[tim_j_thomas]

Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #1 - performed by Ashkenazy and the LSO directed by Previn.

 

[hawk]

Grateful Dead-Dick's Picks 28 2/26/73 and 2/28/73

 

[Happy Camper]

Eloy - Planets

 

[MoreCowbell]

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies.

 

[Tomikans]

Olive - You`re Not Alone (Oakenfold and Osborne Remix)

 

[Uncle Erik]

 

[virometal]

Booka Shade

Memento
Gui Boratto

Chromophobia

 

[TKO]

Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band - Sunspot Baby

Cheers.

 

[nickyboyo]

Gerling- 4

 

[feverfive]

All jazz, all the time for me lately... Where has all the good rock music gone?

 

[vcoheda]

 

[Carmantom]

"Harvest" Neil Young

 

[melomaniac]

Perlman playing Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Giulini conducting the Philharmornia Orchestra

 

[Hi-Finthen]

Tumbleweed Connection [HYBRID SACD]
(November 9, 2004)
Original Release Date: January 1971

Elton John

1. Ballad of a Well-Known Gun
2. Come Down in Time
3. Country Comfort
4. Son of Your Father
5. My Father's Gun
6. Where to Now St. Peter?
7. Love Song
8. Amoreena
9. Talking Old Soldiers
10. Burn Down the Mission
11. Into the Old Man's Shoes
12. Madman Across the Water [Original Version]

M.A. Hogan Review/Overview:

Although this album had no hit single, it represents one of Elton John and Bernie Taupin's strongest albums. Filled with imagery and a strong feeling for the old west, the songs bounce and rides along like an old western movie. Impeccably recorded, this SACD version (DSD) sounds crisp and clear with a strong bass and drum. Oft-covered songs like "Country Comfort" and "Burn Down The Mission" have been long favored FM songs. This is another Buckmaster/Dudgeon production and veterans Nigel Olsson and Dee Murray also play here. Dusty Springfield and Kate Taylor (James Taylor's sister) make cameo backing vocals as well. The inclusion of the original version of "Madman Across The Water" is a great addition with a guest appearance from Mick Ronson on guitar (David Bowie bandmember).

L.E. Holder Review/Overview:

Elton John has created quite a number of great albums. His first great album had to be his third album, "Tumbleweed Connection." This album was an early indication of Bernie Taupin's fascination with the American West. It was also an indication of how little Bernie knew about the American West. In fairness to Bernie, his lyrics on this album are among the most coherent and understandable of those on Elton's first six or eight albums.

The music on this CD is well balanced. Instrumentation is chosen and arranged based on the selection, giving us a picture of an artist quite different from Elton as we would come to know him, whose keyboards and piano were often prominently featured. Also Lesley Duncan wrote and co-sang "Love Song," unusual among Elton's earliest albums where Bernie wrote nearly all the lyrics and Elton wrote all the music. The Elton John and Bernie Taupin commercial steamroller would soon downplay the artistic excellence that they displayed on this album.

I have so many favorite songs on this CD that there isn't sufficient space to discuss all the songs properly in a single review. Most of my favorites are the ballads. Slow, smooth, mellow, beautifully and artistically performed. "Come Down in Time," "My Father's Gun," "Love Song," and "Talking Old Soldiers" all fall into this category. The topics are serious. The lyrics broach incredibly mature subjects for the young songwriting duo and Lesley Duncan. The arrangements, instrumentation and backing vocals are excellent.

Several of the faster songs are also excellent. "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" starts sounding a bit like the early 70s music it is, but then the beat and lyrics acquire a country flavor that could have placed Elton into country rock had he continued on this path. There seems something a bit bizarre about an English singer singing about a gunfighter in the American West, but this song, the first on the album, is performed so naturally that I immediately fell into the pace and style of the album.

"Country Comfort" may make some think of a similarly named beverage because the tone of the song feels mellow and smooth. The harmony on this song, with the steel guitar and violin, position this song as a country song. There isn't enough rock in this song to call the song country-rock. The next song, "Son of Your Father," has a boogie woogie piano starting the song, with segue into a fast rock beat. This song is rock with country underpinnings.

I've always enjoyed "Where to Now St. Peter?" The airy instrumentation and vocals, coupled with the surrealistic, dreamy lyrics, transitioning into a rock beat, create an interesting and unusual song about death. A song more easily experienced than described.

"Amoreena" is a love song, but much too fast-paced to be a ballad. The lyrics try a bit too hard to be poetically evocative rather than descriptive, but fall just a bit short. The music is pure pop as played by the instruments. The lyrics try to keep the song tied to the country flavor of the rest of the album, and succeed more by positioning of the song than any style of the music or vocals.

"Into the Old Man's Shoes" is well-done song about the transition from one generation to the next. The instrumentation foreshadows "Madman Across the Water," and would have fit well on that album. The subject, as in many of the other albums, is very serious and mature, and even the support of the instruments creates one of Elton's best, and highly underappreciated, songs.

I absolutely love "Burn Down the Mission." "Burn Down the Mission," at more than six and a half minutes, is one of the longest of Elton's early songs. The lyrics are virtually incomprehensible. While portions of the lyrics make sense, they conjoin pieces of Americana that did not coexist. Some portions of the lyrics make no sense within a stanza, for example burning down the mission while trying to take everything you need to live inside. In spite of the bizarre lyrical combinations, Elton's music and beat convey the sense of despair and urgency of people escaping attack by Mexican soldiers or perhaps Native Americans. I'm unsure because missions were typically an artifact of the southwest, while at least one reference is to a parish, which are only found in Louisiana. I have decided bordered on being progressive as we knew it then.

The last song on this CD is a nearly nine minute version of "Madman Across the Water." If you listen to this song and compare it to the style of the music on the CD "Madman Across the Water," I think you can see why this version was not used. The style is too heavy and different from the mellower, heavily orchestrated music of that CD. With the variety of musical pace and style on this album, this more bombastic version of "Madman Across the Water" is a somewhat better fit. It creates an interesting ending to this unique album.

This album deserved an SACD version. Many albums change for the worse in the transition to SACD. This album started as a great album and the SACD conversion is excellent. If you have an SACD stereo I recommend you consider acquiring this CD even if you already have the CD. In fact, if you like the non-SACD version, you will probably love the SACD version.

Elton John and Bernie Taupin have an incredible amount of talent. As their career progressed, and they were influenced by commercial needs, the talent evinced on this album was often obscured. But here you can see all that talent, bare, unfettered by commercial concern. Leap back more than 30 years to an album that may be a bit dated, but still contains all the power and talent of the King of Pop.

This CD is easy to enjoy because it is such great music.

/Strongly agree with the enclosed well written reviewers; Recommended both for S.Q. as well as content; Value: A

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------=>
RAY CHARLES/GENIUS LOVES COMPANY SACD

Audio CD (November 28, 2006)
Original Release Date: April 12, 2005
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Monster Music

1. Here We Go Again - Norah Jones
2. Sweet Potato Pie - James Taylor
3. You Don’t Know Me - Diana Krall
4. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word - Elton John
5. Fever - Natalie Cole
6. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind - Bonnie Raitt
7. It Was A Very Good Year - Willie Nelson
8. Hey Girl - Michael McDonald
9. Sinner’s Prayer - B.B. King
10. Heaven Help Us All - Gladys Knight
11. Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Johnny Mathis
12. Crazy Love - Van Morrison
13. Unchain My Heart - with Take 6
14. MaryAnn - with Poncho Sanchez

2005 Grammy Award Winner for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals (Here We Go Again), Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Gospel Performance (Heaven Help Us All), Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical & Best Surround Sound Album!

The incomparable Ray Charles, a thirteen-time GRAMMY® Award-winner and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has teamed with independent record label Concord Records to release a duets project that will feature a veritable who’s who of musical guests.

During a career that spans nearly six decades, Mr. Charles has appeared on over 250 recordings, many of them top-sellers, across a variety of genres. And, while he has performed with various artists in the past, this Concord Records release will be his first full album of duets.

“I first worked with Concord on a track for Poncho Sanchez’s Out of Sight CD,” explains Mr. Charles. “We had such a fun time and enjoyed a great rapport that it seemed liked a natural step to work on a whole album together. The duets project has been a tremendous experience. I am working with some of the best artists in the business, as well as some of my dearest friends.”

Date of Birth:
23 September 1930, Albany, Georgia, USA
Date of Death:
10 June 2004, Beverly Hills, California, USA

R.I.P., Brother Ray...

Recording Value: A

-----------------------------------------------------------------------=>
Classics, Volume 24: Cat Stevens [LIMITED EDITION]

Cat Stevens

1. On The Road To Find Out
2. Moonshadow
3. Sitting
4. Silent Sunlight
5. The Wind
6. Trouble
7. Peace Train
8. (Remember The Days Of The) Old Schoolyard
9. 18th Avenue
10. Where Do The Children Play?
11. Father And Son
12. If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out
13. Ghost Town
14. Tuesday's Dead
15. Morning Has Broken
16. Katmandu
17. Oh Very Young
18. Novim's Nightmare
19. Ruins
20. New York Times

Recording Value: B

 

[holdendebeans]

Papa Roach - Getting Away With Murder