its trademark cynicism now undercut by hints of sadness and regret, this is nonetheless a Steely Dan album worthy of the name, and like the best of them, one whose subtle charms reveal themselves in surprising ways. -Jerry McCulley

All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

"Gaslighting Abbie" – 5:53
"What a Shame About Me" – 5:17
"Two Against Nature" – 6:17
"Janie Runaway" – 4:09
"Almost Gothic" – 4:09
"Jack of Speed" – 6:17
"Cousin Dupree" – 5:28
"Negative Girl" – 5:34
"West of Hollywood" – 8:21

 

[Botch]

The Man in the Brown Shorts delivered my copy tonight, Spock's Beard Live:

Damn, I'm enjoying this a lot! The primary keyboardist did a solo with some hellacious chords; incredibly talented band. "Snow" is only their 2nd of nine or so albums, time to pull out the credit card again.

 

[Dennie]

My last one for the evening.....

Screenplaying -- CD

Mark Knopfler

1993 Warner Bros. Records

Mark is the best!!, December 21, 2001
By J. E. Harris (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Screenplaying (Audio CD)

I'll never forget the day, in 1977, when I first heard "sultans of swing" from Dire Straits. I was totally fascinated with the guitar licks. In my opinion, Mark is the best in the business.

I've watched him grow over the years, and he's only gotten better. Anyone who loves this work must own "Golden Heart". You may no longer hear Mark's music on "Popular stations". That's because these days, it's about the MTV thing. Look is more important than talent. But hey, Mark was the first to tell you that with "Money for Nothing". Enrich your life. Purchase this CD, or the individual CDs. Either way, you're going to love it.

All songs written & performed by Mark Knopfler, except noted.

From the film Cal

Irish Boy
Irish Love
Father and Son
Potato Picking
The Long Road

From the film Last Exit to Brooklyn (Performed by Guy Fletcher)

A Love Idea
Victims
Finale - Last Exit to Brooklyn

From the film The Princess Bride (Performed by Mark Knopfler & Guy Fletcher)

Once upon a Time...Storybook Love
Morning Ride
The Friends' Song
Guide My Sword
A Happy Ending

From the film Local Hero

Wild Theme
Boomtown
The Mist Covered Mountains
Smooching
Going Home