What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

DAVID BOWIE   "aladin sane" cd,  1973...

Bowie's sixth....
rock, glam and uniquely Bowie...
biggie off it was "the jean genie"...
love most of the album, even like his cover of The Stones' "lets spend the night together"...
album has stood the test of time, sounds fresh and new after all these years, unlike it predecessor 
"Ziggy stardust" which is stuck in its 1972 time warp IMO (much like Sgt Peppers which is stuck in 1967)...
one of his best for sure...

---

album is almost its own 'best of' package IMO with tracks like "jean genie", "aladin sane", "the prettiest star",
"drive-in Saturday" but I'm going for this one on this occasion:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

JET  "get born"  cd, 2003:

Aussie rockers...
debut album...
showed so much promise with this one, good eclectic mix of blues/hard rock, ballads, rock etc...
unfortunately, their next (and only) albums got progressively worse...
this is an absolute rock classic IMO, one of the best rock albums of the last thirty years IMO.

---

[Crowddedmusicplayer]

JET  "get born"  cd, 2003:

Aussie rockers...
debut album...
showed so much promise with this one, good eclectic mix of blues/hard rock, ballads, rock etc...
unfortunately, their next (and only) albums got progressively worse...
this is an absolute rock classic IMO, one of the best rock albums of the last thirty years IMO.

---

Great song. It was a soundtrack on a video game I used to play often.

[Ruby]

Time to audit the record cabinet – starting at left and listening to whatever it is that is there. First up Supertramp – Famous Last Words. 



Well, it’s not Crime of the Century, or Crisis? What Crisis? – it’s the last album with Roger Hodgson and is weighted in his favour, I think. Death knell for the classic lineup of the band it might have been, but there are still some good sounds on this – I was really taken with the Davies penned "Waiting So Long" on this listen. Unfortunately, very scant Supertramp clips on YT.
 
That was followed by Freddie Mercury – Mr. Bad Guy. 



Well now – Freddie in all his flamboyant fabulousness with a little bit of filler and a handful of songs that put said filler in the shade. Best of all – at the bottom right corner of the lyrics liner and after the credits is a superb little Freddie gem – lol!! I can just visualise him saying this out loud …

"This album is dedicated to my cat Jerry - also Tom, Oscar and Tiffany, and all the cat lovers across the universe - screw everybody else."
 
The beautiful "There Must Be More to Life Than This" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKSv0gK_NA

... and the title track ... 





Thank you Mr Mercury … (next up Deodata – Prelude … this could be quite a trip) ...

[Music Head]

^^
how much vinyl do you have?

[Ruby]

^^A mere drop in the ocean by comparison to you! Lol! I reckon I have about 500 lp's. There's no way I'm going to get through listening to them all, so will just pick and choose and hopefully find a nice surprise or two along the way. The next three were The Stranglers Feline, which I just don't feel like, T Rex The Peel Sessions which is pretty much an EP, and Django Reinhardt The Versatile Giant - a compilation. Listened to a bit of Django - he's so revered - pity the recordings aren't better quality. Even if swing jazz ain't your thing - it's easy to hear why he's held in such high regard. How he did that with only the use of two fingers on his left hand is a mystery to me! A whole lot packed into a relatively short life.

Moving on to the next batch ...

[Ruby]

Wishbone Ash – Argus




Released in 1972 - sometimes this album just sits well with me – and it was in the next batch in the record cabinet. What’s really cool about the cover is that when you unfold it, you find that the watcher, or guardian (whose upper body is blocking the sun) is looking at a bright flying saucer reflecting those rays and which seems almost incandescent in a misty and magical landscape. It’s a photograph by Barry Wentzell for Hipgnosis. None of the pics I can find on the www seem to do it justice - colours are not right - or perhaps my copy is just faded! Lol!
 
Two favs, “Throw Down the Sword” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LByiVlc6czA, and
“Leaf and Stream” …

Find myself beside a stream of empty thought,
Like a leaf that's fallen to the ground, ...

[CRAZY-HORSE]

PAUL McCARTNEY  "tug of war"  vinyl. cd. 1982:

his eleventh post Beatle album....
first solo stint with George Martin at the helm....
first release after the murder of John....
Rolling Stone/MOJO and NME call it "his solo masterpiece"....
album has probably the best collection of crafted songs in his arsenal as a writer...
lyrically, musically, vocally  and production wise its up there with any album from any era...
his harmonies are second to none on this album...
two guest stars on here, Steveie Wonder who appears on two tracks, the funked up "whats that youre going?"
and the anti racism ballad "ebony and ivory", elsewhere we see original rockabilly  icon Carl Perkins on "get it",
a track that would fit well on any album from the old Sun Records...
"here today" is a superb deeply personal tribute to Lennon....
this album demonstrates exactly why Paul McCartney IS so brilliant.
I scored this album as I was playing it and it scores a more than respectable 2.5 from me:

---

my favourite song from the album (if you haven't heard it you should maybe take a listen)

[Ruby]

^Ok - I'm going to listen to that one. 

Traffic – The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys



 
Some lekker funky stuff on this album from 1971, and a cool die cut album cover. For those of you who don’t understand, lekker is an Afrikaans work that describes all things good/cool/enjoyable/pleasing – used all the time in SA, no matter which of the eleven official languages you speak. Everyone knows exactly what you mean if you say something’s ‘lekker’ – the only difference is in the way it’s pronounced. Phonetically, it could be lacquer, or could be lehker. And there you go. Anthropology lesson over. Lol!
 
From the record cabinet (which is large, fortunately), I like Chris Wood’s flute and sax which are all over this album (although, they all acquit themselves very nicely thank you) and the super duper percussion, courtesy of one Rebop Kwaku Baah …
 
The title track …

[Jerome]

Elton John - The Captain and the Kid - the more I listen to this the more I like it - reminiscent of his former glory days - favourite track - Tinder Box.

---

^Ok - I'm going to listen to that one. 

Traffic – The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys




 
Some lekker funky stuff on this album from 1971, and a cool die cut album cover. For those of you who don’t understand, lekker is an Afrikaans work that describes all things good/cool/enjoyable/pleasing – used all the time in SA, no matter which of the eleven official languages you speak. Everyone knows exactly what you mean if you say something’s ‘lekker’ – the only difference is in the way it’s pronounced. Phonetically, it could be lacquer, or could be lehker. And there you go. Anthropology lesson over. Lol!
 
From the record cabinet (which is large, fortunately), I like Chris Wood’s flute and sax which are all over this album (although, they all acquit themselves very nicely thank you) and the super duper percussion, courtesy of one Rebop Kwaku Baah …
 
The title track …





I always found the title of this album fascinating for some or other bizarre reason...….