On this night in 1958, Riverside Records producer Orrin Keepnews dragged bis recording equipment across the Hudson to the Five Spot Cafe. To record Thelonious Monk for a live album. With the restoration of his cabaret card, Monk had been playing at the Five Spot for about a year and was in the midst of a second residency there.  For some reason, the recordings were deemed lacking. They sound good to me, but I am partial to Monk's work with Griffin on sax. Keepnews returned a month  later  an recorded two sets, from which the albums Thelonious in Action and Misterioso were released. This set shares "Blues Five Spot", "Evidence", "In Walked Bud"*, and "Epistrophy (Theme)" with those two albums. It adds "'Round Midnight", "Bye-Ya", and "Unidentified Piano Solo" - which some identify as "Sweet Stranger"- the sources are unclear. *Bud Powell: it was probably Bud's packet of heroin that police found...

Mick Jones turns 66 today....Mick Jones of the Clash.  One tends to think of the Clash as Joe Strummer's band, and one would tend to be right. Joe was the band's lead singer and primary spokesman and singer, but he wrote most of the songs with Mick or the rest of the band.  Mick, however, sang lead on 2 of the band's 3 mainstream hits (or maybe 3 of 4). In fact, for the casual listener, Mick may well be the voice of the Clash. When the band got experimental on Sandinista , he sang on the more straight forward pieces: power pop and rock. What we have hear is a collection of those songs on which he sings the lead - "Hitsville U.K.", with his girlfriend, Ellen Foley. It's great stuff. As I listen to this playlist, I realize that some of my favorite  Sandinista   tracks are those wherein Mick took the lead vocals.  Happy Birthday, Mick. The other Mick Jones, from Foreigner, is older. His birthday is in December.

Fifty years ago this week, Grand Funk Railroad sold out Shea Stadium in 72 hours, a feat that, 6 years earlier, took the Beatles about two weeks. To be fair, no band had ever played Shea before the Beatles. It may even be possible that the Mets were never able to sell it out in their early years. They were huge at the time, yet nobody could figure out why. Their first two albums, if you read up on them, are often compared unfavorably to Black Sabbath, or Spinal Tap around the time of  Brainhammer .  More "hard rock" than "heavy metal", the first two albums feature a lot of heavy boogie and hard funk riffing without the hooks of Zeppelin or Deep Purple. Production values are pretty lo-fi, they almost seem live. " Got This Thing on the Move " sounds like Blue Cheer or maybe early MC5 while " Paranoid " - not the Sabbath tune - could fit on the Stooges' Funhouse . They were all about the live show. In 1969, as yet unknown, the were well received...

Fifty five years ago the Yardbirds released their follow up to "Shapes of Things",  "Over, Under, Sideways, Down",   The original featured Jeff Beck on guitar. Here is the band performing live with his replacement, Jimmy Page. Of their enduring hits, it was always the hardest to find in the vinyl and early CD eras.

In the year before the release of Pet Sounds , 55 years ago this past week, Brian Wilson produced a number of songs - mostly deep cuts - that show where he was taking the music. For the most part, the songs are from Today!  and Summer Days (And Summer Nights)   with one non-album single. Some have the complex arrangements and instrumentation that would fit in on Pet Sounds . Other cuts have a similar fullness of sound, even if their structures are tied to doo wop or Chuck Berry.  The biggest hit here, "California Girls", uses a "Happy Trails" bum-ba-dee-dah which is similar to that used in "Wouldn't It Be Nice". "The Little Girl I Once Knew" may have been too progressive for its time.  The dead stops in the middle may have cost it some airplay, while the introductory arpeggios anticipate the guitar solos of the 1970's, from Ace Frehley to Hotel California.  Some of the songs are of a sort with their earlier material - sun and fun. Others ...

There was a time when I would've scoffed at Carol King's induction...hard to take seriously.  Sure, she wrote "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and "Pleasant Valley Sunday". The Beatles covered one of her songs on their debut. The Byrds  put a couple of songs on Notorious Byrd Brothers - their best album. There were two songs on Head - two songs that one would take seriously if one didn't know they were by the Monkees. Even the Trashmen - or their handlers - got the word. Nevertheless, I'd always filed her under either Brill building pop or singer/songwriter, until I saw her on Letterman, backed by the band and Slash.

On this day in 1956, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones - the Miles Davis Quintet - went into the Rudy Van Gelder Studio and recorded fourteen tracks to help meet Miles's contractural obligations with Prestige.   Twelve of those tracks would later comprise the better parts of the  Workin'   and   Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet  albums, the other two rounded out the   Relaxin'  album. Pretty good for a day's work.

After the Burnin' album in 1973, Bunny and Peter left the Wailers. Bob and the Barrett brothers rhythm section kept on keepin' on, releasing Natty Dread in '74, Live! in '75 and, on this day in 1976, Rastaman Vibration . It's probably my favorite Marley album. Well, that and maybe Live! . I guess  Catch a Fire  is up there too, for that matter.  Rastaman  is one of my favorite Marley albums. Even the casual fan should own it, as it shares no cuts with Legend . Later that year Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer each released their first solo albums, Legalize It and Blackheart Man . Shuffled into a playlist together with Bob's album, we get Wailers '76.

I was surprised that Todd wasn't already in the the Hall. He's produced groundbreaking albums. He's produced hit albums. I think he's even produced some groundbreaking hit albums. Something/Anything is cited as a masterpiece, and while there's a good LP's worth of tunes there, I don't really get the slow piano/Laura Nyro style pieces. If I'm going to listen to him, I'm most likely to put on his first band, the Nazz. Although pushed as a teeny bopper band, they played a heavy, psychedelic power pop.  Their debut single - " Open My Eyes " - was arguably their best. It has it all and should have been a big hit. Maybe Todd agrees, he reworked the vocal line into " Who's That Man ". It is certainly their best known, having appeared on the original Nuggets compilation. The promotional video used to get some play as a "closet classic" back when MTV used to play music videos. The flip side was " Hello, It's Me ...

With a day or so left on my quarantine, I'll not be going out for St. Patrick's Day. I do, however, have a show to recommend: Joe Strummer fronting the Pogues in London on December 11, 1991. If you'd rather on youtube: I remember hearing that he had taken on the vocal duties after Shane left. I was skeptical...but I shouldn't have been. It was a good fit. Joe had filled in on guitar for the band in 1987-88 and had produced Hell's Ditch in 1990.  He does justice to the the band's tunes and their backing on the Clash songs works. I only wish they'd covered " Shane's Dentist ".

Miles released A Tribute to Jack Johnson fifty years ago . The first track - of two - " Right Off ", stands as his fullest excursion into straight ahead rock, while the second " Yesternow ," is a gritty, bluesy funky vamp. Who knew Willie Nelson could be so funky? It is the "Rock" part of his "Jazz-Rock" fusion that concerns us with this playlist. Some of the tunes here, "Right Off" and "Red China Blues", are straight ahead blues based rock. The pieces from the Bitches Brew sessions are spacier....almost prog...with "Great Expectations" never quite resolving into the implied quote of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.  There's plenty for a rock fan to enjoy, and some jazz too. When writing about this period of Miles' work, Stanley Crouch said that listening to it was like having nails driven into his forehead. We've got that covered too.

When I heard of Chick Corea's passing, I listened to Return to Forever and the follow up,  Light as a Feather , my two favorites by both the man and the band. A friend of mine, who has much better taste than I, prefers the ensemble's second incarnation of Return to Forever, citing a concert at Central Park as one of the best shows he's ever seen. Like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and others, it is a jazz-rock fusion that features a jazz group using rock instrumentation.  The first lineup - Chick, Stanley Clarke (primarily on double bass), Joe Farrell (flute, sax), Airto Moreira (drum set), and Flora Purim (vocals) plays on both Return to Forever and  Light as a Feather.  In between, Chick, Clarke, and Airto joined with Tony Williams to back Stan Getz on Captain Marvel . All three are included on the playlist. Is it fusion? I guess so, although save for the electric piano. The instrumentation is fairly traditional, but Chick's Rhodes floats in an out, bubbles on top. It...

The "Eggman" went on to continued fame as a long haired leaping gnome, singing about Sky Pilots, San Franciscan Nights and Spilled Wine. Alan Price - the primary instrumentalist - was a solo artist of note in the UK. Chas Chandler discovered Jimi Hendrix. The drummer, John Steel, continues to tour with some form of the Animals.  Hilton Valentine, guitarist and founding member, who died late last week, labored in obscurity. He wasn't a flashy player, and he didn't write a lot of material.  The band had 5 hits that remain in rotation of classic rock and oldies stations, all written by Brill Building types. Unlike the Yardbirds, none of the songs feature guitar solos, but unlike, say, the Zombies, the guitar is always doing something. His playing was most prominent on the last of these, "Don't Bring Me Down". After a bass, drums, and organ intro he comes in with heavy, distorted chords that weren't common in early '66. It wasn't the first exampl...

Nicky, Ricky, Roger, and Davey were in the van on a way to a gig on this day in 1968.  "Shall we pick Syd up?" one of them asked. "Let's not bother." was the answer. It's not like he was still an active member of the band. He had long since ceased to contribute both in the studio and on stage....unless his stage presence was supposed to provide a focal point for the freak show. After writing and singing most of their first album, he only wrote one song on the second and played on two more. Another pair of songs were recorded but for release as a single, but remained unreleased until 2016.  At first they discussed keeping Syd on as a non-performing member, writing songs like Brian Wilson did for the Beach Boys. What might that have sounded like? He only had one song on  A Saucerful of Secrets  , and it is debatable whether the inclusion of the unreleased single would have improved it.  What about  More ? It has a spacey, folksy songs interspersed with the ...

This week saw the passing of Vanilla Fudge bassist and Jeff Beck sideman, Tim Bogert, New York Dolls guitarist, Sylvain Sylvain, and the "Tycoon of Teen" and whack-a-doo, Phil Spector. Until recently, I didn't really appreciate Phil's work. He was the guy who gunked up Let it Be . He was also the one who tried to give the Ramones some radio play with End of the Century . Many fault him for gunking that one up as well, but I like it. It is an outlier of a Ramones album, but it was my introduction to the band.  When my children were little, and wanted to watch High School Musical - AGAIN - I suggested we watch Rock and Roll High School Musical . I turned down the volume and put End of the Century on repeat. The kids went outside to play, and I found at least 17 points of synchronicity....more than the Dark Side of the Rainbow. As far as Phil's "wall of sound", that was the period of the "girl groups" that occupied - along with Motown - the per...

Four shows from the Ramones December 1977 tour of England. The fourth was later released as It's Alive , a 54 minute double album, tearing through most of their first three albums.  The first, in Birmingham, was recorded on December 28th. It's tight. Joey claims he's sick from the Indian food that he had....he tells the audience to stop spitting, or the band is leaving. Quite a show. Barry, Dadrock 101 corporate dogsbody and man about town, remarked that a recently circulated playlist of AOR hits from 1976 reminded him of why he started listening to punk. It also remind us of why the Ramones and their ilk started playing it.

There was some cloud cover in the west, but Jupiter and Saturn managed to break through, as seen from the parking lot of the Dadrock 101 corporate campus. Embedded is a Dadrock 101 Guitarchestra rendition of a Tchaikovsky piece, transposed into Fb minor and scored for guitar, bass, and drums.  It's a piece, alright.  A few years back the December edition of Mediocre Guitar Player  put out a review wherein it received three (out of five) "whatevers". We thought that 2020 would be a good year to dust it off and share it with you. Here's to a Happy New Year.

For this weekend's show,  check out one of the best concerts ever recorded. On December 21, 1973 - the solstice, the darkest day of the year, Lou Reed played two Yuletide sets at the Academy of Music in New York.  Oh, to have been there. The backing band featured the twin guitar attack of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, who producer Bob Ezrin had tapped to back on Lou's  Berlin  album, released earlier that year. The rest of the band consisted of Prakash John, Pentti Glan, and Ray Colcord on bass, drums, and keyboards, respectively.  Sadly, for Lou, the band - minus Colcord - went on to back Alice Cooper on Welcome to My Nightmare . You can here them in a live setting on The Alice Cooper Show . Most of the show (all but two songs) was subsequently released as two albums. The first, Rock n Roll Animal ,  came out in early 1974 and featured four re-workings of Velvet Underground tunes and one song of the recently released Berlin . The second, 1975's Lou Reed Li...

We're coming up on the 40th anniversary of John Lennon's murder.  Last week I saw that somebody is auctioning off his last autograph, which he signed for his murderer. Forty years ago last month he released his last album. A joint effort with Yoko, I don't know if it is a great album, but it had three charting singles as well as another track that received significant airplay on classic rock and AOR stations. Not a bad showing for anybody, but after all of these years thats about as far as I've ever been able to get into it. One story is that John was inspired to go back into the studio after hearing McCartney II  earlier in the year. The year before, 1979, saw George's release of George Harrison .  It includes an update of the White Album outtake , " Not Guilty ", played in a yacht rock style. Most of the rest of the album is the same. " Soft Hearted Hannah " has some 1969 b-side Beatleyness. The standout track was the single, "Blow Away ...

During this week in 1982 the Jam played were playing a five night stand at the Wembley Arena. Paul Weller had announced the band's breakup - at their commercial peak - just over a month earlier. Within a week of the fifth show, they played their farewell gig. The show, from the second night's show, was released with five other shows in the Fire and Skill boxed set. It's a retrospective set, with something from each stage of the band's career, although they seem to have skipped the Modern World lp.  I still prefer their first live album, Dig the New Breed , issued the day before their last gig. It is culled from several shows from 1977 to spring of 1982. It wasn't well received at the time, but I don't understand why. It bests the Wembley show with each track that the two releases share. The sound quality is great, the energy is high.  Maybe it could be faulted for missing some tunes, but I wouldn't know how to make room.