You mean to tell me Santana did not right Black Magic Woman

So many times I have been asked about bands or artists that I listen to and get the question what is your favorite of that artist. If they have a long career like Fleetwood Mac or Steve Miller or Yes or Santana or even Jethro Tull. I have to tell them that I like them in their early years. They look blankly at me and think I am on crack. I am not on crack, but the early albums of these artist are so much better then the later.

Fleetwood Mac was a blues band before they had Rumors or Tusk. Tusk is great, but to me English Rose or Then Play On would be the ones I would choose. English Rose is pure British Blues. Peter Green is one of the best guitar players out there. This album shows it. His Black Magic Woman is amazing even his solo is crisp and clear. The studio sound may sound primitive but it does the job of sounding like a 1950's electric blues with Elmore James or T-Bone Walker.

My Fleetwood Mac experience started early. I used to hear Rumors when I was a kid. I think a lot of kids did, and I know I am not the only one. Hearing Go Your Own Way a million times, you get a little sick of it. One day I went out to the tag sales. I had about $10.00 on me. I had my back pack just in case. First sale I picked up some matchbox cars. Second sale a Guess Who Greatest Hits. Finally, the third I saw this Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits. The label said 1971. I bought it from the guy and headed home. I saw that on the track listing it, and it read Black Magic Woman. I was excited to listen to their version. I said to myself, wow! Fleetwood Mac covering Santana. When I saw the writing credits it said P. Green. I was stumped. This was actually a Fleetwood Mac song. I placed that song on the turntable. I was impressed and liked it more so then the Santana version. My early Fleetwood Mac love was solidified.



The next day in school I had the Fleetwood Mac in my hand. A teacher came up to me and told me that is the Fleetwood Mac very few know about. The next day in class he handed me a tape. On one side was that album of Greatest Hits and on the other was some John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. He told me to keep it and write a page on what I liked and disliked about it.

So without further flair I give you Fleetwood Mac 1968. This is the era that should be talked about. Listen closely you might learn what British Blues is all about. Enjoy a true genius in Peter Green and a band that went their own way before all the Top 10 songs that put out.

The band that launched my musical loves

Ever since I can remember I used to watch music on TV. I liked watching Public Television and seeing Austin City Limits. I liked the music documentaries on MTV and watching whatever TV had something to do with music. One day on Public Television I saw the video that is above. It was actually part of an hour long special called Stax in Europe. Besides The Booker T. & The MG's on this show there was Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays. It was an amazing thing to watch. I came away from that watching worshipping Booker T. & The MG's and Otis Redding. The next day I called my friend and asked him to see if he wanted to go record shopping. We did, and I picked up Green Onions by Booker T. & The MG's not the single mind you, the whole album.



I quickly got home and placed it on the turntable. It was an original. I got for $10.00. It had the Stax record label on it and it was in very good shape. I played it a few times before I saw the cassette at the store for $6.00. It was the same album with all the songs. While I was playing the LP, my father came up to me and handed the 45 of Green Onions. He was just out of High School when this song was a hit. He told me this song was a hit in the Fall of '62.

What I liked about it was the bass and the organ sound. What I found out later, the man in the video playing the bass was not the one playing the bass on the LP. I thought the replacement Donald "Duck" Dunn was a better bass player then the guy they had. In the Video the bass player is "Duck." He stayed with the band. This core group stayed as Booker T. and The MG's. Looking back, I though the whole band was tight and awesome. I literally idolized the whole band. Al's drumming to Steve's guitar work to "Duck's" bass and Booker's keyboard work. It was all so great.




So in this post I recommend Green Onions. Check it out!! If you don't move to this then your dead. It is an album that is meant to be played loud. Enjoy some great R&B for your soul. To me it all starts right here. Enjoy a classic in every sense of the word.

Influence is a crazy thing!

I looked at my records today and was dumbfounded by the different genres of music that I have in my collection. I scanned both LP bookcases which include more then 1000 records to see what I can talk about. I just was amazed by what I have and recalling in some detail how the album I see came into my position. After I talked to a friend over the phone last night about our love for Jeff Buckley I went to the book case and pulled out my Grace and my copy of Mystery White Boy LP's and opened them up. Amazed that the LP was played once and shelved and out popped my ticket stubs and guitar picks and my Grace Poster.

I was a little kid again recalling my youth when I buy an album and rush right home to put it on the turntable. Don't worry I did not do that with the Jeff Buckley LP's. I am sure there worth about $200.00 and will more then likely will never play them again. I did find my copy of Grace on CD and threw it in the car and on my way home from where I was I listened to it. It was a eleven minute drive but it was a enough to here how great that album is.

I continued to survey the collection and then I stopped. I remember that some of the stuff I listened to was someones favorite stuff too. It was so good I liked it too. I liked it enough to buy the albums and go see him in concert. My friends rarely made a mistake on an artist that I listened to or liked. Most of the friends who liked music like me liked things I never heard, but wanted to know more about.



After High School, I quickly changed my tastes. I would listen to an artist and tell myself that is this something that will change my life. A example of that would be any popular rock of the 90's. Where these bands going to make a great impression on me or were they just going to be something in the past and when I reflect I say "Oh yea! They are ok!!" or am I going to say "Wow!, These guys made me get into other artists or genres of music."

A prime example of this is Steve Tibbetts. Steve hails from St. Paul Minnesota and when you listen to his work, you think he is from Europe. Maybe that's why ECM signed him. He is very much a world guitar player. I can listen to him albums all the time and not get tired of them. He is an artist who never changed with the decades of music. He might have changed his ways but never conformed to the ways of each decade he has been around.

A funny thing about Steve Tibbetts is that he rarely tours. I liked what I listened to and I said to another Steve Tibbetts fan about him touring. He told me that it rarely happens, and when it does it is a real treat. A few years later my friend who introduced me to him and a friend who has never heard him and I went to a show at the Iron Horse. He did not disappoint, and at the end of the show was available for talking to. Steve Tibbetts might be the unknown guitar player in your circles but he is worth a listen and this to me is the best album to start with. It might a tough find since most of his CD's are out of print, but well worth the effort to dig.

Thoughts of Jeff

Once in a while I get these crazy ideas that if Jeff Buckley was still alive what would he be doing. How would he respond the surroundings around him. What kind of music would be be making? Would he be making music at all? Or the serious music question; would he make an album as amazing as Grace was? I had the pleasure of seeing him four times in my life and I would not trade that for anything on this planet. He made me laugh, cry and other emotions I have never felt before in my life.

I have three great friends who they were to young to see him on stage, but enjoy his music. To describe to them how great he was on stage is like trying to describe your two week vacation in so much detail on everything you did. You might be able to give a lot of detail, but you are going miss a few things here and there.

Grace is an album that is 51 minutes and 44 seconds of the most joy you can find on an album. You can play it back to front or front to back and it is amazing. You can do what I did when I got it. You can play it once, pick your songs and put them in order of your favorites and then the ones you did not like at the end and play it that way. Oh yea by the way. There is no bad song on the album so the way I did it, I lost. I kept in a sequence and turned it up to maximum volume. I saw him when he was promoting Grace and he played a few songs from Sin-E and a Nina Simone song and MC5's Kick out the Jams and a Big Star song and oh yea! Some Edith Piaf. He also joked with the crowd and told stories about that he was the son of the great Tim Buckley.

Grace is an album that should be part of everyone's music collection. It should be mentioned that it should be with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Radiohead and others. Grace should be also an album that should be played on the radio. They should not over play it like the above artists.



Jeff will forever be missed. My friends that I mentioned above missed a person who could give so emotion in his concert, by the end of the show you shook your head and wanted more. I will admit I love Jeff. He made me feel a part of him when he sang. He and Elliott Smith stir so much emotion that very few artist can do. What I think makes Jeff do this is he does not stick to type of music. Like myself I think he had a lot of respect for the music as a whole.

Grace is the album that is played all the time in my head. Every time I hear Lilac Wine I get goosebumps. When I hear So Real I hear his moments of Avant-Garde and how he used to be part of John Zorn's Cobra at Knitting Factory. Hallelujah, the Leonard Cohen cover is so well done that he make's it his own song. We forget that Leonard wrote it and some of my friends think Jeff wrote it. Eternal Life has a life of it's own. Last Goodbye was supposed to be the "hit single" but it turned out to be his anthem after he died. Lilac Wine channels Nina Simone and does the best of this beautiful standard. Lover, You Should Come Over is a haunting song from the past for him and myself personally. Corpus Christi Carol shows how much of a vocal range he did have, just like his father.

Jeff means a lot to me and to talk about him with friends or just in general makes me smile. He will be missed in more ways then one. Jeff if your reading this somewhere, I thank you for all you have done. Thanks!! Matt.

WFMU Find

So I went to the WFMU record fair in New York City yesterday not expecting to find much and I walk out of there with a great find. I had this album on CD for a few years now. I even a had a few songs on a mix tape of the Incredible String Band that my friend made. I was impressed by this band from the very start of my 1960's music listening. Like King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King Cover, I saw this one with awe.

Incredible String Band was one of the bands in High School I wondered more about. They were from the sixties and played at Woodstock, but were left off the classic rock radio stations. I had a compilation of classic music from the sixties and they were represent with one song. That song about seven minutes. It was the most interesting seven minutes on that disc. Sure there was White Bird by It's a Beautiful Day and Jefferson Airplane number and most of the disc was full of band I knew, I might have not known the songs but this was one of the artist on that set that I had no idea who they where.

I started to ask questions that no one could answer. So I did research. This is pre-internet too. I asked the library where I worked. Very few people knew who I was talking about. So I asked for a record from another library. This was the album. The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. I got home from work and quickly ran to the turntable. I gently placed side one on. It was like nothing I heard. The song that was on this 3CD sixties compilation that I had was song three. The first two songs were amazing. The songs were a mix of folk, psychedelic, world and Indian music.

I thought this stuff was great, even the art work on the cover was amazing and detailed. I put on side two. More amazement followed when The Hedgehog Song and the song that followed First Girl I loved. I could not believe that this was an album from 1967. It had no feel of Sgt. Pepper or Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It was something different. Later on I found all their albums on CD at a store. I picked them all up. I also read up that of all the albums that came out in 1967 which included the two above and Kinks Village Green, Grateful Dead's First album and The Doors first one, and Hendrix Are You Experienced that Paul McCartney said it his favorite album of 1967. This album to me is the ultimate sixties classic that no one knows about. Enjoy a true classic.

CAN I listen to this?

It all started in the Fall of 1991. I was intrigued by a film called Until the End of the World that had a Christmas time release. I was reading the New York Times and was impressed by their review. I said to myself, I hope this film comes our way!!!! Then I was at the record store, like I always do, and I spotted the soundtrack to the movie. Quickly, I picked it up. I looked at the people involved. Still I have not scene the movie, but reading the review I remember the movie is set in the future.

I bought the soundtrack and quickly listened to it. It not only had a futuristic feel it literally moved me to another world. Some of the music like Neneh Cherry, Talking Heads, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sounded futuristic. Then came the Can Song. It's title Last Night Sleep has some kind of future tone. Then upon listening to I was floored. I quickly went back to the record store. I asked for CAN. The guy at the counter looked at me like, "CAN who"???
I went home, made a phone call to a friend. I need CAN I said. He laughed at me and replied, "Old or newish, and forget about buying their stuff around here its too hard to find." He continued, "I will have to take you to NYC for that."



Well he made me a great mix. I put it in the car and listened with excitement. A 100 minute cassette full of CAN. I was in awe, and I wanted more. My mother had to go clothes shopping, I knew where she was going was near a Circuit City. I walk in and look through the CD's. I said to the man at information. "Do you have a various "C" section. He took me over the end of the letter. I passed the Cream and CCR and I landed at the end. Within two CD's of looking I found two CAN albums.

Unlimited Edition was one the other was Soundtracks. I bought them both for a total of $23.00. I quickly put them on. They were amazing and not only that they were not what I was listening to at the time. I made cassette copies of each.

Fast forward a few years. I continue to be a CAN fan. I get word from a friend that a CAN Box is coming out. This box is a 2 Hour Video and a 478 Page Book and a 2CD set of Live stuff from 1972 to 1975. I quickly pick it up for the low price of $49.00. Now it sells for more then $140.00. Fast forward even more, I see the re-issue of CAN albums and I buy them all.

Present day, I have a friend who buys this very album. I explain to her that it is one of my favorite CAN albums. If you have a chance to listen to this listen to Jaki's drumming. It it out of this world. If people ask me who my favorite drummer is, Jaki is one of mine. Enjoy the future of music that was the future back in 1972. CAN is the only the band that I can say I feel comfortable playing loud and not caring what people think or say. I can talk about them and relate to something now, and tell whoever that they have an influence on something that is around today. REM, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, U2, and Stereolab among others.

Always at least three steps ahead of contemporary popular music, Can were the leading avant-garde rock group of the '70s. From their very beginning, their music didn't conform to any commonly held notions about rock & roll -- not even those of the countercultures. Can's music can be difficult to appreciate, yet their albums offer some of the best experimental rock ever recorded. (Allmusic)

Flashback!!!!

Ever since I can remember, I used to go through my dad's records collection. He also had a small 8-Track collection too. His Collection of LP's was diverse, but it lacked the 1960's classic rock that most parents had. I had an uncle on the other hand who had some of the classic rock that I wanted to listen to. One day over his house I asked if I can go through them. He said sure, grab what you want and just let me know what you took.

His Collection compared to my fathers was small, but it was it was one genre of music, Rock and Roll. My dad's on the other hand had Jazz, Oldies (Sam Cooke) some classic rock ie: Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears and Traffic, Ten Years After and the Beach Boys. Lots of Beach Boys. Not the stuff I listen to now, but the Surf period. I listened to it but not as much as Pet Sounds or Smiley Smile or Sunflower. Then next was his Jazz LP's. In that collection he had Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, one John Coltrane (Giant Steps) and a Louis Armstrong and a Miles Davis greatest hits. Beside the oldies his selections from the 1970's was bad. I mean real bad. I saw Barbara Streisand, Melissa Manchester, and the rest what I call crap. Stuff that would make you look and go hm mm.

In the early 80's it became clear that I had to keep up with this collection. I had to weed out the bad and put new stuff in. We bought Thriller by MJ and not just one copy. We have three copies. One to over play and the other two to keep. We bought Huey Lewis and I bought some Aerosmith and Run DMC and Bon Jovi and INXS and from that I revert to my uncle's collection. I was not select what I listened to on his LP's. He had a better collection then my father. So I listen to his collection a lot.

His collection was diverse and full of exciting new finds every time I played them. I asked him great musical questions and he answered with some very good knowledge of what to listen to next. I won't bore you with how I got turned on to things I like now, but I had a start. I also had my best friend who was older then I was. He was a Zappa fan and a 70's Punk lover. He also liked Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson and good 80's music. There was no Journey in his collection, but there was a Tom Waits or a Squeeze.

Now this comes to today's selection. I was asked by a young friend, His father and I bowl together. "What album would you give me that I would like." I just want to bare in mind he likes the local station that plays Hard Rock. He told me he likes punk and hard stuff. He said he thought Metallica and Tool was cool. He even said he likes Floyd and some of the oldies as he calls it.



His father told me that I want him to hear something new. He said all that Hard Rock he hears is so repetitive and he needs something much better. I asked him about what makes a good Hard Rock band. He said to me, "I like drums and guitar." Now mind this is not how I found Porcupine Tree, but I think he would like it. I explained to him that Porcupine Tree is heavy and soft, but like Tool have a great complexity to them. Porcupine maybe a Progressive Rock act, but as I told him they can be loud and soft. I asked him if he was a fan of Dream Theater. He told me yes, and he liked that they can play great riffs. So without question I will most likely make a copy of this Porcupine Tree CD. It's only got six songs but it's great. He knew how much I liked them so I am sure this was an obvious choice. He knows I seen them about a dozen times.



I will tell you about the album of the day. I suggest that this is one of the best new Progressive Rock albums. It has Alex Lifeson from Rush on a song and Robert Fripp from King Crimson on one as well. To me it's in my top albums of the 2000's. This album is addictive. It is only 51 minutes, but it is a complete 51 minutes. Not a bad song on the whole album. Enjoy a truly new Progressive Rock album.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JQ5D064M

More Guitar!

Every time someone asked me about guitar albums I point them in the wrong direction. I point them in a direction that is least likely to be the obvious and simple. I could point them to a Jimi Hendrix album or two, but I am not like that. Terje Rypdal Odyssey is the album that I will tell people about. Terje's albums from the early seventies are amazing.

Not only do they turn my head in such a way that are groundbreaking and define ECM. Like Gateway I mentioned in a post his albums are unlike you have heard. They are nice to put his albums in a fusion genre, but he is nothing like that. Don't get me wrong on the other guitar gods out there like Hendrix and Page and SRV and so many I can name, but this is what I turn to all the time.


Odyssey was made by Terje's touring band. A band that had Trombone, 6 String Bass, Organ and Drums. This group liked playing together. There is no such thing as overplaying which fusion. These pieces tend to be built on similar lasts: a repeated bass vamp; organ or synth laying down chords; drums essentially for coloration; and a kind of counterpoint or call-and-response between Rypdal's biting electric guitar tone and Torbjorn Sunde's trombone.

This album is also two LP's I was very excited to listen to it when I bought it. Then I saw it on CD. There was a problem. The last track was not on it. The most killer of all songs was left off. The download above includes everything on the album and as an added bonus a live bootleg from 1974 with the same band. Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/192098080/TerjeRypdal-Odyssey-BonusTraksLive.rar

The World Is Yours!

So driving Saturday I came to the realization in some odd way that I think, that I like world music. I mean, I like all types of music, but world stands out as one of the genres I like. I get jealous when I have friends go to countries out of the North America area and go somewhere. To further my odd musical loves I ask them to bring back some music from the country they are going to. I had a friend who went to Brazil. He said the beautiful open ended question to me. "Do you want anything while I am in Brazil?" "Of Course," I said. I need some vinyl copies of Os Mutantes and any Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil." "You be the best if you can do that." His response was direct and to the point. "What!, Who? let me right this down."

My friend goes every year down there and he made a point that he can hook me up with some beautiful Brazilian woman. What he does not understand I don't have the luxury to visit this person like he does. I just want music, and my favorite genre of world is Tropicalia. Tropicalia is a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry, and music, among other forms. Tropicália was influenced by Concrete Poetry), a genre of Brazilian avant-garde poetry However, Tropicália is associated almost exclusively with the musical expression movement, both in Brazil and internationally, which arose from the fusion of several musical genres, like Brazilian, African Rhythms and American Rock and Roll.



So I show my friend this album. I tell him, that collectors here in America pay like $100 for this album or anything from that period. In Brazil it can be bought for like $20.00 even cheaper if you can haggle with a record guy. My friends short attention span quickly moves on to another subject and my want from Brazil is a memory of what I wanted.

This music somehow connects with me. A museum in the Bronx NY had an exhibit of this beautiful and rich period. I went a few times, but to be honest I should have looked a little closer at everything around me.

To me the music has a connection, that is almost like being addicted to something. When I give suggestions for people what to listen to I very little hand them a best of an artist or a compilation.






The only exception to this rule is the album I am talking about above. This I think is the best sample of the music of Tropicalia movement. Make sure you turn it up and try to sing along like you know this is the coolest music ever!

www.rapidshare.com/files/108376162/Tropicalia_Ou_Panis_Et_Circensis.zip

Everything is Connected

So after my post on Gateway, I thought about the impact of albums and artists in my life.



The First album that comes to mind is the album above. The Shape of Jazz To Come is not only the first one that came to my mind, but the one I tell people is the first Jazz album I loved. I was a naive student at Manchester Community College, and I was taking a Jazz class. We were studying the Ragtime, and the Big Band and basically Jazz before 1950. I remember talking to a teacher about this and telling the teacher that I am listening to my uncles stuff. I want to know more. Within the week telling him that, the teacher had a cassette for me. He asked me to see him after class. He handed me a tape. It was a ninety minute cassette. One side was Ornette the other side was Eric Dolphy. The Eric Dolphy album was Out To Lunch.

The Out to Lunch by Eric Dolphy I will save for another day. That album is still in my top 10 of great Jazz albums. Side A of this cassette was The Shape of Jazz to Come. I was so thrown by how great it was, but how it was like I never heard before.



Not soon after that NPR Jazz show focused on Ornette and his music. Now I was even more impressed. So impressed that I had to pull over the car I was driving to hear this stuff. I went to my local record store and found very little. A few albums, but not the stuff I heard. Once again a tribute to my friend who worked the book store said to me that in the fall there is a box set of his stuff coming out. It will be selling for $75.00. I cannot afford that I said to myself. He made me a deal. I will get it at cost for $45.00 I give him the money. I gave him the money and he bought it for me. I still have the box set and every once in a while I will pull it out and listen with good headphones and transport myself to the late 50's and early 60's to watch him do this stuff live. His music was like you never heard before. Ornette is a man who is not only bold, but a forerunner of some of the most important Jazz. I continue today to listen with great ears and really understand what is like to be different, bold and most of all someone who can make it all make sense. When I hear Jazz I think of Ornette Coleman. He may get a little rise of the eyebrow or a jazz purest would say he is not jazz he is noise, but that noise is my music. Enjoy the music below and I hope you wear out your copy as much as I have.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6FXQVB9X

My mind is racing!

So I was listening to this last night and this morning. Just could not get it off my mind. Gateway to me is the power trio of all power trios. You may say Cream was, but this power beyond words. Listen to this song from this album set up with all three members in video stills. You don't have to watch the video part but the audio is awesome.

The three musicians I speak of are Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and John Abercrombie. These three people are wise musicians beyond their years. These three are some of the most important people in jazz field. Dave Holland's biggest break was working with Miles Davis in the Late sixties. I mean how awesome is that. Abercrombie is a Berklee from 1966 and was a star for the great ECM label. Lastly Jack DeJohnette who studied of all things classical piano. He turned to drums in the mid sixties. Played with Charles Lloyd and then replaced the great Tony Williams in Miles Davis band.

Recorded in Ludwigsburg, Germany in March 1975. On GATEWAY, their first recording together, this trio of innovators did more than just cement the image of a group sound that would endure some twenty years hence. In the first days of Manfred Eicher's label, they helped define some of the parameters of what would become one of ECM's signature guitar sounds. On "May Dance," a simple modal theme soon gives way to expressive, telepathic free improvisations, as DeJohnette's crystalline cymbal textures shade in and around the beat--playing in and out of time; meanwhile, Holland's muscular lines anticipate and support each complex rhythmic variation. Abercrombie extends on their tumultuous dialogue with a canny array of textures, harmonic contrasts and polytonal melodic lines. On "Unshielded Desire" the drummer engages Abercrombie in a furious dialogue, while on DeJohnette's "Sorcery 1" the trio moves from rolling waves of sound to a fat, rocking vamp worthy of Jimi Hendrix's Experience.

The reason I pick this album is because it defines ECM and to me it defines power trio. ECM is one of my favorite record labels. It is a label I really cannot describe in words, but a label that makes music seem important and suggest the listener that this is such an important presentation that this requires your full attention.

As Far as the group as concerned I think talking about their background above kinda give the idea why I like this album so much. It takes a repeated listening, but I am sure you will be rewarded well. In the future of this blog I will tell you about the album they put out twenty years later, if you think this is great wait till you hear their album Homecoming.

http://rapidshare.com/files/234836372/abercrombie_holland_dejohnette-gateway_01.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/234837239/abercrombie_holland_dejohnette-gateway_02.zip

Day Three: Still dreaming!

As I mentioned today about Moby Grape another I think more controversial genre was fusion. In 1968 Miles Davis watched and was influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown. He saw all these young kids digging these artists. It was an interesting time in popular culture at this time. Jazz was for the old folk and Rock and Roll was where it was at. Miles Davis saw this and started getting a group of artist together to play the same stuff he heard. We all know about Bitches Brew and Tribute to Jack Johnson but the album I stumbled upon after those was Big Fun.


I was 19 years old and seeing a friend of mine, who I greatly respected at the book store he worked at. He worked in the music department at the information counter. At this counter there were 6 CD's in front of his desk. This was one of them. Domestically this Miles Davis CD was not able to be found he told me. So I asked my friend how can I get a copy. He told me he would make a cassette copy for the car. If you like it he said, I can order you a copy. The import was pricey at $55.00, Thus, my Jazz/Fusion mind became open to just about everything he told me about. Even though this came out in 1974, the height of the fusion time. Most of this was recorded in 1969 through 1972. I played the cassette so much that i actually had to ask my friend to make me another copy. I broke the first one. This stuff rocked.

The Songs where long and adventurous. There was so much going on. The shortest song was near twenty minutes in length while the longest was close to a half an hour. A few years later with my import tucked away for whenever I felt like it, my friend came up to me and handed me the American re-issue of it. He told me it was a gift, because he knew how much I liked the album. By then I had a great stereo and could experience it at full blast.

It had all these people I would later listen to; John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea and lasty Joe Zawinul.



For your listening pleasure, I have included this for download. It should be bought like everything else I tell you about but with this excitement take a listen for yourself. Enjoy!

Pt.1
http://sharebee.com/0c9f5966
Pt.2
http://sharebee.com/74ee903b
Pt.3
http://sharebee.com/ebe588e

Day Three: Falling asleep to something good!

I was always wondering if I was around from circa 1955-1972 in the music world. Would I be listening to the same music I do now. Yesterday I was going through my LP's that are prized in my collection. I mean most of my records are important but some of the ones you could see have some wear on them. An example would be Moby Grape.

It's the first Moby Grape album, the one with the middle finger on the washboard. Back when this album came out that middle finger gave them the first and many more problems to follow. The second problem was they issued all there songs as singles. It was crazy and suicidal for it's time and bold to do. It was not the bands idea but the record company.

I am not sure how many plays my friend played it, but she told me when she gave it to me that it got some plays but not a lot. Image me buying this for the first time. I have a CD copy of this and the CD definitely gets some play. Then they re-issued this with extra tracks. The re-issue was subsequently issued the LP in Mono. Okay going back to my statement at the beginning of this post. Would have I bought the stereo and mono editions. Would have fathomed how great they were then and how they are important now. Here is the deeper question that I would have asked myself "Tower of Power and Boz Scaggs at the Fillmore West and then later in the week Moby Grape and Spencer Davis." Would I do these shows? Sure. the first shows with Tower of Power and Boz Scaggs. Moby Grape with Spencer Davis, not what I call an exciting double bill. I guess I was wondering what it would be like to see the acts from the past that I like now and seeing If I would go see them now. I am sure I would see The Grateful Dead and King Crimson and Velvet Underground and many others but would I see bands that are so obscure in my taste that I listen to now and just found out about when I was 15 or so. Moby Grape is a prime example of that.

I bought a 2CD retrospective of them when I was 20. I heard one thing about them when I was 17. I saw them in a book of great Sixties music. Looked everywhere for them and did too, but at 17 I was not going to pay $15.oo for something I never heard. Well anyway, listen for yourself.

They are pretty damn good. No link to get the album. Just my advice is buy the first two if you can find them. Enjoy another great album in the true sixties spirit. Skip Spence I hope your proud of me on how great you were.

Day Two: Death of Fuzz

When I got word yesterday that Dickie Peterson died yesterday at his home in Germany. I felt like I lost the fuzz sound in fuzz bass. It may seem odd that I think that way but Blue Cheer was a monster of a power trio. They were famous for a short while and had a great come back about 3 years ago in which myself saw them at BAR in New Haven. I was in awe on how great they were. The comeback also made it feel like i was back in 1969. They Played there cover of Summertime Blues what felt like a half an hour. I was thrilled to be part of a great moment. Their First album was one of the coolest that I had the pleasure of listening to. It maybe short (33 min) for a rock LP but it packs a lot of punch for an album that screams murder. A great cover and a hit for them was Summertime Blues. Aside from that there is a few other gems these include Rock Me Baby and Parchment Farm. If Universal was smart they should re-issue this and their second Outsideinside. They scream bonus material or for that matter live stuff from that time. I found a great picture of them that you will see below. Well enjoy a classic of all classic 60's albums. Oh yeah, by the way! The artwork which I will also show is pure sixties. Have fun!





http://rapidshare.com/files/137281179/Blue_Cheer_-_Vincebus_Eruptum___1968.rar

Day One: When I say stop..continue!

Now that I got your attention on the first album to listen to, I will tell you more about myself. I am a music geek. I like all types as I explained before and my job is to tell you all about these wonderful treasures to enjoy. I will have these albums linked or commented with a place where yourself can download them and listen for yourself. My goal is to have you listen and judge for yourself. I will from time to time talk a little about what I been listening to or reading or watching, but I will not bore you with my person life, because my life is not very exciting. I might jump up and down to tell you about a new music find. If that is the case I will post that album.

Day One: An Introduction

Hi! My Name is Matt I am a music geek that lives in Connecticut. I like all types of music and this blog is about that subject. I won't rant about what is going on in my culture around me, but I will talk about albums that you the person reading this should listen to. The first one is by far the album that changed my life. Like many others, I am sure the album artwork says it all as well. In The Court of the Crimson King. Myself I was shown this album in the younger days of my youth. The artwork just screamed, "listen to me" I so did and opened a world of music that I love and continue to discover. For everyone! Enjoy! This what describes me... Matt. This is one thing in many that describes me as a person who loves music, art, books and film. Along with this first album introduction to myself. I hope that you the reader will see my updates on other albums you should be listening to.




As far as the album in my first post I would love to describe it to you. There are only five songs on this album. This album is about 44 minutes in length. This is just enough time to keep your attention and most of all those 44 minutes are the best 44 minutes you will ever here. Not only did this grab my attention it choked me in to believing that all music was this great. I was stupid enough to think that this what I should listen to all the time from the opening part that is actually a mellotron warming up to the odd guitar sounds mixed with saxophone, drums, bass and vocals that will take the flesh off your face. The rapid passages that you here on the first song are amazing and were so far from their time that on King Crimson could do this with such skill. Bill Bruford who was in the band later on said that he was "scared to death...this was the best band in the world" Bill was in Yes, a band that was good, but in this moment not great. King Crimson opened up for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park in the summer of 1969. The crowd had no idea what to make of them. The next song is a very quiet song and The delicate vocal harmonies and the achingly poignant flute solo and melodic counterpoint remain unmatched on an emotive level. The surreal and opaque lyrics are likewise an insight to Sinfield's masterful wordplay, which graced their next three releases. The next song is the last one on the first side of the LP. Fripp with his acoustic and electric guitar overdubs and Giles drumming and the Mellotron makes this one of the most amazing songs to end a side of a record. Side two opens with a piece called Moonchild. Moonchild is an eerie love song that is creepy, bordering on uncomfortable. The melody is agile and ageless, while the instrumentation wafts like the wind through bare trees. The concluding song on side two is the last one on the album. The title song is an 9.22 song that just gives the listener something more then a tease. It begs you to listen to this album again. It is a song and and album that will surely kick you in the ass when your not looking. I listen to this album twice a year and still wonders if I was around then if I would have gotten the picture of what this is all about. Well sit back, and enjoy a true album of all albums and if you got good head sets, put them on and close your eyes!