Recorded at the Fillmore East concert hall, the storied rock venue in New York City, on Friday and Saturday March 12th, 1971–March 13th, 1971, the album showcased the band’s mixture of blues, southern rock, and jazz. “The true brilliance of this live recording is in the shorter pieces. The longer pieces (“Whipping Post,” “You Don’t Love Me,” and “Mountain Jam”) have their moments, but those moments are diluted in the self indulgent noodling typical of many 1970’s live performances. If The Allman Brothers Band: The Fillmore Concerts contained only “Statesboro Blues,” “Stormy Monday” and “One Way Out,” it would still have a place as one of the finest live recordings ever released.
“Statesboro Blues” and “One Way Out” have Duane Allman’s dense and precise slide guitar pitted against Richard Betts’ round lead guitar, with “One Way Out” providing Betts with his finest recorded guitar solo. “Stormy Monday” juxtaposes Allman and Bett’s distinct lead styles in an orgy of perfect blues phrasing. Gregg Allman’s jazzy organ interlude is an added delight.”
The history of the Allman Brothers in a pop up video with the song “Statesboro Blues” check out the new book/box set of the conclusive release of the historic Fillmore East Recordings from 1971, now to be reissued as a six disc set
Live At Fillmore East the double live album by The Allman Brothers Band. The band’s breakthrough success, At Fillmore East was released in July 1971. It ranks Number 49 among Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and remains among the top-selling albums in the band’s catalogue. The original album was released in both conventional two-channel stereo and four-channel quadraphonic mixes. This album has been certified as platinum by the RIAA as of August 25, 1992.
With the sparse arrangements and haunting music of Majke Voss Romme her beautiful soft vocal adds to the atomosphere of these songs, A stark new black and White video for the closing track “No Darkness” from the breathtaking album “May” one of the years best and most interesting debut releases
Lifes Rich Pageant is the fourth album from REM released in 1986 it featured the tracks like the ecological conscious “Fall On Me” and a cover of the Cliques “Superman” it also contains one of REM’s best songs “The Flowers Of Guatemala” recorded at John Mellencamp studio’s in Belmont Indiana. At the time this was REM’s most commercial and best selling album.
Paul McCartney and Wings‘ “Listen to What the Man Said” presents as a breezy romp, but sessions for the smash single were actually a painstaking drag. That is, until a key contributor came in and nailed his part on the very first try. “It was one of the songs we’d gone in with high hopes for,” McCartney said in 1975. “Whenever I would play it on the piano, people would say ‘Oh, I like that one.’ But when we did the backing track, we thought we didn’t really get it together at all.”
Sessions were at Allen Toussaint’s Sea-Saint Recording Studio in the New Orleans neighbourhood of Gentilly, where they’d complete Venus and Mars in early 1975. The locale provided a wealth of native and visiting talent, but McCartney was trying to work through “Listen to What the Man Said” with a core group that also included his late wife Linda McCartney, band stalwart Denny Laine and newer recruits Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English.
“Mainly we’re coming here to make our own album,” McCartney told local reporters back then. “I don’t like to come to a place and use too much of the local talent, because you get people saying, ‘Oh, they’re taking our style.” But New Orleans worked its way into the proceedings anyway.
Wings stayed at the Le Richelieu Hotel in the French Quarter, right in the middle of the annual Carnival festivities. During a break from recording, Paul and Linda dressed as a pair of clowns then actually waded into the crowds on February 1975, as revelers celebrated Mardi Gras. Wings went back the next day to complete a raucous future b-side called “My Carnival,” before returning to the still-unfinished “Listen What the Man Said.”
Dave Mason of Traffic fame happened to be in town on tour, so a frustrated McCartney brought him in. “A couple of the guys from Wings came by to the see the show, and we had a day off the next day,” said Mason “They said: ‘Why don’t you come down to the studio? I’m sure Paul would love to see you.’ So, I just stopped by, and they happened to be cutting ‘Listen to What the Man Said.’ Paul was, like: ‘Hey, c’mon, you should sit in with us.'”
McCartney still remained dissatisfied. At this point, a song that ended up as the gold-selling lead single from Venus and Mars seemed to be going absolutely nowhere. Mulling it over, McCartney hit upon another idea: “We thought it would be great to have a very technical musician come in and do a great lyrical solo,” That’s when someone in the studio mentioned that Tom Scott, the well-known jazz saxophonist, lived nearby. “We said, ‘Yeah, give him a ring, see if he turns up,’ and he turned up within half an hour!” McCartney said. “There he was with his sax, and he sat down in the studio playing through. The engineer [Alan O’Duffy] was recording it. We kept all the notes he was playing casually. [Scott] came in and I said ‘I think that’s it.’ He said ‘Did you record that?’ I said yes, and we listened to it back.”
The instrumental track for “Listen to What the Man Said” was finally complete. “No one could believe it, so [Scott] went out and tried a few more,” McCartney told Gambaccini, “but they weren’t as good. He’d had all the feel on this early take, the first take.”
As McCartney completed the vocal, O’Duffy added a barely heard Easter egg, positioned right after Paul sings “soldier boy kisses girl.” “I do remember exactly that it was lovely Linda who did the kiss on a microphone during one of the vocal takes,” O’Duffy said in Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney: Recordings Sessions. “I made a point of making sure it was audible in the mix later at Wally Heider Studios.”
Issued on May 16, 1975, “Listen to What the Man Said” became Paul McCartney and Wings‘ eighth consecutive and the fourth of their seven total No. 1 singles.
Mason and Scott became part of a group of outside collaborators on Venus and Mars. Toussaint played piano on “Rock Show.” Local legends George Porter Jr. and Benny Spellman appeared on “My Carnival.” O’Duffy also hired trombonist and arranger Tony Dorsey, an area native; Dorsey then brought in some college buddies to complete the horn section.
In a final nod to his Big Easy surroundings, McCartney attached a pre-song sentence to “Listen What the Man Said”: “Alright, okay, very good to see you down in New Orleans, man – yeah reet, yeah yeah,” he mumbled, impersonating Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. McCartney later invited the Meters to play at the release party for Venus and Mars, held aboard the Queen Mary out of Long Beach, Calif.
As a further addition to the Paul McCartney Collection of Re-issues the two Wings albums VENUS AND MARS and WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND were issued at the end of September 2014, originally recorded in 1975 and 1976 they were made available as a standard 2CD set and a deluxe 2CD 1 DVD and Book with 135 pages of photos and memorabilia, all included unreleased tracks and demos. these releases are following the superb sets of BAND ON THE RUN, McCARTNEY and McCARTNEY II and the live set WINGS OVER AMERICA,
A true classic and a landmark album released on the 22nd July 1977 Costello’s debut album has been listed as one of the best debut of all time. recorded at Pathway studios in Islington late at night sessions taking approximately 24 hours to record it was also the first of five consecutive albums produced by Nick Lowe. Costello had been performing his songs in clubs and pubs in liverpool he had cut some demos and sent them to various labels with no success, He had been asked by Stiff Records to record some demos for the possibility of being a songwriter for Dave Edmunds but Edmunds was reluctant, Costello at this time was still working his day job as a data clerk, The label had Costello and the band Clover record to show his songs off but decided to release the songs as his first album, the first two singles had done very little and Costello was still working at his day job when the album was released in July 1977,
He was asked to give up his job they would match his wages gave him an amp and a tape recorder and he became a professional musician. the iconic cover shot which became Elvis’s trademark look with the Buddy Holly glasses and bent knee. The album was re-recorded with the same songs and arrangements with Elvis’s permanent backing band The Attractions at a later date that summer the idea was to replace the original recording with the Clover version and the initial pressings had sold out but this never happened, Costello and Clover played together for a one off benefit in November 2007 in San Francisco. There have been several re-issues with added tracks but the Costello/Attractions version has never been released. The standout tracks of “Less Than Zero, Alison, Red Shoes and Watching The Detectives.
OWL JOHN aka Scott Hutchinson from the Scottish band Frightenend Rabbit has a solo album due to be released 4th August this is the closing track from the album recorded in Los Angeles and the Ise Of Mull, he is playing some dates around Scotland and one at Manchester.
Slow Club were always going to produce a classic album with superb musicianship and such songwriting talents of Rebecca Taylor and Charles Watson they are a powerful partnership, the Sheffield based Boy/Girl duo have played some wonderful energetic live sets but now with the added band members including the wonderful Sweet Baboo the band have just got better and are now headlining festivals. Formed in 2005 when teenage friends they have powerful pop songs and charismatic vocals with influences of all genres, the new album “Complete Surrender” is more immaculate produced pop and at last I hope everyone appreciates this wonderful quality band catch them at Tramlines or Deershed festival,
Glasgow duo Honeyblood have been one of my favourite new bands this year with superb songs, great playing and a huge sound for just the two girls Shona McVicar on drums and Stina Tweeddale on guitars, Ive caught them live several times and the songs just got better, so the anticpation for the debut album is exceeded, released on Fat Cat Records and recorded in just 10 days with the Nationals producer Peter Katis studio in Connecticut USA last November its such an accomplished listen with the favourites from the live set and with strong Riffs throughout, the guitars to the fore the opener “Fall Forever” to the punkish “Killer Bangs” and the superb lyric to “Super Rat” these are all Indie Pop gems and the more poppy “I’d Rather Be Anywhere But Here” it also has the bands classic track “Bud” .
another track from the band I have seen more times this year than anyone else and a band that just keep getting better great songs superbly played and live a huge sound from this Glasgow band
