PRNewswire/ -- On May 21, 1971, Motown Records released an album unique to its vast, already classic catalog: a suite of protest songs, railing, albeit softly and with an undeniable groove, about the planet's woes and the pain of war. With What's Going On, Marvin Gaye forever changed the sound and subject matter of popular music, influencing and inspiring every generation since. Formerly Motown's reigning smooth-faced, smiling, mass-appeal artist, this album was Gaye's departure for the bearded, brooding, reflective, angry artist he would become. His first self-production, the album was written, sung and solely produced by Gaye.
Forty years on, the album remains a timeless classic. Speaking boldly and passionately about social issues on the street unlike any other album before, What's Going On provided a soundtrack to life in America—and still does. It was a smash from the start and it's still one of Rolling Stone magazine's top ten Greatest Albums of All Time. Two songs from this album are in the Grammy® Hall of Fame, which honors the most important recordings in history.
In celebration of the 40th anniversary, Motown/UMe proudly announces the release of What's Going On – Super Deluxe Edition, on May 17, 2011. This new Super Deluxe Edition includes two CDs and one vinyl LP, 14 unreleased tracks, copious rarities, all complemented by an oversized booklet with two essays and rare photos from the original cover shoot. Inside as well is a reproduction of the album graphics, which showcased, for the first time at Motown, the song's lyrics—and identified the musicians.
Leading off this lovingly produced, double-gatefold 12x12 package is a newly remastered version of the original album, which delivers a deeper, warmer sound than in previous reissues. Added to the album on Disc 1 are several outtakes from sessions that led up to the recording of the LP—the original mix of the title song Marvin presented to Motown's legendary Quality Control meeting, where it was summarily rejected; and song demos which show Marvin wrestling with the rejection—as well as the album's three mono single releases, each of which reached No. 1 R&B and Top 10 pop: "What's Going On" (in a very different mix than the LP), "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" and "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," plus their B-sides, of which two are alternate takes from the familiar LP versions.
Disc 2 of What's Going On – Super Deluxe Edition is a document of the album's aftermath, when Marvin Gaye, reluctant to tour and shy about becoming the "spokesman of his generation," holed up in Motown's Studio B in Detroit with like-minded musicians—among them the young guitarists Ray Parker Jr. and Wah Wah Watson, and the 20-year-old bassist Michael Henderson, fresh from a Miles Davis tour—and simply jammed over several days. These tracks, mostly instrumental, are as brooding and funky as the What's Going On album cover. The rest of the disc includes Gaye's final sessions in Detroit; among the few tunes he recorded was a sequel of sorts to the album, the politically tinged non-LP single "You're The Man," which hit the R&B top 10 in spring 1972. Also included are two rare alternate takes of the song.
Capping this special release is the first ever 12-inch vinyl LP of the "Detroit Mix" of What's Going On, the original, darker mix of the entire album, left behind when Gaye decided to finish the overdubs in Los Angeles.
Inside is an LP-sized booklet with rare photos from the sessions, the original lyrics, detailed recording annotations and two essays: one by Gaye biographer David Ritz describing the "Why" Marvin Gaye created his first-ever self-produced album, and another detailing the "How" by Ben Edmonds, author of What's Going On: Marvin Gaye and The Last Days Of The Motown Sound.
The anniversary will also be marked on stage this summer when Rickey Minor, Stevie Wonder and Friends (including special guest Janelle Monae) perform a July 24 Hollywood Bowl concert concluding with a tribute to What's Going On. In May of next year, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the National Symphony Orchestra with John Legend and The Roots will collaborate for a special What's Going On concert to note the 40th anniversary of Gaye's legendary performance at that venue.
SOURCE Universal Music Enterprises
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
New Vinyl Record and Music Releases - April 12, 2011
Finally a fantastic week for new music, from the indie bands to the classic artists, remasters and reissues on CD and vinyl. I especially like new albums by Paul Simon (So Beautiful Or So What), The Feelies (Here Before), Pand Bear (Tomboy), TV on the Radio (Nine Types of Light ) and Elbow (Build a Rocket Boys!), just to name a few.
Vinyl reissues are plentiful this week including Whiskeytown (Pneumonia), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), Nick Lowe (Labour of Lust), Booker T. and the M.G.'s (The Best of Booker T. and the M.G.'s), two from My Morning Jacket (Evil Urges and It Still Moves), three reissues from the Kinks, Jeff Buckley (Grace) and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue), just to name a few.
Drumroll.....
a-ha - Ending on a High Note: Final Concert (3 CDs)
A Lull - Confetti
Agnes Obel - Philharmonics
Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplanes
Art of Noise - Into Battle With the Art of Noise (remastered)
Atmosphere - The Family Sign
Autechre - EPs 1991-2002
Baby Teardrops - X Is for Love
Bass Drum of Death - GB City
Bearsuit - The Phantom Forest
Beat Connection - Surf Noir (EP)
Bell X1 - Bloodless Coup
Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues
Big Country - Fields of Fire: Ultimate Collection
Billy C. Farlow - You Better Run
Black Devil Disco Club - Circus
Blaqstarr - Blaqstarr: The Mixtape
Blodwyn Pig, Mick Abraham's - All Said & Done (2 CDs)
Bob Dylan - Live at Brandeis University 1963
Booker T. and the M.G.'s - The Best of Booker T. and the M.G.'s (reissue)(vinyl)
Brett Dennen - Loverboy
Cameron McGill & What Army - Is a Beast
Cass McCombs - Wit’s End
Conrad Schnitzler - Ballet Statique (reissue)(vinyl)
Contours - Dance With The Contours
Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion
Current 93 - Honeysuckle Aeons
D. Charles Speer & The Helix - Leaving the Commonwealth
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Horse Power EP / My Love Is (vinyl)
Dana Fuchs - Love to Beg
Dave Matthews Band - Live at Wrigley Field
Dead Rock West - Bright Morning Stars
Del McCoury & the Preservation Hall Jazz Band - American Legacies
Dickie Landry - Fifteen Saxophones
Dokken - Anthems
Dorian Concept - Her Tears Taste Like Pears (vinyl)
Ebo Taylor - Life Stories
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Ellen Allien - Dust Remixes
Emilie Simon - The Big Machine
Errors - Come Down with Me
Evan Caminiti - When California Falls Into The Sea
Federico Aubele - Berlin 13
Femi Kuti - Africa For Africa
Figurines - Figurines
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (reissue)(vinyl)
Foo Fighters - Wasted Light
Foxtails Brigade - Bread & The Bait
Fredrik - Flora
Freelance Whales/Foals - Split (vinyl)
Gable - Cute Horse
Garage a Trois - Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil
Generationals - Actor-Caster
German Measels - A German Joke is No Laughing Matter (vinyl)
Giant Sand - Center of the Universe (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - Long Stem Rant (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - Swerve (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - The Love Songs (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Gregory Isaacs - Catch / Cinema (3 CDs)
Grouper - Alien Observer
Grouper - Dream Loss
Guano Apes - Bel Air
Gypsyblood - Guestway
Hauschka - Salon des Amateurs
Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
Howe Gelb & A Band of Hypsies - Alegrias
I Was Totally Destroying It - Preludes
Indian - Guiltless
Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales
Jamaica - No Problem
James Leg - Solitary Pleasure
James Williamson - With the Careless Hearts
Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - Here We Rest
Jeff Buckley - Grace (reissue)(vinyl)
Jeniferever - Silesia
Jeremy Jay - Dream Diary (vinyl)
Jessie J - Who You Are
Jimi Hendrix - South Saturn Delta (vinyl)(2 LPs)
Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field
Joan Baez - Play Me Backwards (2 CDs)
John Oates - Mississippi Mile
Jonny - Jonny EP
Journey - Infinity (reissue) (vinyl)
k.d. Lang - k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang: Sing It Loud
LAKE - Giving & Receiving
Last Chance To Reason - Level 2
Laura Story - Blessings
letlive. - Fake History
Lil Daggers - Lil Daggers
Little Scream - The Golden Record
Low - C’mon
Magnetic Man - Magnetic Man
Mana - Drama y Luz
Mazes - A Thousand Heys
Meat Puppets - Lollipop (vinyl)
Metallica - S&M (vinyl)(3 LPs)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (reissue) (vinyl)
Moonlight Towers - Day Is The New Night
Mount Moriah - Mount Moriah
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (reissue)(vinyl)
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (reissue)(vinyl)
Nat King Cole - At the Sands / Welcome to the Club
Nazareth - 2xs / Sound Elixir
Nazareth - Catch / Cinema
Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust (remastered) (vinyl)
Olf Calf - Borrow A Horse
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What
Pentagram - Last Rites
Phish - Live Phish: 10/26/10 Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, NH
Ponytail - Do Whatever You Want All the Time
Quintron - Sucre Du Sauvage
Reading Rainbow - Cover The Sky
Rebirth Brass Band - Rebirth Of New Orleans
Red Fang - Murder The Mountains
Rhys Chatham - Outdoor Spell
Rilo Kiley - Take Offs & Landings (reissue)(vinyl)
Ron Pope - Whatever It Takes
Roomate - Guilty Rainbow (vinyl)
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour 74 (vinyl)
Sarah Jaffe - Ever Born Again
Sarah Vaughan - In Paris (Jazz in Paris Collection)
Shane MacGowan - Rakes, Rats, Pricks, & Kicks: An Anthology (remastered)
Sheree Brown - Straight Ahead / The Music
Shine 2009 - Realism
Skull Tape - The Invisible Hand and the Descent of Man
Sonny & the Sunsets - Hit After Hit
Stefan Grossman - Live! (2 CDs)
Steve Miller Band - Wide River
Summon The Crows - One More For the Gallows
TV Ghost - Mass Dream
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
The Apache Relay - American Nomad
The Belle Brigade - The Belle Brigade (vinyl)
The Bouncing Souls - Complete Control Sessions (vinyl)
The Church - Starfish (30th Anniversary Reissue)
The Feelies - Here Before
The Goldberg Sisters - The Goldberg Sisters
The Kinks - Kinda Kinks (reissue)
The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy (reissue)
The Kinks - The Kinks (reissue)
The One AM Radio - Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread
The Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up
The Sounds - Something to Die For (vinyl)
The Trews - Hope & Ruin
Thee Spivs - Taped Up (vinyl)
Thieves Like Us - Again and Again
Thursday - No Devolucion
Title Fight - Flood of '72 (vinyl)
Todd Rundgren - Todd Rundgren's Johnson
Trembling Bells - Constant Pageant
Ty Segall -Ty Rex
Ultraviolet Sound - Ultraviolet Sound
Various Artists - Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Various Artists - Scream 4 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Various Artists - Win Win (soundtrack) (vinyl)
Vessels - Helioscope
Victims - A Dissident
Vivian Girls - Share The Joy
Washington - How to Tame Lions
Weedeater - Jason... The Dragon (vinyl)
Whiskeytown - Pneumonia (reissue)(vinyl)
Wild Palm - Until Spring
Willie Nelson & Ray Price Run - That By Me One More Time (vinyl)
Winter - Into Darkness (reissue)
Yip Deceiver - Yip Deceiver
Young Widows - In And Out Of Youth And Lightness
Zeus - Permanent Scar/The Darkness (7")
Zomes - Earth Grid
Click here for New Jazz Releases
Vinyl reissues are plentiful this week including Whiskeytown (Pneumonia), Fleetwood Mac (Rumours), Nick Lowe (Labour of Lust), Booker T. and the M.G.'s (The Best of Booker T. and the M.G.'s), two from My Morning Jacket (Evil Urges and It Still Moves), three reissues from the Kinks, Jeff Buckley (Grace) and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue), just to name a few.
Drumroll.....
a-ha - Ending on a High Note: Final Concert (3 CDs)
A Lull - Confetti
Agnes Obel - Philharmonics
Alexander Tucker - Dorwytch
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Paper Airplanes
Art of Noise - Into Battle With the Art of Noise (remastered)
Atmosphere - The Family Sign
Autechre - EPs 1991-2002
Baby Teardrops - X Is for Love
Bass Drum of Death - GB City
Bearsuit - The Phantom Forest
Beat Connection - Surf Noir (EP)
Bell X1 - Bloodless Coup
Between The Buried And Me - The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues
Big Country - Fields of Fire: Ultimate Collection
Billy C. Farlow - You Better Run
Black Devil Disco Club - Circus
Blaqstarr - Blaqstarr: The Mixtape
Blodwyn Pig, Mick Abraham's - All Said & Done (2 CDs)
Bob Dylan - Live at Brandeis University 1963
Booker T. and the M.G.'s - The Best of Booker T. and the M.G.'s (reissue)(vinyl)
Brett Dennen - Loverboy
Cameron McGill & What Army - Is a Beast
Cass McCombs - Wit’s End
Conrad Schnitzler - Ballet Statique (reissue)(vinyl)
Contours - Dance With The Contours
Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion
Current 93 - Honeysuckle Aeons
D. Charles Speer & The Helix - Leaving the Commonwealth
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Horse Power EP / My Love Is (vinyl)
Dana Fuchs - Love to Beg
Dave Matthews Band - Live at Wrigley Field
Dead Rock West - Bright Morning Stars
Del McCoury & the Preservation Hall Jazz Band - American Legacies
Dickie Landry - Fifteen Saxophones
Dokken - Anthems
Dorian Concept - Her Tears Taste Like Pears (vinyl)
Ebo Taylor - Life Stories
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Ellen Allien - Dust Remixes
Emilie Simon - The Big Machine
Errors - Come Down with Me
Evan Caminiti - When California Falls Into The Sea
Federico Aubele - Berlin 13
Femi Kuti - Africa For Africa
Figurines - Figurines
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (reissue)(vinyl)
Foo Fighters - Wasted Light
Foxtails Brigade - Bread & The Bait
Fredrik - Flora
Freelance Whales/Foals - Split (vinyl)
Gable - Cute Horse
Garage a Trois - Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil
Generationals - Actor-Caster
German Measels - A German Joke is No Laughing Matter (vinyl)
Giant Sand - Center of the Universe (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - Long Stem Rant (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - Swerve (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Giant Sand - The Love Songs (25th Anniversary Edition) (reissue)
Gregory Isaacs - Catch / Cinema (3 CDs)
Grouper - Alien Observer
Grouper - Dream Loss
Guano Apes - Bel Air
Gypsyblood - Guestway
Hauschka - Salon des Amateurs
Holy Ghost! - Holy Ghost!
Howe Gelb & A Band of Hypsies - Alegrias
I Was Totally Destroying It - Preludes
Indian - Guiltless
Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales
Jamaica - No Problem
James Leg - Solitary Pleasure
James Williamson - With the Careless Hearts
Jamie Woon - Mirrorwriting
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit - Here We Rest
Jeff Buckley - Grace (reissue)(vinyl)
Jeniferever - Silesia
Jeremy Jay - Dream Diary (vinyl)
Jessie J - Who You Are
Jimi Hendrix - South Saturn Delta (vinyl)(2 LPs)
Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field
Joan Baez - Play Me Backwards (2 CDs)
John Oates - Mississippi Mile
Jonny - Jonny EP
Journey - Infinity (reissue) (vinyl)
k.d. Lang - k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang: Sing It Loud
LAKE - Giving & Receiving
Last Chance To Reason - Level 2
Laura Story - Blessings
letlive. - Fake History
Lil Daggers - Lil Daggers
Little Scream - The Golden Record
Low - C’mon
Magnetic Man - Magnetic Man
Mana - Drama y Luz
Mazes - A Thousand Heys
Meat Puppets - Lollipop (vinyl)
Metallica - S&M (vinyl)(3 LPs)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (reissue) (vinyl)
Moonlight Towers - Day Is The New Night
Mount Moriah - Mount Moriah
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (reissue)(vinyl)
My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves (reissue)(vinyl)
Nat King Cole - At the Sands / Welcome to the Club
Nazareth - 2xs / Sound Elixir
Nazareth - Catch / Cinema
Nick Lowe - Labour of Lust (remastered) (vinyl)
Olf Calf - Borrow A Horse
Panda Bear - Tomboy
Paul Simon - So Beautiful Or So What
Pentagram - Last Rites
Phish - Live Phish: 10/26/10 Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, NH
Ponytail - Do Whatever You Want All the Time
Quintron - Sucre Du Sauvage
Reading Rainbow - Cover The Sky
Rebirth Brass Band - Rebirth Of New Orleans
Red Fang - Murder The Mountains
Rhys Chatham - Outdoor Spell
Rilo Kiley - Take Offs & Landings (reissue)(vinyl)
Ron Pope - Whatever It Takes
Roomate - Guilty Rainbow (vinyl)
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour 74 (vinyl)
Sarah Jaffe - Ever Born Again
Sarah Vaughan - In Paris (Jazz in Paris Collection)
Shane MacGowan - Rakes, Rats, Pricks, & Kicks: An Anthology (remastered)
Sheree Brown - Straight Ahead / The Music
Shine 2009 - Realism
Skull Tape - The Invisible Hand and the Descent of Man
Sonny & the Sunsets - Hit After Hit
Stefan Grossman - Live! (2 CDs)
Steve Miller Band - Wide River
Summon The Crows - One More For the Gallows
TV Ghost - Mass Dream
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
The Apache Relay - American Nomad
The Belle Brigade - The Belle Brigade (vinyl)
The Bouncing Souls - Complete Control Sessions (vinyl)
The Church - Starfish (30th Anniversary Reissue)
The Feelies - Here Before
The Goldberg Sisters - The Goldberg Sisters
The Kinks - Kinda Kinks (reissue)
The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy (reissue)
The Kinks - The Kinks (reissue)
The One AM Radio - Heaven Is Attached By A Slender Thread
The Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up
The Sounds - Something to Die For (vinyl)
The Trews - Hope & Ruin
Thee Spivs - Taped Up (vinyl)
Thieves Like Us - Again and Again
Thursday - No Devolucion
Title Fight - Flood of '72 (vinyl)
Todd Rundgren - Todd Rundgren's Johnson
Trembling Bells - Constant Pageant
Ty Segall -Ty Rex
Ultraviolet Sound - Ultraviolet Sound
Various Artists - Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Various Artists - Scream 4 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Various Artists - Win Win (soundtrack) (vinyl)
Vessels - Helioscope
Victims - A Dissident
Vivian Girls - Share The Joy
Washington - How to Tame Lions
Weedeater - Jason... The Dragon (vinyl)
Whiskeytown - Pneumonia (reissue)(vinyl)
Wild Palm - Until Spring
Willie Nelson & Ray Price Run - That By Me One More Time (vinyl)
Winter - Into Darkness (reissue)
Yip Deceiver - Yip Deceiver
Young Widows - In And Out Of Youth And Lightness
Zeus - Permanent Scar/The Darkness (7")
Zomes - Earth Grid
Click here for New Jazz Releases
Remember, if you are a record company and have new releases or know of any I missed (especially vinyl), please email me and I will add your music to the list. I also do reviews of new vinyl, email me for more information.
Have new music for the list? Email me at rbenson30@wi.rr.com
Vinyl Record News & Music Notes
yes, unless you live under a rock you know that RSD is quickly approaching and if you are interested in reading more about the plethra of new vinyl being made available, thevinyldistrict.com has you covered!
Record Store Day 2011 – Comprehensive Release Guide Part 2
A Comprehensive list of all the releases for Record Store Day 2011 – Part 2 features the second HALF of the RSD2011 exclusive releases.
Go to thevinyldistrict.com
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Regina Spektor Announces Special Record Store Day Release
NYC's own, Regina Spektor has always been an ardent supporter of indie record stores. In fact, in recent years, she has graced the now-annual event, Record Store Day, the big day out in celebration and support of independent music retailers, with in-store appearances, special product, and kind, public words for the event. This year, Spektor goes all out with a number of hearty nods to the indies, sending out love in all formats.
The artist says, "I'm very glad to take part in Record Store Day again. It's so important to have a local place where you can go and discover new and older music. It's great to be surrounded by knowledgeable people who can guide you and help you through your discoveries; people who can put things into a context, care about the history of recorded music, and want to share their experience. Go and meet them!"
First off, Spektor is slated to do a live in-store performance at Other Music in NYC on Record Store Day 2011. The much-loved and frequented retailer has had a long history with Spektor and is thrilled to have her:
Read more at pluginmusic.com
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Record Store Day Final Countdown Is On With Cults, Deerhoof, Death Cab, Fleet Foxes, Matt & Kim
With less than a week to go, the final countdown to Record Store Day 2011 is on. Cults, Death Cab for Cutie, Deerhoof, The Dodos, Fleet Foxes, Matt & Kim, Midlake, Peter Bjorn & John, Regina Spektor, Will Self, and Xiu Xiu are only a handful of the indie artists that will be releasing exclusive and limited edition pieces this year at participating stores on Record Store Day.
Read more at pluginmusic.com
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vinyl stores in the chicago area help celebrate vinyl!
A Day for the Records
More than 700 stores around the country participate in the April 16 vinyl-loving holiday
By J.V. Siegel
Those who thought, and not imprudently, that the sun had set on vinyl recordings have been proven wrong.
Record Store Day 2011, taking place on April 16, is Christmas for the many fans of vinyl that still remain loyal.
Officially established in 2007 by employees of independent record stores, Record Store Day is celebrated globally, and has been done so since 2008, when it received immediate acclaim from recording artists internationally.
Since then, the popularity of the day has only grown. This year, more than 700 independently owned record stores in the United States alone will be participating.
Read more at depauliaonline.com
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clashmusic.com discusses a special pic disc release
Jamie Woon Prepares Picture Disc
Another Record Store Day item
by Robin Murray
Jamie Woon has confirmed plans for a picture disc edition of new single 'Lady Luck'.
Ah, the picture disc. Back in the day, the picture disc was a collectable alternative to boring old black vinyl. Instead, bands - and producers, lest we forget - would press pictures onto the wax, possibly of themselves but the designs could become intricate.
Seeming to fall out of fashion, the picture disc has enjoyed a revival alongside the rise in vinyl sales. Now Jamie Woon has organised a special one off release, containing an intricate design pressed onto 12 inch.
Read more at clashmusic.com
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lovely story about one's passion for vinyl and why it is important!
My love letter to Welsh record shops
Bethan Elfyn
I've just read a strange article by Rick Martin, an NME hack, essentially berating Record Store Day and our sentimentality for our local independent record store.
Here's the first section of his argument: "If physical singles are finally dying out for good, then don't expect me to send any flowers to the funeral. I don't care about Record Store Day. I don't even care if I never own a physical CD or vinyl record ever again. I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records I'd paid for before becoming a music hack. I don't miss them.
"And here's why: if you're seriously bothered about the way your tunes are delivered to you, you're focusing on totally the wrong aspect of what makes music great.
"You don't need to own music to enjoy it. I don't sniff records. Buying a CD or 7" doesn't make me like a tune any more than if I'd hear it streamed on a blog - great music is great music however you hear it."
He goes on sadly to bemoan the experience at the independent record store and how it leaves you feeling a little sour.
With so many working together to support Record Store Day, and champion these shops which are struggling with the recession on top of the changing taste in music-buying public, I wanted to write my own love letter to the record shop, and what it represents to me:
Please read the rest of this compelling opinion at bbc.co.uk
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up north of our border, folks are preparing for rsd, read on:
The vinyl frontier
City outlets put their own spin on Record Store Day
By: David Sanderson
Stylus-conscious people will want to circle April 16 on their calendars.
For the fourth year in a row, the third Saturday in April has been designated Record Store Day — an internationally recognized 24-hour period that celebrates independent music stores, particularly those that sell good, old-fashioned vinyl. (This year, Ozzy Osbourne will serve as the event's official ambassador. Good luck understanding the opening ceremonies.)
More than 1,500 stores worldwide, including nine in Winnipeg, are expected to take part in Record Store Day 2011. "This will be the third time we're involved," says Dave Wright, owner of Planet of Sound, at 1109 Henderson Hwy. "Every store does their own thing; our first year, a local musician did an in-store (concert). Last year was nice out, so (folk-rock artist) Jamie Rumley played on the sidewalk, outside the store.
"But basically it's just an excuse for music fans to come together."
Read the rest at winnipegfreepress.com
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this from our friends at vintagevinylnews.com
The Letters of John Lennon to Be Published in 2012
A new book containing the letters of John Lennon has been scheduled for publication, but not for another 18 months.
The LA Times reports that Yoko Ono and official Beatles biographer Hunter Davies have compiled Lennon’s letters, postcards and drawings, sent to all manner of people.
Read more at vintagevinylnews.com
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Three New Pieces of Vinyl from Immune Recordings
Erik Keldsen’s Immune Recordings has never released a mediocre record, so with an update always comes excitement. The first of three new offerings is the Record Store Day split 7″ between Steve Gunn and Ilyas Ahmed. Gunn’s raga-tinged folk and Ahmed’s gorgeous “gone” experimentalism should be familiar to readers, but if not, investigate immediately.
read more at omgvinyl.com
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Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Deep Purple Members Unite For Charity
There are supergroups and then there's WHOCARES, a band formed for charity by Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain, Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord, and Finnish guitarist Linde Lindstrom. WHOCARES are planning to release their debut songs on May 6th. The project is the brainchild of Iommi and Gillan, who invited their A-list hard rock friends to participate in their charitable vision.
Read the rest at noisecreep.com
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interesting take on hugh laurie's new record from the irishtimes:
White guy Laurie's debut album facing in to some mean dog blues
A CLARIFICATION from actor Hugh Laurie: “I was not born in Alabama in the 1890s. I’ve never eaten grits, cropped a share, or ridden a boxcar. No gypsy woman said anything to my mother when I was born and there’s no hellhound on my trail, as far as I can judge. Let this record show that I am a white, middle-class Englishman, openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American south.”
Such hand-wringing could only come from a white, privileged, English graduate of Eton and Oxford (all of which Laurie is), but there are wider issues at work concerning musical fundamentalism. Laurie’s Let Them Talk , due out next month, is an album of blues covers, and already the “How Dare You” brigade are flinging pejoratives and dragging up wretched old arguments about “provenance” and “authenticity”.
Laurie is one of the most- watched actors in the world thanks to his TV series House . When you’ve that big a profile you can ring up any label you want, say “I want to do this”, and a stretch limo will be outside your door before you hang up. Hardly his fault.
Read the rest at irishtimes.com
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very interesting article from the twin cities, with local musicians chiming in, worth the read:
What was your first album? We asked. Here's what local music types said.
By Ross Raihala
Do you remember the first time?
If you're a music lover, you probably do. The first time you were so moved by an artist or a song, you had to make it your very first record purchase. The first time you spent your own money to buy that album. The first time you got it home, unwrapped it, put it on and listened to each song, all the while studying the cover art and liner notes. The first time you fell in love with that sweet, sweet sound.
It's an experience that just isn't the same in what has become a point-and-click world, but that experience — buying music recorded on physical media — is one that will be celebrated Saturday during the fifth annual Record Store Day. The national event celebrates all aspects of records and independent record stores, with in-store shows and hundreds of exclusive, limited-edition releases. Most Twin Cities record shops, including Electric Fetus, Cheapo, Fifth Element and Down in the Valley, will participate.
Read more twincities.com
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Album cover art for Nordic power/thrash metal band ARCTIRIS
ARCTIRIS is a Power/Thrash metal band formed in November of 2010 in Beijing, China. The band members comprise of Danish front man Eemil (Guitar & Vocals), Marcel (Drums) and Ury (Keyboard/Backing Vocals). The band was originally named "Fenris" however, due to copyright issues with the name, the name was changed to Arctiris.
The bands musical style derives from renowed power metal act's such as Sonata Arctica, Avantasia, Rhapsody Of Fire, Helloween, Dragonforce & Stratovarius they are however also influenced by Thrash bands such as Megadeth, Metallica & Annihalator. They have however developed their own sound by combinig power metal themes such as fast keyboard melodies and gallop rhythms with thrash styled riffs & Solo's.
already in my top ten album covers for 2011!
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a lovely story about one's love for the stones (among others)
Best-selling crime writer Ian Rankin reveals his love for The Rolling Stones
WHEN I first heard The Rolling Stones, I hated them - the album was Let It Bleed.
It belonged to my sister's boyfriend. He had paid £1 19s 11d (just under £2) for it at a record shop in Kirkcaldy.
It came with a poster and the sleeve was interesting. I'd no idea who Delia Smith was but she'd done a good job of that cake.
I was a bit of a poster fanatic - my tiny bedroom was plastered with them, including the ceiling.
Read the rest at dailyrecord.co.uk
----------------
CHICAGO ¡EXITOS! Set For Release
Known for their original and innovative music style, the world famous rock group, CHICAGO, is at it again. Chicago and manager Peter Schivarelli are executive producers on a new and exciting Latin music project of 12 of their greatest hits called Chicago ¡Exitos!.
They have hired New York producer and arranger John Van Eps, who in turn, gathered the best Latin arrangers, musicians and singers that he could find, calling them “The New York Latin All-Stars featuring vocalist Eddie Ganz.”
Just as Chicago combined rock, jazz, blues and classical on their original recordings, the “NYLAS” have created amazing Latin style versions of Chicago's hits, including “Make Me Smile,” “25 Or 6 To 4,” “Saturday In The Park,” “Another Rainy Day In New York City,” “Colour My World” and many other beloved Chicago hits.
Eddie Ganz translated the English lyrics to Spanish, and the horns were arranged and adapted by Jeff Holmes. Some of the Latin music styles featured on the record are Latin Pop, Bomba, Afro, Songo, Cha Cha, Mozambique, Joropo, Mambo, Merengue and Dancon.
Said Chicago band member Lee Loughnane, "Knowing that we would not be able to accurately represent all the intricacies of the various Latin styles by arranging and performing the songs ourselves, we thought it best to put the project in the hands of musicians who work in the Latin genre. We hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as we do."
Robert Lamm added, "Producer Van Eps told me that all the musicians, their families and friends were thrilled to hear these familiar and well-loved Chicago songs transformed in such a unique way."
Short samples of some of the songs can be found on Chicago's website: http://www.chicagotheband.com/
If you are real interested in hearing more, check out the undercover.fm interview HERE
----------------
our friends in new zealand know about vinyl!
Why vinyl records are better
Imogen Crispe
A Mamaku man says vinyl records are still worth buying - they have a better sound and bring back nostalgia.
Craig Roberts bought three records at the Rotorua Record Fair at Ngongotaha Hall yesterday. He said he had recently got back into listening to vinyl, buying a new record player after finding some old LPs he had in the attic.
"I just fancied listening to them again."
Read the rest at rotoruadailypost.co.nz
----------------
contactmusic.com is reporting:
Stars To Cover McCartney Songs For Tribute Album
Legendary rock stars including Kiss, Billy Joel, and The Cure are reportedly set to contribute versions of songs by Sir Paul McCartney for a new covers album.
Read the story at contactmusic.com
----------------
have any talent for album cover art?
Todd Rundgren Album Cover Art Contest
Showcase your artistic ingenuity and let your creativity flow by creating the cover of Todd Rundgren’s forthcoming album [re] Production. Send us your most inspired design for a chance to be featured as either the album cover or in the physical and/or digital booklet
check it out at myrecordfantasy.com
----------------
interesting post on craigslist:
Looking for Partners who know about Vinyl Record Collecting (Somerset County)
cnj.craigslist.org
----------------
and in music history for today:
The SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America) was founded in 1936.
James Brown debuts on the R&B charts in 1956 with "Please, Please, Please."
In 1961, Bob Dylan played his first live gig in New York City at Gerde’s Folk City, opening for John Lee Hooker.
In 1964, The Beatles set a new chart record with 14 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from “Can’t Buy Me Love” at #1 to “Love Me Do” at #81.
In 1965, The New Musical Express, the most important music trade paper in Britain, hosted a concert at London's Wembley Empire Pool, featuring The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, The Seekers, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Animals, The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues, Them, Cilla Black and Donovan. wow, what a line up!!!
Frank Sinatra recorded the immortal cut "Strangers in the Night" in 1966.
Big Brother & the Holding Company made their national TV debut on ABC's "Hollywood Palace" in 1968.
In 1981, Hall & Oates started a three-week run at #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Kiss on My List,” the duo’s second American chart-topper.
R.E.M.'s first album, "Murmur", was released in 1983.
Guns N’ Roses shot the video for their song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” in a ballroom in Huntington Beach, CA in 1988.
In 1994, Oasis released their first single, “Supersonic,” which peaked at #31 on the U.K. charts.
In 2006, June Pointer, the youngest of the four Pointer Sisters who went from teenage Gospel singers to the top of the Pop charts with such hits as "Fire", "Slow Hand" and "I'm So Excited", died of cancer at the age of 52.
celebrating birthdays today include Lisa Stansfield (1966), Joss Stone (1987) & Nigel Pulsford of Bush (1965)
Top 5 eBay Vinyl Record Sales - Week Ending 04/09/2011
A one off factory floor indulgence of Elvis's 1977 "Moody Blue", in which a floor worker decided to make himself a splash copy, gets the #1 spot this week. Another Warhol cover makes the list. This one from a CBS Radio Broadcast record about the horror of crime in the United States in 1961. And the rare Apple unreleased Delaney and Bonnie record makes get on this week's Top 5.
1. LP - Elvis Presley "Moody Blue" Splash Purple Vinyl RCA - $5,299.99
2. LP - Hailu Mergia & The Walis Band "Ethiopian Instrumentals" Kaifa Greek Pressing - $3,000.00
3. LP - CBS Radio Broadcast "The Nation's Nightmare" Andy Warhol Cover - $2,686.00
4. LP - Delaney and Bonnie "The Original Delany and Bonnie" Apple unreleased - $2,560.00
5. 45 - Ricky Hodges "It Happened Too Fast" / "Love In It's Taking" DeBrossard - $2,403.55
More on this week's top 5 on Vinyl Record Talk, Tuesday 8:00PM Eastern / 5:00PM Pacific on Radio Dentata.
1. LP - Elvis Presley "Moody Blue" Splash Purple Vinyl RCA - $5,299.99
2. LP - Hailu Mergia & The Walis Band "Ethiopian Instrumentals" Kaifa Greek Pressing - $3,000.00
3. LP - CBS Radio Broadcast "The Nation's Nightmare" Andy Warhol Cover - $2,686.00
4. LP - Delaney and Bonnie "The Original Delany and Bonnie" Apple unreleased - $2,560.00
5. 45 - Ricky Hodges "It Happened Too Fast" / "Love In It's Taking" DeBrossard - $2,403.55
More on this week's top 5 on Vinyl Record Talk, Tuesday 8:00PM Eastern / 5:00PM Pacific on Radio Dentata.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Michael Fremer Album Review
The Carnegie Hall Concert, June 18, 1971
(reissue)
Carole King
Ode/Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 2067 Hybrid SACD
Produced by: Lou Adler
Engineered by: Hank Cicalo
Mixed by: Hank Cicalo
Mastered by: Shawn R. Britton (assisted by Rob LoVerde) at Mobile Fidelity Sound La
MUSIC
SOUND
Ear Popping Time Capsule From Mobile Fidelity
by Michael Fremer
April 01, 2011
By 1971 Carole King had made the transition from housewife/Brill Building songwriting genius to singer/songwriter performer.
Footage of her working out a song with her then husband Gerry Goffin in a Brill Building cubicle shows a scrinched-eyed, painfully shy young woman banging out on the piano a catchy tune while attempting to "sing" the melody in a voice literally wracked with pain.
It was all in her head back then, but needed someone else's body to express itself fully.
Jump cut a few years to 1971 and there she was alone on the Carnegie Hall stage playing mostly solo to a full house, attracted there not by covers of LIttle Eva's "The Loco-motion" or The Shirelles' hit "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," (though she does sing it near the end of the concert) but by King's solo break-out album Tapestry.
She was not yet 30 years old.
King opens nervously with the punch line to the well-worn musician's riddle How do you get to Carnegie Hall? "Practice!"
No one in the audience gets the joke, but then in 1971 the "hipgeoisie" were very serious and smug folks so its not surprising that no one in the audience seemed to get the joke, or perhaps the ones who did were afraid to laugh.
In any case, King gets down to business with "I Feel the Earth Move" and it's obvious by the way she attacks the tune that she's fully made the transition from back room songwriter to concert stage performer, despite not possessing a beautiful set of pipes. It doesn't matter. "You're as beautiful as you feel," as King sings it and means it when she gets to "Beautiful" fourteen songs in.
Whatever inhibitions King had during her suburban housewife days in New Jersey seem to have been shed, though she accepts the audience's appreciative applause with meek, barely audible Jewish-guilt laden "thank yous."
When you hear her sing the now dated "Carry Your Load" the unmistakable influence of Laura Nyro will immediately strike you. Upon completing the song, she introduces "No Easy Way Down" by referencing Lyra Nyro, among others, who had then covered it. No doubt Laura Nyro heavily influenced King's break out from writer to performer.
Charles Lackey on bass and guitarist Danny Kortchmar join King after a few opening solo performances and wherever Kootch went in those days, James Taylor wasn't far behind, or ahead. After finishing "Beautiful" King momentarily disappears and brings back with her James Taylor.
The place erupts as by then Taylor was a superstar and had a hit with King's composition "You've Got a Friend," which they perform together along with "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "Up on the Roof" among others, accompanied by a small string section that, of course, sounds completely at home in Carnegie Hall.
The recording by Hank Cicalo is superb. It captures just enough of the hall sound to bring you to the concert, yet the perspective is sufficiently close to produce the feeling that you've got the best seats in the house. If the reflective hall doesn't sound a bit hard, your system is too soft!
This is pure live concert music making of the highest order, recorded to perfection. A gem of a time capsule and considering the price of a concert ticket today, this SACD is of course a bargain. The double LP will arrive soon.
Thanks to Michael over at www.musicangle.com for the exclusive rights to reprint this material. Stop by MusicAngle.com for more reviews and features.
©2011 MusicAngle.com & Michael Fremer - - All rights reserved
Reprinted by Permission
Vinyl Record News & Music Notes
got an email from Lisa Hix, Associate Editor over at Collectors Weekly with a story of interest, be sure to stop by their site for more collectible news features!
Lost and Found: John Lennon Granny Glasses
Today’s guest blogger is Helen Hall, an expert in entertainment memorabilia and the director of Dig Gallery in London.
You have no idea how many pairs of John Lennon “Granny” glasses I researched when I was the Head of Entertainment Memorabilia at Christie’s in London. Most of them could be dismissed fairly quickly—the prescription was wrong or the provenance was not strong enough. But every so often, a pair came along that made me stop and think.
Round Granny glasses were so closely associated with Lennon’s look that they have become his trademark, the image perpetuated by Lennon—whenever he drew a caricature of himself, it was always the round glasses and long hair. Not surprising, then, that a pair of Lennon’s trademark glasses are highly sought after by Beatles and John Lennon collectors, and that any pair offered should be subject to great in-depth research.
I was lucky enough to be approached with a pair of Lennon’s glasses in 2008. They turned out to be fully authentic.......
Read the rest at Collectors Weekly
---------------------
rollingstone.com has this story
Rolling Stones Cover Bob Dylan with Original Bassist Bill Wyman
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reportedly cut their parts in different studios
Read the story at rollingstone.com
---------------------
Warhol bought for $1,600 could fetch $30 million
(Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait purchased in 1963 for $1,600 on an installment plan is poised to fetch $30 million or more when it hits the auction block at Christie's in May.
Read the story at reuters.com
---------------------
Jack White Q&A: He talks to EW about life after the White Stripes, becoming a mogul (or not), and more
by Leah Greenblatt
With the White Stripes officially retired, Jack White could spend his days having cocktails on his tropical lanai if he wanted to. But he is, famously, not that kind of guy.
Instead, he’s running a musical empire in his adopted hometown of Nashville, keeping his hands in two well-established bands (Raconteurs and the Dead Weather), and taking his Rolling Record Store, which he debuted at this year’s SXSW, on the road—while also raising a family and proselytizing for vinyl nearly full-time.
Read the rest of the interview at music-mix.ew.com
---------------------
this from thepunksite.com:
Face To Face / Rise Against Split Confirmed & Pre-Order
Nashville-based Folsom Records – a new vinyl label launched by Vagrant Records founder Rich Egan and Face To Face‘s Trever Keith – have announced that their first release will be a split 7” from Rise Against and Face to Face. The 7” sees them covering each other’s songs. Rise Against covers “Blind“ from Face To Face‘s classic self-titled album, and Face To Face covers “The Good Left Undone“ from Sufferer and the Witness.
The seven inch is now available for preorder in limited edition colors.
500 white vinyl - 1000 oxblood vinyl - 1500 yellow vinyl -2000 clear vinyl
The new Rise Against album, Endgame, is in stores now while the new Face to Face album, Laugh Now, Laugh Later will hit stores May 17th on AntagonistRecords.
---------------------
Steve Earle to Release Limited Edition Record Store Day 7" Single
Steve Earle will release a limited edition 7 " single in celebration of Record Store Day on Saturday, April 16th. The A-Side is Earle's version of the Hank Williams song that is the title of both Earle's new studio album and debut novel, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive.
The song was the last single released during Hank Williams' lifetime in December of 1952. The B-Side is Earle's celebrated original "This City" which has garnered both Emmy and Grammy Award nominations as it was written for HBO's Original Series Treme, in which Earle appears as a cast member. "This City" also closes Earle's T Bone Burnett-produced new album that will be released by New West Records on April 26th. The 7" single is a hand-numbered edition of 2,600 copies on translucent red vinyl with black swirl. The cover of "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" will be available digitally as a bonus track, and is exclusive in physical form to this 7 inch release.
---------------------
more news from jack white and company:
Third Man Records Plan New White Stripes Live Album, Single & DVD
Third Man Records has announced a whole plethora of White Stripes releases as the eighth instalment of their subscription service The Vault.
i'll let mr white explain the details:
You want the White Stripes. We get it. So for our upcoming Vault package we’re excited to present our fans with peeks at the White Stripes from three decidedly different eras of the band.
First off, we’re pleased to offer Live in Mississippi a recording of the White Stripes’ final live concert from July 31st, 2007 in Southaven, Mississippi. Presented in crystalline audio quality and spread across 2 LP’s pressed on 180-gram vinyl, this recording is (arguably) the band at the top of their game. With the local geography looming large on their minds, the set list is decidedly heavy on the blues and features covers of songs by Robert Johnson, Son House and Leadbelly. The rest of the set includes songs from all six of the White Stripes’ studio albums and the show is offered in its entirety.
Our 7” this quarter features some of the earliest recordings the White Stripes ever made. The a-side is a haunting, stark version of “Signed DC” originally done by the band Love on their self-titled debut record from 1966. The flipside is a breathtaking rendition of the Otis Redding classic “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” Recorded in Detroit in September of 1997 a mere two months after the Stripes’ live debut, this single provides a heretofore unheard era of the band. Although their debut single “Let’s Shake Hands” wouldn’t be released for another eight months, this recording shows how fully-formed the general idea, aesthetic and approach of the White Stripes was from the very start.
The final component of this collection is a DVD entitled Under Moorhead Lights All Fargo Night. Recorded at Ralph’s Corner Bar in Moorhead, Minnesota on June 13th, 2000, this previously unseen footage captures the band immediately following the release of their sophomore album De Stijl on what was their first extended bout of touring across the United States. Performing for only a handful of people, the show is heavy on the band’s earlier material with a spirited cover of Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored” being of particular excitement and note.
Go to thirdmanrecords.com for the latest news!
---------------------
and in music history for the day:
What is believed to be the world's oldest recording was made by French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1860, when he recorded a young lady, believed by historians to be his daughter, singing "Au Clair de la Lune". The song was captured on a "phonautograph", a device that engraved sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. The event took place 17 years before Thomas Edison invented his phonograph. cool.....
In 1956, Gene Vincent recorded the classic rock ’n’ roll song “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” which went on to be a U.S. & U.K. Top 20 hit.
Percy Sledge's epic cut "When A Man Loves A Woman" was released in 1966.
In 1970, Paul McCartney announced a "temporary break with The Beatles," citing "personal differences" and adding that he will no longer record with John Lennon. Paul disapproved of Yoko Ono and of Beatles financial advisor Allen Klein. When a reporter called Lennon to comment upon McCartney's resignation, John said, "Paul hasn't left. I sacked him." A week after McCartney's announcement, he released his first solo album, spelling the end of the Beatles.
Paul McCartney released the song "My Love" in 1973.
In 1976, Phil Ochs committed suicide at the age of 35.
ABBA top the U.S. singles chart in 1977 with “Dancing Queen,” the group’s seventh U.S. Top 40 hit (and first #1) and also a U.K. #1.
In 1983, David Bowie topped the British singles chart (his fourth U.K. #1) with the title track from his latest album, Let’s Dance, featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was also Bowie’s first single to reach #1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1988, Dave Prater of Sam and Dave was killed in a car accident near Sycamore, Georgia while driving to his mother's house. He was 50 years old. The original duo had split on New Year's Eve, 1981 and Prater continued to tour as The New Sam and Dave Revue with Sam Daniels.
In 1997, Songwriter Mae Boren Axton, the mother of country singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton, and known as the “Queen Mother of Nashville,” died at age 82 after drowning in the bath at her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, after an apparent heart attack. She wrote more than 200 songs, including a co-credit on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”
rockabilly hero Carl Perkins was born in 1932 (died August 3, 1984)
Lost and Found: John Lennon Granny Glasses
Today’s guest blogger is Helen Hall, an expert in entertainment memorabilia and the director of Dig Gallery in London.
You have no idea how many pairs of John Lennon “Granny” glasses I researched when I was the Head of Entertainment Memorabilia at Christie’s in London. Most of them could be dismissed fairly quickly—the prescription was wrong or the provenance was not strong enough. But every so often, a pair came along that made me stop and think.
Round Granny glasses were so closely associated with Lennon’s look that they have become his trademark, the image perpetuated by Lennon—whenever he drew a caricature of himself, it was always the round glasses and long hair. Not surprising, then, that a pair of Lennon’s trademark glasses are highly sought after by Beatles and John Lennon collectors, and that any pair offered should be subject to great in-depth research.
I was lucky enough to be approached with a pair of Lennon’s glasses in 2008. They turned out to be fully authentic.......
Read the rest at Collectors Weekly
---------------------
rollingstone.com has this story
Rolling Stones Cover Bob Dylan with Original Bassist Bill Wyman
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reportedly cut their parts in different studios
Read the story at rollingstone.com
---------------------
Warhol bought for $1,600 could fetch $30 million
(Reuters) - An Andy Warhol self-portrait purchased in 1963 for $1,600 on an installment plan is poised to fetch $30 million or more when it hits the auction block at Christie's in May.
Read the story at reuters.com
---------------------
Jack White Q&A: He talks to EW about life after the White Stripes, becoming a mogul (or not), and more
by Leah Greenblatt
With the White Stripes officially retired, Jack White could spend his days having cocktails on his tropical lanai if he wanted to. But he is, famously, not that kind of guy.
Instead, he’s running a musical empire in his adopted hometown of Nashville, keeping his hands in two well-established bands (Raconteurs and the Dead Weather), and taking his Rolling Record Store, which he debuted at this year’s SXSW, on the road—while also raising a family and proselytizing for vinyl nearly full-time.
Read the rest of the interview at music-mix.ew.com
---------------------
this from thepunksite.com:
Face To Face / Rise Against Split Confirmed & Pre-Order
Nashville-based Folsom Records – a new vinyl label launched by Vagrant Records founder Rich Egan and Face To Face‘s Trever Keith – have announced that their first release will be a split 7” from Rise Against and Face to Face. The 7” sees them covering each other’s songs. Rise Against covers “Blind“ from Face To Face‘s classic self-titled album, and Face To Face covers “The Good Left Undone“ from Sufferer and the Witness.
The seven inch is now available for preorder in limited edition colors.
500 white vinyl - 1000 oxblood vinyl - 1500 yellow vinyl -2000 clear vinyl
The new Rise Against album, Endgame, is in stores now while the new Face to Face album, Laugh Now, Laugh Later will hit stores May 17th on AntagonistRecords.
---------------------
Steve Earle to Release Limited Edition Record Store Day 7" Single
Steve Earle will release a limited edition 7 " single in celebration of Record Store Day on Saturday, April 16th. The A-Side is Earle's version of the Hank Williams song that is the title of both Earle's new studio album and debut novel, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive.
The song was the last single released during Hank Williams' lifetime in December of 1952. The B-Side is Earle's celebrated original "This City" which has garnered both Emmy and Grammy Award nominations as it was written for HBO's Original Series Treme, in which Earle appears as a cast member. "This City" also closes Earle's T Bone Burnett-produced new album that will be released by New West Records on April 26th. The 7" single is a hand-numbered edition of 2,600 copies on translucent red vinyl with black swirl. The cover of "I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" will be available digitally as a bonus track, and is exclusive in physical form to this 7 inch release.
---------------------
more news from jack white and company:
Third Man Records Plan New White Stripes Live Album, Single & DVD
Third Man Records has announced a whole plethora of White Stripes releases as the eighth instalment of their subscription service The Vault.
i'll let mr white explain the details:
You want the White Stripes. We get it. So for our upcoming Vault package we’re excited to present our fans with peeks at the White Stripes from three decidedly different eras of the band.
First off, we’re pleased to offer Live in Mississippi a recording of the White Stripes’ final live concert from July 31st, 2007 in Southaven, Mississippi. Presented in crystalline audio quality and spread across 2 LP’s pressed on 180-gram vinyl, this recording is (arguably) the band at the top of their game. With the local geography looming large on their minds, the set list is decidedly heavy on the blues and features covers of songs by Robert Johnson, Son House and Leadbelly. The rest of the set includes songs from all six of the White Stripes’ studio albums and the show is offered in its entirety.
Our 7” this quarter features some of the earliest recordings the White Stripes ever made. The a-side is a haunting, stark version of “Signed DC” originally done by the band Love on their self-titled debut record from 1966. The flipside is a breathtaking rendition of the Otis Redding classic “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” Recorded in Detroit in September of 1997 a mere two months after the Stripes’ live debut, this single provides a heretofore unheard era of the band. Although their debut single “Let’s Shake Hands” wouldn’t be released for another eight months, this recording shows how fully-formed the general idea, aesthetic and approach of the White Stripes was from the very start.
The final component of this collection is a DVD entitled Under Moorhead Lights All Fargo Night. Recorded at Ralph’s Corner Bar in Moorhead, Minnesota on June 13th, 2000, this previously unseen footage captures the band immediately following the release of their sophomore album De Stijl on what was their first extended bout of touring across the United States. Performing for only a handful of people, the show is heavy on the band’s earlier material with a spirited cover of Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored” being of particular excitement and note.
Go to thirdmanrecords.com for the latest news!
---------------------
and in music history for the day:
What is believed to be the world's oldest recording was made by French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1860, when he recorded a young lady, believed by historians to be his daughter, singing "Au Clair de la Lune". The song was captured on a "phonautograph", a device that engraved sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp. The event took place 17 years before Thomas Edison invented his phonograph. cool.....
In 1956, Gene Vincent recorded the classic rock ’n’ roll song “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” which went on to be a U.S. & U.K. Top 20 hit.
Percy Sledge's epic cut "When A Man Loves A Woman" was released in 1966.
In 1970, Paul McCartney announced a "temporary break with The Beatles," citing "personal differences" and adding that he will no longer record with John Lennon. Paul disapproved of Yoko Ono and of Beatles financial advisor Allen Klein. When a reporter called Lennon to comment upon McCartney's resignation, John said, "Paul hasn't left. I sacked him." A week after McCartney's announcement, he released his first solo album, spelling the end of the Beatles.
Paul McCartney released the song "My Love" in 1973.
In 1976, Phil Ochs committed suicide at the age of 35.
ABBA top the U.S. singles chart in 1977 with “Dancing Queen,” the group’s seventh U.S. Top 40 hit (and first #1) and also a U.K. #1.
In 1983, David Bowie topped the British singles chart (his fourth U.K. #1) with the title track from his latest album, Let’s Dance, featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was also Bowie’s first single to reach #1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 1988, Dave Prater of Sam and Dave was killed in a car accident near Sycamore, Georgia while driving to his mother's house. He was 50 years old. The original duo had split on New Year's Eve, 1981 and Prater continued to tour as The New Sam and Dave Revue with Sam Daniels.
In 1997, Songwriter Mae Boren Axton, the mother of country singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton, and known as the “Queen Mother of Nashville,” died at age 82 after drowning in the bath at her home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, after an apparent heart attack. She wrote more than 200 songs, including a co-credit on Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”
rockabilly hero Carl Perkins was born in 1932 (died August 3, 1984)
Friday, April 8, 2011
Vinyl Record News & Music Notes
want more info on some great vinyl releases coming next saturday?
Record Store Day 2011 – Comprehensive Release Guide Part 1
check it out at thevinyldistrict.com
------------------
Emily's Army to release Don't Be A Dick
Jermy Leeuwis
Teenage pop-punk group Emily's Army is gearing up for the release of their full-length debut, Don’t Be A Dick, due June 14 on Adeline Records. Produced by Billie Joe Armstrong, the album features heartfelt teenage anthems dealing in cautionary tales, politics and the pressures of adolescence. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl.
The 14-song set was recorded and mixed in four days at Oakland’s Jingletown Recordings with the help of engineer Chris Dugan. Emily’s Army counts the rich East Bay music scene and Gilman Street amongst their influences, along with classic power pop, and garage rock.
Read more at musicremedy.com
------------------
Duran Duran Limited Vinyl Release
The Vinyl Factory are proud to present a stunning collectors edition of Duran Duran's new album 'ALL YOU NEED IS NOW' - their critically acclaimed, return to roots tour-de-force, produced by Mark Ronson. Renowned for fusing pop music with art and fashion in groundbreaking ways, Duran Duran have always been at the forefront of the art scene, and this super limited pop art masterpiece sets a new bar even by their standards.
Enlisting the superb talents of British artist Clunie Reid (Saatchi Gallery, the Tate, New Museum NY), with art direction by UK fashion magazine POP’s creative team, under the steer of fast-rising art talent Rory McCartney, the band have individually signed and numbered each edition.
Limited to only 500 copies worldwide, and available to order exclusively from The Vinyl Factory, each collectors copy comprises:
• A hand-crafted, transparent black Perspex box with clear face on outer front, providing an artwork frame that can be individually curated by each owner
• Five heavyweight 180-gram clear vinyl records pressed on the classic EMI 1400, each mastered for vinyl, with the new album pressed across two records, plus an LP of bonus tracks and two 12" remixes including the much sought-after David Lynch reworking of Girl Panic !
• Five beautifully treated bespoke record sleeves, featuring remarkable exclusive artwork on both sides by Clunie Reid
• Exclusive 36-page book with lyrics silver foiled onto black pages, housed in a gorgeous silver mirrored paper cover, each hand signed and numbered by the members of Duran Duran
• Exclusive 36-page book showcasing Clunie Reid's album artwork, with a die-cut front cover of the band's instantly recognisable D logo.
Available to pre-order now, exclusively from The Vinyl Factory
------------------
nj.com has a great story about a band no one has heard of (however, i love their music!)
Bern & The Brights to brighten Record Store Day with two Hoboken performances
By Jim Testa/For The Jersey Journal The Jersey Journal
Bern & The Brights, the delightful folk/country/chamber-pop quartet from Montclair, has a busy month ahead.
The group, fronted by singer/guitarists Bernadette Malavarca and Catherine McGowan, will celebrate Record Store Day - Saturday, April 16 – by releasing a vinyl single, with two Hoboken performances: An acoustic set at Tunes record store at 4 p.m. will be followed by an evening show at Maxwell’s. And a few weeks later, they’ll be back in the Mile Square City at the Hoboken Spring Arts & Music Festival on Sunday, May 1.
Bassist Shawn Fafara and drummer Jose Ulloa complete the lineup. The group came together in 2008 and quickly established itself as a local favorite, playing some 300 gigs since its inception and releasing two EP’s. Using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, the band has skillfully won over a sizable and loyal fan base, who are called The Light Brigade. They should be turning out in force on May 1 when Bern & The Brights play the main stage at the Spring Arts & Music Festival, alongside headliner Ian Hunter and The Baseball Project, the new side project from REM’s Peter Buck.
Read more at nj.com
------------------
Animals As Leaders Vinyl Debut
Animals As Leaders are issuing their self-titled debut album for the first time on vinyl in June. The 180-gram double-LP set, which includes the song "Wave of Babies" (previously an iTunes exclusive) as a bonus track, will feature a high-quality Stoughton gatefold jacket with enhanced album artwork that includes 3D imagery and custom AAL 3D glasses.
The set is available in three different color combinations and is limited to 1000 pieces total. There will also be a brand new, exclusive T-shirt available on its own or in a bundle with the LPs.
------------------
The Groove’s Vinyl Best Sellers 3/28-4/03/2011
1. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs
2. Tallest Man On Earth – Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird
3. Bibio – Mind Bokeh
4. The Strokes -Angles
5. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030
6. Those Darlins -Screws Get Loose
7. DeVotchka – 100 Lovers
8. Mike Watt – Hyphenated-Man
9. Obits – Moody, Standard & Poor
10. J Mascis – Several Shades Of Why
11. Pujol – Mayday 7”
12. Wagon Christ – Toomorrow
13. Nas – Illmatic
14. Sharon Van Etten – Epic
15. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
16. Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
17. Bad Brains – Black Dots
18. Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
19. Matthew Dear – Black City
20. Toro Y Moi / Cloud Nothings – I Will Talk To You / For No Reason 7” split
------------------
CONCORD MUSIC GROUP LAUNCHES STAX REMASTERS SERIES WITH REISSUES OF THREE RECORDINGS FROM THE LEGENDARY SOUL/R&B CATALOG BOOKER T. & THE MGs — 'McLEMORE AVENUE'; THE STAPLE SINGERS —' BE ALTITUDE: RESPECT YOURSELF'; JOHNNIE TAYLOR — 'TAYLORED IN SILK'
Inaugural titles to be released May 10, 2011
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, the Stax label dominated soul, R&B, gospel, and related genres with a stable of artists who have since become iconic figures in the history of American popular music. Now a part of the Concord Music Group, the Stax catalog is a treasure trove of some of the most visceral and influential recordings of the 20th century. On May 10, 2011, Concord reaches back into that deep catalog to launch Stax Remasters, a series of reissues that cast a new light on classic Stax recordings with the help of 24-bit remastering, rare bonus tracks, and new liner notes to frame the recordings in a historical context.
The first three reissues in the series are:
Booker T. & the MGs: McLemore Avenue (1970)
The Staple Singers: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972)
Johnnie Taylor: Taylored in Silk (1973)
“Stax is a very important label, not only in the history of soul music, but in the history of music in general,” says Nick Phillips, Concord’s Vice President of Catalog A&R and co-producer of the series with Chris Clough, Concord’s Manager of Catalog Development. “We have a number of amazing recordings by Stax in the catalog. This is an opportunity to revisit some of the best of these classic recordings, upgrade the sound quality, and put them in the proper historical perspective that they deserve.”
Booker T. & the MGs: McLemore Avenue
Released in January 1970, McLemore Avenue is a tribute to Abbey Road, the landmark recording released by the Beatles the prior summer. McLemore Avenue sets up an interesting cause-and-effect loop by putting an R&B spin on songs by a profoundly innovative British pop-rock band that, ironically, emerged years earlier from the most basic elements of American R&B.
McLemore Avenue was inspired by “my pure fascination and admiration of the work that [the Beatles] had done,” says keyboardist Booker T. Jones in the reissue liner notes by music historian Ashley Kahn. “I didn’t know their inner workings. I found out later. I had a picture of those guys as a perfect unit. I didn’t know that they fought, had arguments, or that they needed referees. When you listen to that music, you think it comes from a perfect union, you know?”
The tribute album “represents a fascinating and musically compelling intersection,” says Phillips. “On one hand, you can look at the strength of the Beatles’ songs, and how they’re such strong songs that they can be successfully adapted — in the right hands — to soulful instrumental versions. At the same time, it is of course a testament to Booker T. & the MGs’ creativity and soulfulness and groove. It’s not only a very interesting musical intersection, but it’s also a very deep and at the same time a very fun listen.”
Clearly, Booker T. & the MGs had had plenty of their own opportunities to flex their creative muscles in the studio, having recorded with artists like Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. “But on a record like this,” says Clough, “where all the songs were already written and it was just a matter of interpretation, it wasn’t work for them. It was an opportunity to put their spin on the songs and just have some fun.”
The bonus tracks include seven additional Beatles covers, recorded in sessions separate from those for the McLemore Avenue album. “We figured it made good sense to expand this edition by adding other tracks that Booker T. & the MGs had recorded of Beatles songs over the years,” says Phillips. “So the Stax Remasters reissue is not only an expanded edition of McLemore Avenue, it’s also a de facto ‘Booker T. & the MGs Play the Beatles’ collection.”
The Staple Singers: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself
Originally released in 1972, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself captures the celebrated family vocal group in what was essentially the third act of their career, according to music historian Rob Bowman. The Staple Singers had initially established themselves as a gospel group in the 1950s, then merged with the folk music closely tied to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and ultimately veered away from protest songs and toward what Mavis Staples termed “message music” in the early and mid-1970s.
“Obviously, there was a lot going on in America — politically and socially — around that time, and the Staple Singers took up the cause,” says Clough. “Stax provided a huge platform for that cause, and it worked. It wasn’t insincere or disingenuous. It was the real deal. The Staples had taken up the banner at that point.”
Be Altitude found a comfortable middle ground between gospel music and secular music. “Some of the messages in their music have that gospel element running through it, but it’s a broader message than what you’d find in traditional gospel,” says Phillips. “The soul, the gospel, the grooves — all those things blended together — really make for a unique sound that is the Staple Singers.”
The two previously unreleased bonus tracks — “Walking in Water Over Our Head” and an alternate version of “Heavy Makes You Happy” — were both recorded at the Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in 1970 and 1972, respectively. “We felt that it was appropriate to add these bonus tracks, not only because any undiscovered material by a group as great as the Staple Singers is worthy of a listen,” says Phillips, “but also because they’re such great performances that they fit right in.”
Simply put, says Bowman, “the recording you hold in your hands represents the Staple Singers at the very peak of their career.”
Johnnie Taylor: Taylored in Silk
Released in 1973, Taylored in Silk is an ideal example of Taylor’s newly expanded and embellished sound, crafted with the help of producer Don Davis, who had united with Taylor a few years earlier, according to the liner notes by Bill Dahl. “As far as Davis was concerned, a fundamental change of sound was in order for Johnnie,” says Dahl. “Gone were the savory slow blues in favor of a hard-edged, uptempo attack that energized [Taylor’s] sound like never before.”
The issue could well have been regional marketing as much as musicality. “The story goes that Davis was brought in to forge a sound that would be sort of a combination between Northern and Southern soul, and capture the best of both Stax and Motown,” says Phillips. “He certainly hit a home run in his work with Johnnie Taylor, especially on this album.”
Taylored in Silk underwent “a lot of overdubbing,” Dahl notes, “but the end result was a splendidly conceived soul album boasting three major R&B hits within its eight selections…Blues wailer or soul philosopher, silky or gritty, Johnnie Taylor will always be revered as one of the greatest southern soul singers of ’em all.”
The six bonus tracks were previously released as singles in the early ’70s, “and they’re all outstanding performances,” says Phillips. “They certainly fit the vibe and the performance quality of the rest of the album.”
-----------------
in the philadelphia, vinyl is doing well!
Vinyl Revival Promising for Local Shop
Hideaway Music, on Germantown Avenue, shelves special finds for audiophiles.
By Anthony Scoles
Although they’ve only been open for ten years now, and at their current location for less than half that time, a stroll through Hideaway Records on Germantown Avenue feels like a trek through a bygone era.
It’s the kind of homey place you’d visit for music before the days of the iPod, back when teenagers flocked to the record shop on release day to pick up the newest Stones album or Hendrix LP instead of downloading it to their hard drive with a couple clicks of the mouse.
For Hideaway’s owner, Brian Reisman, and many of his customers, there’s still a lot to be said for the old ways.
“A lot of it is the experience,” said Reisman.
Read the rest at chestnuthill.patch.com
------------------
and in music history for the day:
In 1964, the Supremes recorded "Where Did Our Love Go." The song was their first No. 1 single.
In 1966, the Righteous Brothers reach the top of the Billboard singles chart for the second and final time with "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration".
Neil Young's docu-autobiography, "Journey through the Past," premiered at the U.S. Film Festival in Dallas in 1973.
In 1975, Aerosmith released the LP 'Toys in the Attic,' featuring two of the band’s biggest hits, “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.”
In 1977, The Damned became the first British punk group to appear at New York’s CBGB.
In 1978, Eddie Money saw his first US hit, "Baby Hold On" enter the Billboard chart, where it would reach #11. He would go on to place nine more songs in the Top 40, including two Top 10 hits "Take Me Home Tonight" (#4 in 1986) and "Walk On Water" (#9 in 1988).
In 1985, American songwriter John Fred Coots, who co-wrote Pat Boone's US chart topper "Love Letters In The Sand", as well as the children's Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", died at the age of 87. In all, Coots wrote over 700 songs.
The Recording Industry Association of America announced in 1994 that Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, had become the fourth biggest-selling album in its history, passing the 13 million mark in U.S. sales. To date, the album has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
Also in 1994, An electrician hired to install a security system at Kurt Cobain's residence finds the body of the 27 year old Nirvana front man lying on the floor of a room above the garage with a shotgun on his chest and a suicide note nearby. Not everyone was convinced his death was a suicide.
birthdays today include Izzy Stradlin of Gun's 'N Roses (1962) and Steve Howe of Yes, Asia fame (1947)
Record Store Day 2011 – Comprehensive Release Guide Part 1
check it out at thevinyldistrict.com
------------------
Emily's Army to release Don't Be A Dick
Jermy Leeuwis
Teenage pop-punk group Emily's Army is gearing up for the release of their full-length debut, Don’t Be A Dick, due June 14 on Adeline Records. Produced by Billie Joe Armstrong, the album features heartfelt teenage anthems dealing in cautionary tales, politics and the pressures of adolescence. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl.
The 14-song set was recorded and mixed in four days at Oakland’s Jingletown Recordings with the help of engineer Chris Dugan. Emily’s Army counts the rich East Bay music scene and Gilman Street amongst their influences, along with classic power pop, and garage rock.
Read more at musicremedy.com
------------------
Duran Duran Limited Vinyl Release
The Vinyl Factory are proud to present a stunning collectors edition of Duran Duran's new album 'ALL YOU NEED IS NOW' - their critically acclaimed, return to roots tour-de-force, produced by Mark Ronson. Renowned for fusing pop music with art and fashion in groundbreaking ways, Duran Duran have always been at the forefront of the art scene, and this super limited pop art masterpiece sets a new bar even by their standards.
Enlisting the superb talents of British artist Clunie Reid (Saatchi Gallery, the Tate, New Museum NY), with art direction by UK fashion magazine POP’s creative team, under the steer of fast-rising art talent Rory McCartney, the band have individually signed and numbered each edition.
Limited to only 500 copies worldwide, and available to order exclusively from The Vinyl Factory, each collectors copy comprises:
• A hand-crafted, transparent black Perspex box with clear face on outer front, providing an artwork frame that can be individually curated by each owner
• Five heavyweight 180-gram clear vinyl records pressed on the classic EMI 1400, each mastered for vinyl, with the new album pressed across two records, plus an LP of bonus tracks and two 12" remixes including the much sought-after David Lynch reworking of Girl Panic !
• Five beautifully treated bespoke record sleeves, featuring remarkable exclusive artwork on both sides by Clunie Reid
• Exclusive 36-page book with lyrics silver foiled onto black pages, housed in a gorgeous silver mirrored paper cover, each hand signed and numbered by the members of Duran Duran
• Exclusive 36-page book showcasing Clunie Reid's album artwork, with a die-cut front cover of the band's instantly recognisable D logo.
Available to pre-order now, exclusively from The Vinyl Factory
------------------
nj.com has a great story about a band no one has heard of (however, i love their music!)
Bern & The Brights to brighten Record Store Day with two Hoboken performances
By Jim Testa/For The Jersey Journal The Jersey Journal
Bern & The Brights, the delightful folk/country/chamber-pop quartet from Montclair, has a busy month ahead.
The group, fronted by singer/guitarists Bernadette Malavarca and Catherine McGowan, will celebrate Record Store Day - Saturday, April 16 – by releasing a vinyl single, with two Hoboken performances: An acoustic set at Tunes record store at 4 p.m. will be followed by an evening show at Maxwell’s. And a few weeks later, they’ll be back in the Mile Square City at the Hoboken Spring Arts & Music Festival on Sunday, May 1.
Bassist Shawn Fafara and drummer Jose Ulloa complete the lineup. The group came together in 2008 and quickly established itself as a local favorite, playing some 300 gigs since its inception and releasing two EP’s. Using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, the band has skillfully won over a sizable and loyal fan base, who are called The Light Brigade. They should be turning out in force on May 1 when Bern & The Brights play the main stage at the Spring Arts & Music Festival, alongside headliner Ian Hunter and The Baseball Project, the new side project from REM’s Peter Buck.
Read more at nj.com
------------------
Animals As Leaders Vinyl Debut
Animals As Leaders are issuing their self-titled debut album for the first time on vinyl in June. The 180-gram double-LP set, which includes the song "Wave of Babies" (previously an iTunes exclusive) as a bonus track, will feature a high-quality Stoughton gatefold jacket with enhanced album artwork that includes 3D imagery and custom AAL 3D glasses.
The set is available in three different color combinations and is limited to 1000 pieces total. There will also be a brand new, exclusive T-shirt available on its own or in a bundle with the LPs.
------------------
The Groove’s Vinyl Best Sellers 3/28-4/03/2011
1. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs
2. Tallest Man On Earth – Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird
3. Bibio – Mind Bokeh
4. The Strokes -Angles
5. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030
6. Those Darlins -Screws Get Loose
7. DeVotchka – 100 Lovers
8. Mike Watt – Hyphenated-Man
9. Obits – Moody, Standard & Poor
10. J Mascis – Several Shades Of Why
11. Pujol – Mayday 7”
12. Wagon Christ – Toomorrow
13. Nas – Illmatic
14. Sharon Van Etten – Epic
15. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
16. Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck
17. Bad Brains – Black Dots
18. Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong
19. Matthew Dear – Black City
20. Toro Y Moi / Cloud Nothings – I Will Talk To You / For No Reason 7” split
------------------
CONCORD MUSIC GROUP LAUNCHES STAX REMASTERS SERIES WITH REISSUES OF THREE RECORDINGS FROM THE LEGENDARY SOUL/R&B CATALOG BOOKER T. & THE MGs — 'McLEMORE AVENUE'; THE STAPLE SINGERS —' BE ALTITUDE: RESPECT YOURSELF'; JOHNNIE TAYLOR — 'TAYLORED IN SILK'
Inaugural titles to be released May 10, 2011
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, the Stax label dominated soul, R&B, gospel, and related genres with a stable of artists who have since become iconic figures in the history of American popular music. Now a part of the Concord Music Group, the Stax catalog is a treasure trove of some of the most visceral and influential recordings of the 20th century. On May 10, 2011, Concord reaches back into that deep catalog to launch Stax Remasters, a series of reissues that cast a new light on classic Stax recordings with the help of 24-bit remastering, rare bonus tracks, and new liner notes to frame the recordings in a historical context.
The first three reissues in the series are:
Booker T. & the MGs: McLemore Avenue (1970)
The Staple Singers: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972)
Johnnie Taylor: Taylored in Silk (1973)
“Stax is a very important label, not only in the history of soul music, but in the history of music in general,” says Nick Phillips, Concord’s Vice President of Catalog A&R and co-producer of the series with Chris Clough, Concord’s Manager of Catalog Development. “We have a number of amazing recordings by Stax in the catalog. This is an opportunity to revisit some of the best of these classic recordings, upgrade the sound quality, and put them in the proper historical perspective that they deserve.”
Booker T. & the MGs: McLemore Avenue
Released in January 1970, McLemore Avenue is a tribute to Abbey Road, the landmark recording released by the Beatles the prior summer. McLemore Avenue sets up an interesting cause-and-effect loop by putting an R&B spin on songs by a profoundly innovative British pop-rock band that, ironically, emerged years earlier from the most basic elements of American R&B.
McLemore Avenue was inspired by “my pure fascination and admiration of the work that [the Beatles] had done,” says keyboardist Booker T. Jones in the reissue liner notes by music historian Ashley Kahn. “I didn’t know their inner workings. I found out later. I had a picture of those guys as a perfect unit. I didn’t know that they fought, had arguments, or that they needed referees. When you listen to that music, you think it comes from a perfect union, you know?”
The tribute album “represents a fascinating and musically compelling intersection,” says Phillips. “On one hand, you can look at the strength of the Beatles’ songs, and how they’re such strong songs that they can be successfully adapted — in the right hands — to soulful instrumental versions. At the same time, it is of course a testament to Booker T. & the MGs’ creativity and soulfulness and groove. It’s not only a very interesting musical intersection, but it’s also a very deep and at the same time a very fun listen.”
Clearly, Booker T. & the MGs had had plenty of their own opportunities to flex their creative muscles in the studio, having recorded with artists like Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. “But on a record like this,” says Clough, “where all the songs were already written and it was just a matter of interpretation, it wasn’t work for them. It was an opportunity to put their spin on the songs and just have some fun.”
The bonus tracks include seven additional Beatles covers, recorded in sessions separate from those for the McLemore Avenue album. “We figured it made good sense to expand this edition by adding other tracks that Booker T. & the MGs had recorded of Beatles songs over the years,” says Phillips. “So the Stax Remasters reissue is not only an expanded edition of McLemore Avenue, it’s also a de facto ‘Booker T. & the MGs Play the Beatles’ collection.”
The Staple Singers: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself
Originally released in 1972, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself captures the celebrated family vocal group in what was essentially the third act of their career, according to music historian Rob Bowman. The Staple Singers had initially established themselves as a gospel group in the 1950s, then merged with the folk music closely tied to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and ultimately veered away from protest songs and toward what Mavis Staples termed “message music” in the early and mid-1970s.
“Obviously, there was a lot going on in America — politically and socially — around that time, and the Staple Singers took up the cause,” says Clough. “Stax provided a huge platform for that cause, and it worked. It wasn’t insincere or disingenuous. It was the real deal. The Staples had taken up the banner at that point.”
Be Altitude found a comfortable middle ground between gospel music and secular music. “Some of the messages in their music have that gospel element running through it, but it’s a broader message than what you’d find in traditional gospel,” says Phillips. “The soul, the gospel, the grooves — all those things blended together — really make for a unique sound that is the Staple Singers.”
The two previously unreleased bonus tracks — “Walking in Water Over Our Head” and an alternate version of “Heavy Makes You Happy” — were both recorded at the Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in 1970 and 1972, respectively. “We felt that it was appropriate to add these bonus tracks, not only because any undiscovered material by a group as great as the Staple Singers is worthy of a listen,” says Phillips, “but also because they’re such great performances that they fit right in.”
Simply put, says Bowman, “the recording you hold in your hands represents the Staple Singers at the very peak of their career.”
Johnnie Taylor: Taylored in Silk
Released in 1973, Taylored in Silk is an ideal example of Taylor’s newly expanded and embellished sound, crafted with the help of producer Don Davis, who had united with Taylor a few years earlier, according to the liner notes by Bill Dahl. “As far as Davis was concerned, a fundamental change of sound was in order for Johnnie,” says Dahl. “Gone were the savory slow blues in favor of a hard-edged, uptempo attack that energized [Taylor’s] sound like never before.”
The issue could well have been regional marketing as much as musicality. “The story goes that Davis was brought in to forge a sound that would be sort of a combination between Northern and Southern soul, and capture the best of both Stax and Motown,” says Phillips. “He certainly hit a home run in his work with Johnnie Taylor, especially on this album.”
Taylored in Silk underwent “a lot of overdubbing,” Dahl notes, “but the end result was a splendidly conceived soul album boasting three major R&B hits within its eight selections…Blues wailer or soul philosopher, silky or gritty, Johnnie Taylor will always be revered as one of the greatest southern soul singers of ’em all.”
The six bonus tracks were previously released as singles in the early ’70s, “and they’re all outstanding performances,” says Phillips. “They certainly fit the vibe and the performance quality of the rest of the album.”
-----------------
in the philadelphia, vinyl is doing well!
Vinyl Revival Promising for Local Shop
Hideaway Music, on Germantown Avenue, shelves special finds for audiophiles.
By Anthony Scoles
Although they’ve only been open for ten years now, and at their current location for less than half that time, a stroll through Hideaway Records on Germantown Avenue feels like a trek through a bygone era.
It’s the kind of homey place you’d visit for music before the days of the iPod, back when teenagers flocked to the record shop on release day to pick up the newest Stones album or Hendrix LP instead of downloading it to their hard drive with a couple clicks of the mouse.
For Hideaway’s owner, Brian Reisman, and many of his customers, there’s still a lot to be said for the old ways.
“A lot of it is the experience,” said Reisman.
Read the rest at chestnuthill.patch.com
------------------
and in music history for the day:
In 1964, the Supremes recorded "Where Did Our Love Go." The song was their first No. 1 single.
In 1966, the Righteous Brothers reach the top of the Billboard singles chart for the second and final time with "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration".
Neil Young's docu-autobiography, "Journey through the Past," premiered at the U.S. Film Festival in Dallas in 1973.
In 1975, Aerosmith released the LP 'Toys in the Attic,' featuring two of the band’s biggest hits, “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.”
In 1977, The Damned became the first British punk group to appear at New York’s CBGB.
In 1978, Eddie Money saw his first US hit, "Baby Hold On" enter the Billboard chart, where it would reach #11. He would go on to place nine more songs in the Top 40, including two Top 10 hits "Take Me Home Tonight" (#4 in 1986) and "Walk On Water" (#9 in 1988).
In 1985, American songwriter John Fred Coots, who co-wrote Pat Boone's US chart topper "Love Letters In The Sand", as well as the children's Christmas classic "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", died at the age of 87. In all, Coots wrote over 700 songs.
The Recording Industry Association of America announced in 1994 that Pink Floyd’s 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, had become the fourth biggest-selling album in its history, passing the 13 million mark in U.S. sales. To date, the album has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
Also in 1994, An electrician hired to install a security system at Kurt Cobain's residence finds the body of the 27 year old Nirvana front man lying on the floor of a room above the garage with a shotgun on his chest and a suicide note nearby. Not everyone was convinced his death was a suicide.
birthdays today include Izzy Stradlin of Gun's 'N Roses (1962) and Steve Howe of Yes, Asia fame (1947)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Vinyl Record News & Music Notes
a fantastic article starts my day at the CVR blog. very well written and researched, i love it when people go into such detail!
Reach into your pocket.
It’s likely your hand is now in contact with a music player or audio storage device. Whether it is an MP3 player, a multimedia phone or a flash drive, music is incredibly compact and portable in the 21st century.
However, in the age of digital sound there are still those who opt for the smooth, black disc that has charmed audiophiles for decades — the vinyl record.
While CD sales and digital downloads constitute the majority of music purchases today, vinyl has made its way back from relative obscurity to be the chosed medium of a significant portion of listeners.
Read the rest at cityonahillpress.com
------------------------
records in texas selling well!
For the record: vinyl makes a comeback in a nostalgic digital age
By Dan Lambert
George Reynoso, owner of All That Music and Video, Collectors’ Marketplace, staged a “Goodbye to LPs” promotion at his store in 1999.
“Basically, we cleared out all the LPs for cheap,” Reynoso says. “Ten years later, LPs are now a big part of our business.”
Record Store Day, a fourth annual national event, is Saturday, April 16, and Reynoso’s store at 1506-D Lee Trevino will open extra early, at 9 a.m., with between 6,000-8,000 records for sale outdoors at the sidewalk sale.
So what happened? How did vinyl rise from the dead? Or was it just in hiding?
Read the rest at whatsuppub.com
------------------------
a clever article in the irish times, makes perfect sense to me
How covers turned the world karaoke
Cover versions have always been with us, but now that so many artists are trying to live off the kudos of other people’s songs, is the music scene at risk of being run over by its own retreads, asks KEVIN COURTNEY
‘THIS IS A song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles: we’re stealing it back,” announces Bono in a scene from the U2 movie Rattle and Hum , just before U2 launch into a ragged rendition of Helter Skelter . No wonder the McCormick brothers wanted to kill him, coming up with pronouncements like that. As cover versions go, though, it’s not the worst. It’s certainly not as bad as the movie’s other cover, Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which U2 demolish with arrogant abandon. Still, at least they didn’t accuse Jimi Hendrix of stealing that one.
Should U2 have just stuck with doing their own songs and left the classics well alone? Maybe, but it’s clear that, by referencing some of pop’s biggest touchstones (and a few blues legends), U2 were staking out their own place in the pantheon, hoping to prove to their growing US audience that they could jam along with the big boys. For them and for many other bands, doing the right cover version was a shortcut to kudos.
We are now living in a karaoke world, where every second song on the radio is likely to be a cover version, and young copycats parade their purloined wares on The X Factor and You’re A Star....
Read the rest at irishtimes.com
------------------------
Neil Young Preps New Archival Release with A Treasure Live Album
By Alex Hudson
Bob Dylan isn't the only folk icon to roll out a seemingly endless stream of archival releases. Canuck hero Neil Young has also got in on the fun by unveiling some long-lost classics -- most notably the massive Archives box set. Next up is A Treasure, a live album recorded during Young's 1984-85 U.S. tour.
The 12-track collection will likely appeal to hardcore Neil Young followers rather than casual fans, since it doesn't offer much in the way of hits. According to a press release, five of the songs are previously unreleased. It also has cuts from his 1985 album Old Ways.
A Treasure features Young's country band, the International Harvesters. This includes the late Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar, plus Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle), Spooner Oldham (paino), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano), Tim Drummond (bass), Joe Allen (bass), and Karl Himmel (drums). In a statement, Young said, "I just love to hear those guys. They're all country music legends."
Read more and get the track list at exclaim.ca
------------------------
informative article about the stones and some of their famous album cover art:
At His Satanic Majesty’s Request
Tim Maddison
The Rolling Stones initially appalled the nation’s parents with their ‘brutish’ looks as much as their horrifying rhythm and blues beat music. But for a band possessing some of the most recognisable faces on the planet, there was a time when they cultivated a striking invisibility.
After the psychedelic foolery of Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1968’s Beggars Banquet not only revealed the Stones revitalised by the blues but also saw the band proposing to replace their earlier run of relentlessly dreary album cover photos – with an extraordinary Barry Feinstein image of a squalid graffiti-scribbled lavatory that Jagger, Richards and Anita Pallenberg had chanced upon, a place reeking of needles, urine and drunken couplings.
Read more at spectator.co.uk
------------------------
no tats personally, however, some of these are pretty cool!
20 Awesome Album Cover Art-Inspired Tattoos
check more great tattoos at artnewsworldwide.com
-----------------------
'How To Become Clairvoyant,' Robbie Robertson's New Album, Debuts at No. 8 on the Top Current Canadian Album Chart
PRNewswire/ -- Robbie Robertson's How To Become Clairvoyant enters the Top Current Canadian Album Chart at No. 8 – marking the highest debut of a solo Robbie Robertson record in the SoundScan era. The news comes on the heels of Robertson's induction into the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame last Saturday. In June, Canada Post will issue a stamp with Robertson's likeness as part of its Canadian Recording Artists stamp series.
Rolling Stone hailed How To Become Clairvoyant – his first release in over a decade – as "Robertson's Grand Return...hypnotic." Goldmine also awarded it four stars, calling it "Robertson's best yet" while NPR said: "If ever there was an album that was well worth a long wait, Robbie Robertson's fifth solo album is the one."
How To Become Clairvoyant was released by 429/Macro-Biotic Records, which is distributed by Fontana North/Universal Music in Canada.
For more information on ROBBIE ROBERTSON, Visit:
www.robbie-robertson.com
www.429records.com
SOURCE 429 Records
Reach into your pocket.
It’s likely your hand is now in contact with a music player or audio storage device. Whether it is an MP3 player, a multimedia phone or a flash drive, music is incredibly compact and portable in the 21st century.
However, in the age of digital sound there are still those who opt for the smooth, black disc that has charmed audiophiles for decades — the vinyl record.
While CD sales and digital downloads constitute the majority of music purchases today, vinyl has made its way back from relative obscurity to be the chosed medium of a significant portion of listeners.
Read the rest at cityonahillpress.com
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records in texas selling well!
For the record: vinyl makes a comeback in a nostalgic digital age
By Dan Lambert
George Reynoso, owner of All That Music and Video, Collectors’ Marketplace, staged a “Goodbye to LPs” promotion at his store in 1999.
“Basically, we cleared out all the LPs for cheap,” Reynoso says. “Ten years later, LPs are now a big part of our business.”
Record Store Day, a fourth annual national event, is Saturday, April 16, and Reynoso’s store at 1506-D Lee Trevino will open extra early, at 9 a.m., with between 6,000-8,000 records for sale outdoors at the sidewalk sale.
So what happened? How did vinyl rise from the dead? Or was it just in hiding?
Read the rest at whatsuppub.com
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a clever article in the irish times, makes perfect sense to me
How covers turned the world karaoke
Cover versions have always been with us, but now that so many artists are trying to live off the kudos of other people’s songs, is the music scene at risk of being run over by its own retreads, asks KEVIN COURTNEY
‘THIS IS A song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles: we’re stealing it back,” announces Bono in a scene from the U2 movie Rattle and Hum , just before U2 launch into a ragged rendition of Helter Skelter . No wonder the McCormick brothers wanted to kill him, coming up with pronouncements like that. As cover versions go, though, it’s not the worst. It’s certainly not as bad as the movie’s other cover, Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which U2 demolish with arrogant abandon. Still, at least they didn’t accuse Jimi Hendrix of stealing that one.
Should U2 have just stuck with doing their own songs and left the classics well alone? Maybe, but it’s clear that, by referencing some of pop’s biggest touchstones (and a few blues legends), U2 were staking out their own place in the pantheon, hoping to prove to their growing US audience that they could jam along with the big boys. For them and for many other bands, doing the right cover version was a shortcut to kudos.
We are now living in a karaoke world, where every second song on the radio is likely to be a cover version, and young copycats parade their purloined wares on The X Factor and You’re A Star....
Read the rest at irishtimes.com
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Neil Young Preps New Archival Release with A Treasure Live Album
By Alex Hudson
Bob Dylan isn't the only folk icon to roll out a seemingly endless stream of archival releases. Canuck hero Neil Young has also got in on the fun by unveiling some long-lost classics -- most notably the massive Archives box set. Next up is A Treasure, a live album recorded during Young's 1984-85 U.S. tour.
The 12-track collection will likely appeal to hardcore Neil Young followers rather than casual fans, since it doesn't offer much in the way of hits. According to a press release, five of the songs are previously unreleased. It also has cuts from his 1985 album Old Ways.
A Treasure features Young's country band, the International Harvesters. This includes the late Ben Keith on steel and slide guitar, plus Rufus Thibodeaux (fiddle), Spooner Oldham (paino), Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano), Tim Drummond (bass), Joe Allen (bass), and Karl Himmel (drums). In a statement, Young said, "I just love to hear those guys. They're all country music legends."
Read more and get the track list at exclaim.ca
------------------------
informative article about the stones and some of their famous album cover art:
At His Satanic Majesty’s Request
Tim Maddison
The Rolling Stones initially appalled the nation’s parents with their ‘brutish’ looks as much as their horrifying rhythm and blues beat music. But for a band possessing some of the most recognisable faces on the planet, there was a time when they cultivated a striking invisibility.
After the psychedelic foolery of Their Satanic Majesties Request, 1968’s Beggars Banquet not only revealed the Stones revitalised by the blues but also saw the band proposing to replace their earlier run of relentlessly dreary album cover photos – with an extraordinary Barry Feinstein image of a squalid graffiti-scribbled lavatory that Jagger, Richards and Anita Pallenberg had chanced upon, a place reeking of needles, urine and drunken couplings.
Read more at spectator.co.uk
------------------------
no tats personally, however, some of these are pretty cool!
20 Awesome Album Cover Art-Inspired Tattoos
check more great tattoos at artnewsworldwide.com
-----------------------
'How To Become Clairvoyant,' Robbie Robertson's New Album, Debuts at No. 8 on the Top Current Canadian Album Chart
PRNewswire/ -- Robbie Robertson's How To Become Clairvoyant enters the Top Current Canadian Album Chart at No. 8 – marking the highest debut of a solo Robbie Robertson record in the SoundScan era. The news comes on the heels of Robertson's induction into the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame last Saturday. In June, Canada Post will issue a stamp with Robertson's likeness as part of its Canadian Recording Artists stamp series.
Rolling Stone hailed How To Become Clairvoyant – his first release in over a decade – as "Robertson's Grand Return...hypnotic." Goldmine also awarded it four stars, calling it "Robertson's best yet" while NPR said: "If ever there was an album that was well worth a long wait, Robbie Robertson's fifth solo album is the one."
How To Become Clairvoyant was released by 429/Macro-Biotic Records, which is distributed by Fontana North/Universal Music in Canada.
For more information on ROBBIE ROBERTSON, Visit:
www.robbie-robertson.com
www.429records.com
SOURCE 429 Records
Peter Tosh's First Two Solo Albums, LEGALIZE IT (1976) and EQUAL RIGHTS (1977) Now Commemorated as Prestigious Legacy Edition Double-CD Sets
Collectible 7-inch vinyl single of "Legalize It" b/w "Equal Rights" released in Rasta colors of red, green and gold on National Record Store Day, April 16th
Legacy and NORML re-launch Tosh's 1976 PSA at radio, promoting legalization of marijuana, in honor of NORML's 40th anniversary birthday in 2011
PRNewswire/ -- The first two solo albums by Peter Tosh on Columbia Records, cornerstones of the roots-rock-reggae movement, will be commemorated with the releases of LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION and EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION. Both double-CD packages will contain a lion's share of previously unreleased material from the original sessions (and material previously available on very limited edition Dub Plates), along with new essays by Reggae scholar Roger Steffens (on Legalize It) and former manager Herbie Miller (Equal Rights). Both packages will be available at all physical and digital retail outlets starting June 21st through Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.
The re-releases of Legalize It (1976) and Equal Rights (1977) coincide with the 40th anniversary birthday in March 2011 of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based in Washington, DC). Tosh endorsed and supported the organization, and recorded a PSA (public service announcement) for NORML in 1976, promoting the legalization of marijuana. In 2011, Tosh's PSA is being re-launched at radio in a partnership between Legacy and NORML.
Along with Tosh's advocacy for NORML, Legalize It and Equal Rights serve as reminders of the glory of vinyl. In recognition, the two classic title tracks, "Legalize It" and "Equal Rights," will be coupled as a special 7-inch vinyl single. The double-A sided single will be released in conjunction with this year's fifth annual National Record Store Day on Saturday, April 16th. Honoring the colors of Tosh's beloved Rasta flag, the single will be available in collectible red, green and gold vinyl editions.
Adding immeasurably to the historical impact of LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION is an evocative 2,000-word liner notes essay by Roger Steffens, a close friend to Peter Tosh in his lifetime, and an enduring keeper of the flame as the curator of the Reggae Archives, the world's largest collection of Wailers and Peter Tosh material. Steffens is the co-author (with Jodie Pierson) of Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Definitive Discography (2005), and Reggae Scrapbook (2007, with Peter Simon). He has also annotated dozens of reggae collections and reissues, including virtually every major Peter Tosh album. Among them is Legacy's 3-CD box set of 1997, Honorary Citizen.
Herbie Miller, who wrote the liner notes essay for EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION, is internationally known for his work as the trusted former manager of Peter Tosh and a highly-respected member of the Jamaican community. He is the director/curator of the Jamaica Music Museum, based in the Institute of Jamaica in downtown Kingston. A cultural historian and photographer, Miller has also annotated many historic reggae releases, including Live & Dangerous: Boston 1976 by Tosh, a previously unreleased chronicle (issued on Legacy, 2001) of his first American tour, in support of Legalize It.
Thirty-five years have passed since the release of Legalize It, Tosh's first album as a solo artist after more than a decade in the Wailers with Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston. During that time, the Marley-Tosh signature began to achieve a worldwide notoriety that would have seriously rivaled the likes of Lennon-McCartney and Jagger-Richards, if the original Wailers had been able to stay together past 1975. Among the gems of the Marley-Tosh repertoire are such rock and reggae staples as "400 Years," "Get Up, Stand Up," "Brand New Second Hand," "Soon Come," "No Sympathy," "Reaction," "Baby We've Got a Date," and "Can't You See." The Wailers' songbook, hundreds of compositions predominantly penned by Marley, also included Tosh's "Stop That Train," "Downpressor," "Love," "One Foundation," "Sun Valley," and "You Can't Blame the Youth," among others.
As Roger Steffens' liner notes to LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION point out, "All of the previously unreleased versions on this package are from the extraordinary archives of British collector, Sam Dion, to whom the tapes were passed along." He refers to Tosh's vast archives that survived his assassination of September 11, 1987. CD one presents the original nine-song, 38-minute album, followed by demo versions of seven of the nine songs, all previously unreleased. CD two then presents Tosh's own original mix of the album, the way he was sending it out to major record labels in 1976 (rescued from the garbage heap by someone "with a keen eye"!). Those nine tracks (all previously unreleased) are followed by a previously unreleased alternate version of the title song, and then six extremely rare dubs, only one of which ever actually made it onto an album ("Igziabeher").
Tosh's first self-produced recording for a major label, Legalize It was also his first with the rhythm team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare, who subsequently became the backbone of his recording and touring groups. The album contained a number of staples: "What'cha Gonna Do," "No Sympathy," "Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised)," "Ketchy Shuby," "Till Your Well Runs Dry," and of course the title tune standard, "Legalize It."
Similarly, CD one of EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION presents the original eight-song, 40-minute album as it has been embedded in listeners' heads for decades. Then the disc follows up with seven previously unreleased outtakes from the original album recording sessions, offering a different program of compositions. CD two presents a well-sequenced mix of 15 tracks – about half of which are previously unreleased . These include original session alternate and extended versions, and extremely rare dubs.
Equal Rights brought together Peter Tosh's dedications to the revolutionary movements growing in Africa, and the mysticism and wonders of his personal growth as a prophet, poet, preacher and world-class musical trailblazer. The album included a number of songs that became human rights anthems over the next two decades: "Get Up, Stand Up," "Downpressor Man," "African," "Apartheid," and the title tune. There were also intensely personal songs of his revelations as a Rasta: "I Am That I Am" and "Jah Guide"; and the ultimate rude boy, proto-punk declaration of "Stepping Razor," by reggae's original roots-rock and Rasta ragamuffin.
"A quarter century later," Steffens writes, "[Tosh's] songs ring eternal with millions of strugglers worldwide, still crying out for equal rights and justice with the words of the immortal Minister of Herb."
LEGALIZE IT: LEGACY EDITION by PETER TOSH (Columbia/Legacy 88697 76490 2)
CD One – Selections: 1. Legalize It * 2. Burial * 3. What'cha Gonna Do * 4. No Sympathy * 5. Why Must I Cry * 6. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) * 7. Ketchy Shuby * 8. Till Your Well Runs Dry * 9. Brand New Second Hand * Bonus tracks: 10. Legalize It (Demo) * 11. No Sympathy (Demo) * 12. Why Must I Cry (Demo) * 13. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) (Demo) * 14. Ketchy Shuby (Demo) * 15. Till Your Well Runs Dry (Demo) * 16. Brand New Second Hand (Demo).
Notes:
Tracks 1-9 originally issued August 1976, as Legalize It (Columbia 34253).
Tracks 10-16 previously unreleased.
CD Two (Original Mix) – Selections: 1. Legalize It * 2. Burial * 3. What'cha Gonna Do * 4. No Love, No Sympathy * 5. Why Must I Cry * 6. Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) * 7. Ketchy Shuby * 8. Till Your Well Runs Dry * 9. Brand New Second Hand * 10. Legalize It (Alternate Version) * 11. Burial (Dub Plate) * 12. What'cha Gonna Do (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 13. (Igziabeher) Let Jah Be Praised (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 14. Second Hand (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 15. Burial (Dub Plate) * 16. Legalize It (Dub Plate).
Notes:
Tracks 1-10 previously unreleased.
Track 13 previously released on The Ultimate Peter Tosh (Shanachie, 2008).
Tracks 11-12 & 14-16 previously available on very limited edition Dub Plates.
EQUAL RIGHTS: LEGACY EDITION by PETER TOSH (Columbia/Legacy 88697 74691 2)
CD One – Selections: 1. Get Up, Stand Up * 2. Downpressor Man * 3. I Am That I Am * 4. Stepping Razor * 5. Equal Rights * 6. African * 7. Jah Guide * 8. Apartheid * Bonus tracks: 9. 400 Years (Out-take) * 10. Hammer (Extended Version / Out-take) * 11. Jahman Inna Jamdung (Out-take) * 12. Vampire (Out-take) * 13. Babylon Queendom (Out-take) * 14. You Can't Blame The Youth (Out-take) * 15. Mark Of The Beast (Out-take).
Notes:
Tracks 1-8 originally issued April 1977, as Equal Rights (Columbia 34670).
Tracks 9-15 previously unreleased original session Out-takes.
CD Two – Selections: 1. Get Up, Stand Up (Alternate Version) * 2. Dub-Presser Man (Dub Plate) * 3. I Am That I Am (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 4. Heavy Razor (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 5. Equal Rights (Extended Version) * 6. African (London Sound System Dub Plate) * 7. Jah Guide (Dub Plate) * 8. (Fight) Apartheid (Alternate Version) * 9. Vampire (Demo) * 10. Jahman Inna Jamdung (Demo) * 11. Hammer (Shajahshoka Dub Plate) * 12. Blame The Yout (Dub Plate) * 13. Babylon Queendom (Dub Plate) * 14. Vampires (Dub Plate) * 15. Get Up, Stand Up (Extended /Alternate Version).
Notes:
Tracks 1, 5, 8-10 & 15 previously unreleased original session alternate and extended versions.
Tracks 2-4, 6 & 11-14 previously only available on extremely limited edition Dub Plates.
SOURCE Legacy Recordings
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