What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

Best of the Doobies - a pretty good compilation IMHO - impossible to be in any way down at heart while this is going on! Caution: earworm alert! 

[Frands]

The danish version of Ike & Tina Turner's song River Deep Mountain High:

Annisette & Dandy Swingers ‎– River Deep Mountain High/ 1968





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[Jerome]

Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn - has it's moments but isn't a patch on the original.

[Jerome]

Camel - Dust and Dreams - the more I listen to this album the more I like it and the more I find to like about it. I first time I took this album with me on holiday on the Amalfi Coast in Italy many moons ago, I sat on the patio of the villa I rented and watched the storms roll in from the sea and immersed myself in this album for about a week. According to the sleeve notes it was inspired by John Steinbeck's novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' set in the Great Depression in the USA. I don't know what it is about this album that gets to me but it is an absolute masterpiece. An unassuming piece of genius. Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets the guitar to talk like Andrew Latimer can. Orchestral swells, rhythmic synths darting in and out, soaring lead lines and funky grooves. What more could you possibly want? When I listen to this I just take off. Magnificent. Musicians like this are few and far between.

[Jerome]

The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.

[Jerome]

Yes - Tormato - not a very popular release by the band but I love it.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Ray Davies - "americana"  cd ,  2017:

his fifth studio solo set outside The Kinks...
his highest charting solo set in his homeland also peaking at #15 over there...
sort of a concept album...
songs about his experiences in the US since his first visit in the mid sixties with The Kinks
to the present....
most songs sound like The Kinks, mainly their quieter material, but a couple of rockers on it also...
superb album, up there musically and lyrically with the best of his career IMO...
will  probably end up being my favourite album of 2017,
superb effort and well worth the time listening to it if you haven't already....

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couldn't get the last link in the previous post to attach to the post, so here it is,
one of the rockers from Ray Davies'  "Americana" album:

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NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE "live rust" cd, 1979:

been playing this one over the last week or so...
superb live album, one of rock music's greatest live albums IMO...
every song is a cracker...
I hear this album and I realise that Mr'Young hasn't written/recorded anything of this calibre
in the last twenty five years...
Neil at his best for sure!

[Jerome]

Revelations - Uriah Heep - a compilation of tracks, mainly the classics. Good stuff.

[Jerome]

Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday

[Ruby]

HEART – Dreamboat Annie



 
Another one from the pile of records. Not obscure or anything like that, but I did not have it before …
 
These sisters, Ann and Nancy Wilson were great, and unsurprisingly, hugely popular at the time – 1975. Ann had/has a magnificent voice for rock – effortlessly true. I know Little Queen fairly well, and am familiar with some of the songs from Dreamboat Annie but am not very well acquainted with the rest of their catalogue.
 
This is a good mix and the production/presentation is excellent; liner notes on quality card and a gatefold filled with photos, all very slick. Great strategy to make and package a quality debut album – it sets the tone IMHO. Their career was in the competent hands of Mike Flicker who discovered, signed and produced them. He didn’t do too badly out of the deal either – win, win for everyone.
 
The “Dreamboat Annie” song/theme is made in three sections that are spread throughout the album. This is the reprise and the final tack … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVLHqB7x5KE
 
One of their better known singles and a rocker … “Crazy on You” …