Tag Archives: Rock

David Cassidy: Romance

Leave a reply

David Cassidy returns with a mid-80s sound

After shucking off his teen-idol career, Cassidy recorded a trio of albums for RCA that garnered little stateside success. When his third RCA album, Gettin’ it in the Street, was shelved, Cassidy retreated from the recording world for nearly a decade, and concentrated on his stage acting career and headlining inLas Vegas. He reengaged his music career with this 1985 album for Arista, spinning off hits in Europe (most notably “The Last Kiss,” featuring Wham’s George Michael on answer vocals), but going unreleased in theU.S. due to label turmoil. Much like his updated look on the album cover, the music was updated by producer-songwriter Alan Tarney with mid-80s synthesizers. Cassidy’s vocals took the chill off the backing tracks, and matched Tarney’s grander constructions note-for-note. Real Gone’s reissue, the first U.S. release of this title, includes the album’s ten original tracks, full panel reproductions of the front and back covers, song lyrics, and liner notes by Michael Ragogna. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

David Cassidy: Gettin’ it in the Street

Leave a reply

David Cassidy’s third and final post-teen idol album for RCA

In the two years after David Cassidy walked away from Bell Records and his career as a teen idol, he recorded three albums for RCA. The first, The Higher They Climb, found success in Europe and spun out a pre-Barry Manilow hit recording of Bruce Johnston’s “I Write the Songs.” Cassidy’s second album for RCA, Home is Where the Heart Is failed to chart, as did the pre-release singles from this third album. RCA planned and then shelved the album’sU.S. release, though apparently copies were pressed and warehoused, as they began showing up in cutout bins three years later.

The album’s track list is an eclectic lot, including the autobiographical title tune (featuring the guitar playing of Mick Ronson), the boozy original “Rosa’s Cantina,” a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “The Story of Rock and Roll,” and a tune co-written by Cassidy, producer (and America founding member) Gerry Beckley and head Beach Boy, Brian Wilson. The latter, “Cruise toHarlem,” has the hallmarks of a mid-70s Brian Wilson tune, with a chugging rhythm and sophisticated vocal arrangement. The album closes with Cassidy’s original “Junked Heart Blues,” sung in a clenched voice that brings to mind Boz Scaggs.

Cassidy sings with terrific emotion throughout, including a duet withBeckleyon “Living a Lie,” but his more sophisticated and soulful pop-rock couldn’t find a place in the market. One has to wonder whether the “David Cassidy” name was still overshadowed by his earlier fame, making it difficult for listeners to accept him as a bona fide recording artist. The music he made fit well with the commercial mainstream of ‘76-77, but despite his artistry, chart success was not to be. Real Gone’s reissue includes the album’s original nine tracks, clocking in at thirty-four minutes, and features liner notes from Michael Ragogna. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

David Cassidy: Live!

Leave a reply

A multitalented teen-idol tears it up live in 1974

In 1974, David Cassidy was on top of the world commercially, but near the end of his run of mainstream fame. He was a talented musician trapped in the body – and career – of a teen idol. His aspirations were starting to exceed what his fans and critics would freely allow him to grasp, and unlike the Beatles, who successfully retreated from the stage to studio, Cassidy’s attempts to grow beyond the confines of his Partridge Family-launched solo career led to artistic accomplishment, but not broader commercial success. 1974 marked the tail end of his pop-idol ride, and the frenzy surrounding his live appearances, as evidenced by the crowd’s non-stop hysteria, was as highly-charged as ever. Cassidy didn’t know it at the time, but it would come crashing down at tour’s end, when hundreds of fans were injured and one, Bernadette Whelan, was killed by the crush of a concert crowd. Cassidy retired from touring at the end of that year, and after a three-album stint on RCA, he put his public music career on a decade-long hiatus.

What’s truly impressive about his live album is that with the craziness still running full tilt, Cassidy was able to deliver a live performance that was both exciting to his youngest fans and artistically satisfying to those able to listen past the pre-teen pandemonium. He was (and remains to this day), a fetching singer and dynamic showman. He had a terrific ear for material that fit his voice, that played well on stage and with which he could do something interesting. His raucous cover of Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady” is worth hearing, and he leads the band in stretching Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” into a soul groove. Even better is a Beatlemania-worth cover of “Please Please Me” and the rock ‘n’ roll medleys that close the set. Cassidy whips the crowd into a lather with covers of Mitch Ryder’s mash-up of “C.C. Rider” and “Jenny Jenny,” and rips through five early rock classics capped with his own his hit single, “Rock Me Baby.”

Cassidy comes across as truly enthused to be performing, and though the rising tide of fame may have drown some of his artistic dreams, he maintained enough control to craft a live set in which he could invest himself as a performer. The band is hot, and though the fans scream throughout the entire show, the music isn’t compromised. There’s real chemistry between Cassidy and the musicians, each feeding off the other’s energy, and both feeding off the crowd. The recording quality is good, though by no means state-of-the-art for 1974; no doubt the original producers thought of this as something to market, rather than something to preserve. Still, Cassidy’s magnetism, artistry and showmanship, and the high quality of the band’s playing come through louder and clearer than anyone might have expected in 1974.  [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Heart: Fanatic

Leave a reply

Heavy Heart

From the opening guitar of the title track, Heart serves notice that they’re here to rock. Hard. After revisiting the band’s history with a box set, Strange Euphoria, and memoir, Kicking & Dreaming, the Wilson sisters seem to have gotten back in touch with their rock ‘n’ roll roots. The guitars serve up hearty power chords, the rhythm section (Rick Markmann on bass and Ben Smith on drums) is rock solid, and Ann Wilson’s voice can still rattle the farthest corner of an arena. What sets Heart apart from many other hard rock acts, and what’s always set them apart, is their mix of stadium-sized bombast and something more nuanced. Even with the band playing flat out and Ann Wilson singing at the top of her voice, there’s an emotional hook that reaches beyond sheer volume and power. The band’s able to bring the energy to more lightly-built songs like “Skin and Bones,” using tone rather than decibels to make their point. As on 2010’s Red Velvet Car, producer Ben Mink melds the band’s classic guitar rock with a few modern touches, leaving neither sounding out of place. Heart’s longtime fans, particularly those who favor the group’s self-written, hard-rocking sides of the ‘70s, will enjoy this album; so will anyone looking for a shot of rock ‘n’ roll. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Heart’s Home Page

Jimmy LaFave: Depending on the Distance

Leave a reply

Soulful album of singer-songwriter folk, country and rock

“Singer-songwriter” usually labels someone who sings their own songs, but in Jimmy LaFave’s case, it describes someone who’s as talented at originating material as he is in lending his voice to others’ songs. His first studio album in five years balances eight new songs with five covers, three of the latter selected from the catalog of Bob Dylan. Perhaps the most surprising reinterpretation is his resurrection of John Waite’s “Missing You” from its 1980s chart-topping power-ballad origin. As a writer of emotionally-laden songs, LaFave could hear the finely-tuned angst of Waite’s lyric, and reconstruct it into rootsy rock ‘n’ roll. The production’s guitar adds a touch of Southern soul, and the emotional choke in LaFave’s voice mates perfectly with the song’s mood.

The Dylan covers “Red RiverShore,” the oft-covered “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” and Empire Burlesque’s “I’ll Remember You.” LaFave adds something special to each, reading the first in slow reflection, and warming the latter from the chilly production of its original version. The album’s fifth cover is Bruce Springsteen’s recently released (though earlier written) “Land ofHopes and Dreams.” LaFave strips the song of its E Street bombast to better reveal the tender heart of its inverted allusions to the gospel-folk classic “This Train.” LaFave uses the covers as a launching point for his original songs, weaving a continuous thread through expectation, melancholy, sadness and second chances.

There’s aNew Orleansgroove to “Red Dirt Night,” gospel devotion in “Bring Back the Trains” and righteous grief in “It Just is Not Right.” The latter ruminates on the numbness society often displays towards its most helpless members, and the album closes with a farewell whose metaphor neatly twines people and places. Throughout the album, LaFave sings with deep soul, harboring a waver in his notes that may remind you of Steve Forbert. He takes his songs at tempos that provide room for thought and expression, as befits the songs he writes and covers. This album will appeal to your ears on first spin, and grow in your thoughts over time. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Jimmy LaFave’s Home Page

Dion: The Complete Laurie Singles

Leave a reply

Dion’s teen-idol and comeback solo sides for Laurie

Dion DiMucci is one of the few first-generation rock ‘n’ rollers to fruitfully navigate the cultural twists and turns of succeeding decades. He had doo-wop hits fronting the Belmonts in the late ‘50s, teen idol solo hits in the early ‘60s, a resurgence in the ‘70s, and a string of albums running through 2008’s Giants of Early Guitar Rock and this year’s Tank Full of Blues that still find him making vital music. Real Gone’s 2-CD set reaches back to Dion’s breakout as a solo artist on the Laurie label, and catalogs all thirty-six of the sides he released as singles. He hit as a solo in 1960 with “Lonely Teenager,” and scored a 1-2 punch the following year with “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer.” He reached the Top 10 with  “Lovers Who Wander,” “Little Diane” and “Love Came to Me,” but in late 1962 departed for Columbia. Laurie had enough material in the vault to issue singles into 1964, charting with the originals “Sandy” and “Lonely World,” and covers of “Come Go with Me” and “Shout.”

He returned to Laurie in 1968, and at the label’s suggestion recorded “Abraham, Martin & John,” a song that resounded strongly amid the year’s social upheaval and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The record’s forlorn mood was just right for the times, and the single charted to #4 in the U.S. Dion’s stay at Laurie proved short-lived, as he moved to Warner Brothers the following year, but before going he released several more singles, including covers of Fred Neil’s “The Dolphins,” Joni Mitchell’s “From Both Sides Now,” a nearly unrecognizable folk-rock arrangement of “Purple Haze,” and a soulful take on the Four Tops’ “Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever.” He also recorded a few originals, including the heavy “Daddy Rollin’ (In Your Arms)” and socially charged “He Looks A Lot Like Me.” Dion’s songwriting had clicked as early as “Runaround Sue,” and it continued to sustain him through the rest of his career.

The thirty-six sides collected here represent nineteen singles released by Dion as a solo act for Laurie (two of the singles shared B-sides with other singles, hence the disparity between the number of sides and number of singles). All thirty-six sides are remastered from the original single mixes. Missing are Dion’s earlier releases with the Belmonts, as well as his sides on Columbia (which included the hits “Ruby Baby,” “Donna the Prima Donna” and “Drip Drop”). Lining up all the A’s and B’s, listeners will hear the tug-of-war between the label’s belief in pop songs, Dion’s love of gutsier blues and rock, the fast pace at which the music scene changed in the 1960s, and an artist’s ability to expand and reinvent himself. The 20-page booklet includes photos, picture sleeve reproductions, and extensive liner notes by Ed Osborne that feature generous quotes from Dion. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Dion’s Home Page

Alvin Lee: Still on the Road to Freedom

Leave a reply

Forty years after, Alvin Lee is still picking up a storm

It’s been five years since Alvin Lee’s last album, Saguitar, but it’s been nearly forty years since he shucked off the arena-level fame of Ten Years After and recorded 1973’s country-rock On the Road to Freedom with Mylon LeFevre, George Harrison, Steve Winwood and others. His latest collects songs written and recorded over a four-year period, mixing rock, blues, rockabilly, folk and country. Lee still sings well, but it’s his guitar – both electric and acoustic – that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Whether he’s blistering through a hard-rocker, playing a shuffle or Bo Diddley beat, riffing on the blues, or fingerpicking folk-country, Lee’s playing shines in both rhythm and extended solos. Lee closes the album by revisiting “Love Like a Man” in a style that leans more to NRBQ than Ten Years After. A sweet acoustic bonus track is hidden at disc’s end, providing a restful capstone to an album full of energy. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Alvin Lee’s Home Page

World Famous Headliners: World Famous Headliners

Leave a reply

Terrific country, rock and soul from A-list songwriters with an A-list rhythm section

Leave it to ace songwriters – Big Al Anderson, Shawn Camp and Pat McLaughlin – to come up with an attention-getting, tongue-in-cheek name for their new group. All three are indeed world-famous, at least among those of who read songwriting credits, and Andersonis widely known, at least among a well-bred set of listeners, for his guitar slinging and lengthy tenure in NRBQ. All three have written Nashville hits, co-written with rootsy outsiders, and had their songs covered by both mainstream and non-mainstream legends. Together with veteran players Michael Rhodes on bass and Greg Morrow on drums, the trio of songwriters steps up front for a set of country, rock, blues and soul originals whose eclecticism is not unlike the variety recorded by Anderson’s previous band.

The set opens at a Rockpile-styled canter with “Give Your Love to Me,” featuring call-and-response vocals and electric guitar solos; Morrow kicks off the subsequent “Mamarita” with a solid second-line beat that eases the band into the song’s New Orleans mood. 1950s balladry threads through several songs, but the modern touches, such as the bewitching bass vamp of “Heart of Gold,” keep the productions from turning retro. The vocalists often sing as a chorus, but there are solo turns that conjure the straight-shooting delivery of Waylon Jennings, with some yowling harmonies that suggest The Band. The group plays loping country soul, ala the Hacienda Brothers, and Cajun-spiced rockers that will remind you of David Lindley’s solo work.

The trio’s songs are as good as the band they’ve assembled, with catchy melodies, deep grooves, and lyrics that are both playful and thought-provoking. They write mostly of love’s pains and pleas, leavened with apology and elation, and couched in finely-crafted lyrics and clever rhymes that can be funny and sad at the same time. The band’s collective pulse, particularly on the mid-tempo R&B numbers, belies the five individual careers twined together for the first time. Their chemistry is the result of decades of complementary work that, in a just world, would actually lead to headlining gigs around the globe. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

World Famous Headliners Home Page

Sanford & Townsend: Smoke from a Distant Fire / Nail Me to the Wall

Leave a reply

First and third albums from soulful mid-70s one-hit wonders

Ed Sanford and John Townsend first worked together in their native South, but it wasn’t until they moved toLos Angelesthat their music garnered any commercial impact. The duo initially signed on as staff writers, but their aspirations to perform was achieved via songwriting demos and a contract with Warner Brothers. Their self-titled 1976 debut was produced by Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals, but even with all that going for it, it didn’t make a commercial impression at first. It wasn’t until the single “Smoke from a Distant Fire” climbed the chart and the album was reissued under the single’s title that the duo gained traction, including opening slots for major ‘70s hit makers. But as hot as the single became, climbing to #9, the duo was never able to chart again, and was dropped by their label after their third album.

Like many one-hit wonders, Sanford & Townsend made good music both before and after their brush with fame, and their albums have something to offer beyond the single. Johnny Townshend sings in an arresting tenor reminiscent of Daryl Hall, and the Muscle Shoals sound, supervised by keyboardist Barry Beckett, is solid and soulful. The duo’s songwriting is full of hooks that should have grabbed more radio time alongside Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, Orleansand Hall & Oates. Recorded in their home state of Alabama, the duo’s lyrical milieu was often cautionary tales of Southern Caifornia, to which they added carefully crafted moments of country, blues and Doobie Brothers-styled funk. The group’s third album, 1979’s Nail Me to the Wall, doesn’t fully measure up to the debut with which it’s paired, but both provide worthwhile listening beyond the well-known single. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Townsend’s Home Page

Clover: Clover / Fourty Niner

Leave a reply

Early ‘70s country-rock, blues and soul from Marin County

Clover was a Marin County, California four-piece that formed in the late ‘60s and recorded this pair of albums for Fantasy Records in 1970-71. Their renown, however, stems from later exploits, including the slot as Elvis Costello’s backing band on his 1977 debut, My Aim is True, as well as spinning off Huey Lewis and the News, and launching the solo and songwriting (including Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny”) career of Alex Call. Their original albums didn’t catch on upon initial release, and have been tough to find. Reissued on this two-fer, the performances reveal a band drawing inspiration from both the San Francisco scene and the country-rock wafting up from Los Angeles, and with additional dashes of blues and soul Clover was ready to rock the local clubs and bars.

The albums, like the band’s set list, sprinkled covers (Jr. Walker’s “Shotgun” Rev. Gary Davis’ “If I Had My Way” and a Creedence-styled jam on the spiritual “Wade in the Water” that surely stretched out to fifteen minutes on stage) amid originals that included country, electric blues, and jazz- and funk-rock. The former comes in several varieties, including the traditional-sounding lament “No Vacancy,” Bakersfield-influenced “Monopoly,” Clarence White-styled guitar picking of “Lizard Rock and Roll Band,” and bluegrass “Chicken Butt.” Guitarist John McFree shows off his steel playing on “Howie’s Song,” and drummer Mitch Howie adds funky beats to “Love is Gone.” In the end, Clover was a good band, though not particularly distinct, and their albums provide a reminder of how deep the bench was in the San Francisco scene. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]