10860 - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - THE TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION, DISC TWO (2015)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
''THE TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION, DISC TWO''
DECEMBER 4 2015
197:16

**********

DISC ONE (40:00)
1 The Ties That Bind 03:33
2 Sherry Darling 04:03
3 Jackson Cage 03:04
4 Two Hearts 02:42
5 Independence Day 04:46
6 Hungry Heart 03:19
7 Out In the Street 04:17
8 Crush on You 03:11
9 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 02:35
10 I Wanna Marry You 03:26
11 The River 05:01

*****

DISC TWO (43:12)
1 Point Blank 06:07
2 Cadillac Ranch 03:03
3 I'm a Rocker 03:35
4 Fade Away 04:41
5 Stolen Car 03:52
6 Ramrod 04:04
7 The Price You Pay 05:26
8 Drive All Night 08:26
9 Wreck on the Highway 03:54

*****

DISC THREE (38:14)
1 The Ties That Bind (The River: Single Album) 03:36
2 Cindy (The River: Single Album) 02:25
3 Hungry Heart (The River: Single Album) 03:25
4 Stolen Car (Vs.1 - The River: Single Album) 04:28
5 Be True (The River: Single Album) 03:51
6 The River (The River: Single Album) 04:54
7 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) (Vs.1 - The River: Single Album) 02:09
8 The Price You Pay (The River: Single Album) 05:49
9 I Wanna Marry You (The River: Single Album) 03:26
10 Loose End (The River: Single Album) 04:07

*****

DISC FOUR (75:50)
1 Meet Me In The City (The River: Outtakes) 03:35
2 The Man Who Got Away (The River: Outtakes) 03:29
3 Little White Lies (The River: Outtakes) 02:36
4 The Time That Never Was (The River: Outtakes) 03:37
5 Night Fire (The River: Outtakes) 04:42
6 Whitetown (The River: Outtakes) 03:23
7 Chain Lightning (The River: Outtakes) 02:49
8 Party Lights (The River: Outtakes) 03:08
9 Paradise By The "C" (The River: Outtakes) 03:07
10 Stray Bullet (The River: Outtakes) 06:06
11 Mr. Outside (The River: Outtakes) 02:11
12 Roulette 03:52
13 Restless Nights 03:43
14 Where The Bands Are 03:43
15 Dollhouse 03:31
16 Living On The Edge Of The World 04:17
17 Take 'Em as They Come 04:28
18 Ricky Wants A Man Of Her Own 02:44
19 I Wanna Be With You 03:21
20 Mary Lou 03:21
21 Held Up Without a Gun (The River: Outtakes) 01:16
22 From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) 02:42

**********

REVIEW/AMG
Mark Deming
Bruce Springsteen's ambition is his blessing and his curse. He's always believed that rock & roll is a music that can express people's deepest hopes and dreams and change their lives, and his best work communicates that brilliantly. But Springsteen often seems to doubt his own abilities and struggles under the weight of his own (high) standards, and many of Springsteen's best albums were painstakingly created as he spent months in the studio, searching for the right set of songs and performances that would tell the larger story in his mind. Springsteen is too smart to believe you can will a masterpiece into creation, but he does have a work ethic that suggests nothing worthwhile comes without sweat and sore muscles, and the man who regularly plays energetic three-hour shows has never hesitated to do whatever it takes to get the details just right in the studio, even if the desire is to create something that sounds explosive and spontaneous. After taking his early urban folk tales of cars and girls as far as he could on Born to Run, Springsteen took a long, hard look at the lives of those same kids, now saddled with adult responsibilities and realizing that the American Dream was increasingly out of their grasp, on 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. With 1980's The River, Springsteen sought to expand on those themes while also offering more of the tough, bar-band rock that was his trademark (and often conspicuous in its absence on Darkness), and by the time it was released it had swelled into Springsteen's first two-LP set. After presenting his fans with a grand-scale study of how Darkness on the Edge of Town came into being on the 2010 box set The Promise, Springsteen does the same for The River with The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, which features a newly remastered edition of the original album along with a bonus disc of outtakes (most previously unreleased) and an early single-LP version of the album that Springsteen opted not to release because it failed to tell the story he had envisioned. The short version sounds like the rough draft that it is, though it also includes several songs that didn't appear on the longer final version ("Loose Ends" and "To Be True" in particular are superb songs that simply didn't fit the flow of the album), as well as different versions of a few tracks that do ("The Ties That Bind" contains different lyrics, while "Stolen Car" and "You Can Look [But You Better Not Touch]" feature different arrangements). And the outtakes disc offers 22 variations on the album's themes that point to any number of directions the album could have gone, and if nothing else it says a great deal about Springsteen that he had enough good songs that numbers as strong as "Party Lights," "Roulette," "Where the Bands Are," and "Chain Lightning" could end up on the shelf. The Ties That Bind also includes a documentary (on DVD or Blu-ray) on the making of the film, as well as a full concert filmed in 1980 that finds Springsteen & the E Street Band in incendiary form. The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, like a high-profile DVD release of the 2000s, is more about the bonus features than the main feature, but the extras lend an invaluable perspective to one of the most important works in Springsteen's catalog, and this set makes it possible to imagine the many chapters that could have been added or removed from the album while still telling the same powerful story, as well as documenting the thought and effort Springsteen put into the process.

**********

WEBSITE

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10859 - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - THE TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION, DISC ONE (2015)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
''THE TIES THAT BIND: THE RIVER COLLECTION, DISC ONE''
DECEMBER 4 2015
197:16

**********

DISC ONE (40:00)
1 The Ties That Bind 03:33
2 Sherry Darling 04:03
3 Jackson Cage 03:04
4 Two Hearts 02:42
5 Independence Day 04:46
6 Hungry Heart 03:19
7 Out In the Street 04:17
8 Crush on You 03:11
9 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 02:35
10 I Wanna Marry You 03:26
11 The River 05:01

*****

DISC TWO (43:12)
1 Point Blank 06:07
2 Cadillac Ranch 03:03
3 I'm a Rocker 03:35
4 Fade Away 04:41
5 Stolen Car 03:52
6 Ramrod 04:04
7 The Price You Pay 05:26
8 Drive All Night 08:26
9 Wreck on the Highway 03:54

*****

DISC THREE (38:14)
1 The Ties That Bind (The River: Single Album) 03:36
2 Cindy (The River: Single Album) 02:25
3 Hungry Heart (The River: Single Album) 03:25
4 Stolen Car (Vs.1 - The River: Single Album) 04:28
5 Be True (The River: Single Album) 03:51
6 The River (The River: Single Album) 04:54
7 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) (Vs.1 - The River: Single Album) 02:09
8 The Price You Pay (The River: Single Album) 05:49
9 I Wanna Marry You (The River: Single Album) 03:26
10 Loose End (The River: Single Album) 04:07

*****

DISC FOUR (75:50)
1 Meet Me In The City (The River: Outtakes) 03:35
2 The Man Who Got Away (The River: Outtakes) 03:29
3 Little White Lies (The River: Outtakes) 02:36
4 The Time That Never Was (The River: Outtakes) 03:37
5 Night Fire (The River: Outtakes) 04:42
6 Whitetown (The River: Outtakes) 03:23
7 Chain Lightning (The River: Outtakes) 02:49
8 Party Lights (The River: Outtakes) 03:08
9 Paradise By The "C" (The River: Outtakes) 03:07
10 Stray Bullet (The River: Outtakes) 06:06
11 Mr. Outside (The River: Outtakes) 02:11
12 Roulette 03:52
13 Restless Nights 03:43
14 Where The Bands Are 03:43
15 Dollhouse 03:31
16 Living On The Edge Of The World 04:17
17 Take 'Em as They Come 04:28
18 Ricky Wants A Man Of Her Own 02:44
19 I Wanna Be With You 03:21
20 Mary Lou 03:21
21 Held Up Without a Gun (The River: Outtakes) 01:16
22 From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come) 02:42

**********

REVIEW/AMG
Mark Deming
Bruce Springsteen's ambition is his blessing and his curse. He's always believed that rock & roll is a music that can express people's deepest hopes and dreams and change their lives, and his best work communicates that brilliantly. But Springsteen often seems to doubt his own abilities and struggles under the weight of his own (high) standards, and many of Springsteen's best albums were painstakingly created as he spent months in the studio, searching for the right set of songs and performances that would tell the larger story in his mind. Springsteen is too smart to believe you can will a masterpiece into creation, but he does have a work ethic that suggests nothing worthwhile comes without sweat and sore muscles, and the man who regularly plays energetic three-hour shows has never hesitated to do whatever it takes to get the details just right in the studio, even if the desire is to create something that sounds explosive and spontaneous. After taking his early urban folk tales of cars and girls as far as he could on Born to Run, Springsteen took a long, hard look at the lives of those same kids, now saddled with adult responsibilities and realizing that the American Dream was increasingly out of their grasp, on 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. With 1980's The River, Springsteen sought to expand on those themes while also offering more of the tough, bar-band rock that was his trademark (and often conspicuous in its absence on Darkness), and by the time it was released it had swelled into Springsteen's first two-LP set. After presenting his fans with a grand-scale study of how Darkness on the Edge of Town came into being on the 2010 box set The Promise, Springsteen does the same for The River with The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, which features a newly remastered edition of the original album along with a bonus disc of outtakes (most previously unreleased) and an early single-LP version of the album that Springsteen opted not to release because it failed to tell the story he had envisioned. The short version sounds like the rough draft that it is, though it also includes several songs that didn't appear on the longer final version ("Loose Ends" and "To Be True" in particular are superb songs that simply didn't fit the flow of the album), as well as different versions of a few tracks that do ("The Ties That Bind" contains different lyrics, while "Stolen Car" and "You Can Look [But You Better Not Touch]" feature different arrangements). And the outtakes disc offers 22 variations on the album's themes that point to any number of directions the album could have gone, and if nothing else it says a great deal about Springsteen that he had enough good songs that numbers as strong as "Party Lights," "Roulette," "Where the Bands Are," and "Chain Lightning" could end up on the shelf. The Ties That Bind also includes a documentary (on DVD or Blu-ray) on the making of the film, as well as a full concert filmed in 1980 that finds Springsteen & the E Street Band in incendiary form. The Ties That Bind: The River Collection, like a high-profile DVD release of the 2000s, is more about the bonus features than the main feature, but the extras lend an invaluable perspective to one of the most important works in Springsteen's catalog, and this set makes it possible to imagine the many chapters that could have been added or removed from the album while still telling the same powerful story, as well as documenting the thought and effort Springsteen put into the process.

**********

WEBSITE

**********

TO THE TOP

**********

10858 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - PEACE & LOVE: THE DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION, JANUARY 20TH 2014 LOS ANGELES (2015)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
''PEACE & LOVE: THE DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION, JANUARY 20TH 2014, LOS ANGELES''
DECEMBER 4 2015
45:06

**********

1 Can't Do It Wrong 03:48
2 Octopus's Garden 02:53
3 Don't Go Where The Road Don't Go 04:07
4 It Don't Come Easy 06:32
5 Oh My My 04:15
6 Walk With You 05:15
7 Back Off Boogaloo 05:57
8 Photograph 03:48
9 Boys 03:20
10 With A Little Help From My Friends 05:04

**********

ABOUT THE ALBUM
Ringo Starr Honored With 'Lifetime of Peace and Love Award'
David Lynch and an all-star band paid tribute to the musician in Los Angeles last night
By Gavin Edwards January 21, 2014, www.rollingstone.com
For his 68th birthday last night, director David Lynch threw a party for Ringo Starr. More precisely, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace gave Starr the not-made-up-at-all "Lifetime of Peace and Love Award." Which meant that Lynch's foundation wanted to honor the peace-loving Starr as a pioneer of transcendental meditation and promote their own good works in teaching meditation to school children and military veterans. Since those worthy notions were packaged with an all-star romp through some of Starr's catalog, the crowd at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles could go home feeling that every one of them had all they needed.

Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono sent videos in which they declared their Ringo-love, while Lynch gave a short speech that began "In all the galaxies of peace and love, Ringo is a giant star" and ended with "Hurray for Ringo!" Starr took the stage and discussed his own history with transcendental meditation: in 1968, when the Beatles studied with the Maharishi, they became poster children for the movement. "He was so full of joy," Starr said of the Maharishi, "I said, 'I want some of that.'" Starr acknowledged that he had let his own practice lapse for months and sometimes years since then, but said that for the past four years, he had been meditating "364 days a year." Accepting the award – before handing it back to Lynch because it was too heavy – Starr peered into the audience and said that it was "great to see a lot of people I know out there. And three of them are meditating."

The hour-long show had a stellar house band: Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) on keyboards, Steve Lukather (Toto) and Peter Frampton on guitar, Kenny Aronoff (John Mellencamp's band) on drums, and Don Was on bass. Was, who also served as musical director, was sporting dark glasses, a beard, and a long scarf with orange tassels. He looked amused and louche throughout the whole show, as if he had stumbled onstage on his way to a somewhat more decadent party.

The house band's starpower eclipsed that of some of the featured performers, such as Jesse Elliott and Lindsay Giles of Ark Life, who started the show with a bluesy version of "Can't Do It Wrong" (a deep cut from Starr's 2010 album Y Not). "Octopus's Garden" got a faithful version courtesy of three of the six members in the Head and the Heart (Josiah Johnson, Jonathan Russell, and Charity Rose Thielen – half the band showed up, but they never clarified whether they were the Head or the Heart.) Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs tackled "Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go (another deep cut, from 1992's Time Takes Time). Benson turned up the heat somewhat, meaning that he inspired Was to stand up.

Soul legend Bettye LaVette announced "This is also my 50th year in show business – this is the best band I've ever had." After saying "I hope those aren't the lyrics, because I can't see 'em," she reprised her own cover of the Starr single "It Don't Come Easy." Slow, sultry, and powerful, it was the standout performance of the night. By the time LaVette was done, "we can make it work out better" sounded like the wisdom of the ancients.

Ben Folds, with an electric keyboard on a stand rather than his preferred grand piano, joked that he "wouldn't play an ironing board for anyone but Ringo." Then he did a killer version of "Oh My My," romping through Starr's boogie-woogie composition and attacking that keyboard with his elbow, to the visible amusement and pleasure of the house band. Ben Harper contributed a heartfelt take on "Walk With You" (also from Y Not). Then Joe Walsh came out and told the crowd that everything up to that point was "the quiet part" of the evening, and backed it up with a heavy metal version of "Back Off Boogaloo."

Starr came back onstage for three songs. The first, "Photograph," was fine. Then he said, "I need to go play something on the drums, so you can see I can still hold the sticks," and delivered a thrilling, perfect version of "Boys" (the Shirelles B-side covered by the Beatles). Starr, who has been singing "Boys" since his days in Liverpool's Cavern Club, observed that he had been doing the song longer than most of the audience had been alive – but he still tackled it with the glee of a teenager. The show ended with a sloppy singalong version of "With a Little Help from My Friends," including the show's array of performers – plus other random audience members, including Sheila E., Edgar Winter, and Jim Carrey.

As a coda, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti gave framed certificates to both Lynch and Starr. Lynch then recited an inspirational verse over a guitar drone, strictly instructing guitarist Steve Lukather, "One chord, Lukather."

"Very bossy on your birthday," Starr joked.

Starr concluded the evening by asking for donations to the David Lynch Foundation and touting the benefits of meditation with a classic Ringoism: "Meditation was started thousands of years ago – and I was there."

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10857 - TAJ MAHAL - IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC THREE (1998)

TAJ MAHAL
''IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC THREE''
OCTOBER 13 1998
203:22

**********

DISC ONE (65:25)
1 You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond 06:15 (Blind Willie Johnson)
2 Corrina 04:26 (Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal)
3 Checkin' Up On My Baby 05:39 (Sony Boy Williamson II)
4 Leaving Trunk 06:24 (Sleeping John Estes)
5 Buck Dancer's Choice 03:09 (Traditional)
6 Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue 03:32 (Taj Mahal)
7 She Caught The Katy & Left Me A Mule To Ride 03:26 (Taj Mahal)
8 Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') 01:00 (Chuck Blackwell, J. Davis, Gary Gilmore, Taj Mahal)
9 Stagger Lee 03:18 (Harold Logan, Lloyd Price)
10 Built For Comfort 04:44 (Willie Dixon)
11 Natural Man 04:26 (Taj Mahal)
12 Railroad Bill 02:33 (John Work III)
13 Texas Woman Blues 02:54 (Taj Mahal)
14 Early In The Morning 04:58 (Roy Milton)
15 Dust My Broom 04:28 (Robert Johnson)
16 Blind Boy Rag 04:07 (J. Davis, Taj Mahal)

*****

DISC TWO (65:38)
1 Oh, Susanna 02:57 (Traditional)
2 Cakewalk Into Town 02:32 (Taj Mahal)
3 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
4 Nobody's Busines But My Own 03:27 (Taj Mahal)
5 Sweet Mama Janisse 03:31 (Taj Mahal)
6 Little Red Hen Blues 04:54 (Taj Mahal)
7 Mary Don't You Weep 02:37 (Traditional)
8 Sweet Home Chicago 03:14 (Traditional)
9 Frankie & Albert 03:57 (Mississippi John Hurt)
10 M'Banjo 03:17 (Taj Mahal)
11 Statesboro Blues (Take 2) 02:23 (Blind Willie McTell)
12 Bye & Bye 03:31 (Charleyt Patton)
13 Six Days On The Road 02:58 (Earl Green, Carl Montgomery)
14 We Gonna Rock 05:54 (Taj Mahal)
15 Ain't It Funky Now 02:42 (Taj Mahal)
16 Tom & Sally Drake 03:39 (Taj Mahal)
17 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
18 Blues With A Feeling 04:12 (Little Walter)
19 Freight Train 03:17 (Elizabeth Cotten)
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19: Previously Unreleased
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 14: Live

*****

DISC THREE (72:19)
1 When I Feel The Sea Beneath My Soul 03:06 (Taj Mahal)
2 West Indian Revelation 06:04 (Taj Mahal)
3 Eighteen Hammers 03:30 (Taj Mahal)
4 Johnny Too Bad 03:12 (Winston ''Shadow'' Bailey, Hylton Beckford, Derric Crooks, Sydney Crooks, T. Wilson)
5 Slave Driver 02:34 (Bob Marley)
6 (Clara) St. Kitts Woman 04:13 (Taj Mahal)
7 Do I Love Her 04:04 (Taj Mahal)
8 Everybody Is Somebody 03:29 (Warren Bailey)
9 But I Rode Some 02:25 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
10 Crossing 02:31 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
11 Sentidos Dulce (Sweet Feelings) 03:05 (Taj Mahal)
12 The Most Recent Evolution Of Muthafusticus Modernusticus 03:20 (Taj Mahal, K. Smith)
13 Curry 03:35 (Ray Fitzpatrick)
14 Follow The Drinking Gourd 02:38 (Traditional)
15 Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) 03:31(William Attaway, Irving Burgie)
16 Little Brown Dog 04:13 (Traditional)
17 Señor Blues 03:43 (Horace Silver)
18 Ain't That A Lot Of Love 03:58 (Homer Banks)
19 Take A Giant Step 04:15 (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
20 Freight Train 04:45 (Elizabeth Cotten)

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REVIEW/AMG
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For being a nearly omnipresent figure, Taj Mahal has never quite gotten the respect he's deserved. At the beginning of his career, he earned a significant amount of attention, but as the years passed, he had woven himself into the fabric of blues culture so well that his presence was taken for granted. That is why the 1998 release of In Progress & in Motion: 1965-1998 was so welcome. Spanning three discs and over three decades, the box set accurately summarizes Mahal's career and makes a convincing case for his talents as a roots synthesist. Dedicated fans may notice a favorite or two missing, but they'll be pleased by the 15 unreleased tracks, including two songs intended for his debut album. There are a number of other rarities for the dedicated here, including several unheard live cuts, material from his early group the Rising Sons, and his entire contribution to the Rolling Stones' legendary Rock and Roll Circus. Even with this plethora of rarities, In Progress & in Motion is primarily for fans who want a solid, comprehensive summary of Mahal's achievements without delving into the particular records, especially since it chooses its songs judiciously, concentrating on his groundbreaking late-'60s/early-'70s work. Indeed, much of his post-Columbia/CBS recordings are quickly recounted on the third disc, but that isn't a problem -- the first two discs show how Mahal created his own sound; the third shows how he maintained it. By balancing the music this way, Mahal and his partner, Lawrence Cohn, have created a representative, enlightening retrospective that is appealing to casual and hardcore fans alike.

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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Steve Huey
One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal soon broadened his approach, taking a musicologist's interest in a multitude of folk and roots music from around the world -- reggae and other Caribbean folk, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, various West African styles, Latin, even Hawaiian. The African-derived heritage of most of those forms allowed Mahal to explore his own ethnicity from a global perspective and to present the blues as part of a wider musical context. Yet while he dabbled in many different genres, he never strayed too far from his laid-back country blues foundation. Blues purists naturally didn't have much use for Mahal's music, and according to some of his other detractors, his multi-ethnic fusions sometimes came off as indulgent, or overly self-conscious and academic. Still, Mahal's concept was vindicated in the '90s, when a cadre of young bluesmen began to follow his lead -- both acoustic revivalists (Keb' Mo', Guy Davis) and eclectic bohemians (Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart).

Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Clair Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent, his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was quite young, and while growing up there, he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues -- both acoustic and electric -- and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahal (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & the Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed the Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992.

Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, Natch'l Blues. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set Giant Step followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's Happy Just to Be Like I Am heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms and the following year's double-live set, The Real Thing, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, Mo' Roots.

Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, upon which point he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film Brothers). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with Taj, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with Shake Sugaree. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991.

The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, Like Never Before. Follow-ups, such as Dancing the Blues (1993) and Phantom Blues (1996), drifted into more rock, pop, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for Señor Blues. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, Mumtaz Mahal teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's Sacred Island was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band, exploring Hawaiian music in greater depth; 1999's Kulanjan was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Maestro appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabaté, Angélique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. A holiday album with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Talkin' Christmas, appeared in time for the season in 2014.

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WEBSITE

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10856 - TAJ MAHAL - IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC TWO (1998)

TAJ MAHAL
''IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC TWO''
OCTOBER 13 1998
203:22

**********

DISC ONE (65:25)
1 You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond 06:15 (Blind Willie Johnson)
2 Corrina 04:26 (Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal)
3 Checkin' Up On My Baby 05:39 (Sony Boy Williamson II)
4 Leaving Trunk 06:24 (Sleeping John Estes)
5 Buck Dancer's Choice 03:09 (Traditional)
6 Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue 03:32 (Taj Mahal)
7 She Caught The Katy & Left Me A Mule To Ride 03:26 (Taj Mahal)
8 Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') 01:00 (Chuck Blackwell, J. Davis, Gary Gilmore, Taj Mahal)
9 Stagger Lee 03:18 (Harold Logan, Lloyd Price)
10 Built For Comfort 04:44 (Willie Dixon)
11 Natural Man 04:26 (Taj Mahal)
12 Railroad Bill 02:33 (John Work III)
13 Texas Woman Blues 02:54 (Taj Mahal)
14 Early In The Morning 04:58 (Roy Milton)
15 Dust My Broom 04:28 (Robert Johnson)
16 Blind Boy Rag 04:07 (J. Davis, Taj Mahal)

*****

DISC TWO (65:38)
1 Oh, Susanna 02:57 (Traditional)
2 Cakewalk Into Town 02:32 (Taj Mahal)
3 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
4 Nobody's Busines But My Own 03:27 (Taj Mahal)
5 Sweet Mama Janisse 03:31 (Taj Mahal)
6 Little Red Hen Blues 04:54 (Taj Mahal)
7 Mary Don't You Weep 02:37 (Traditional)
8 Sweet Home Chicago 03:14 (Traditional)
9 Frankie & Albert 03:57 (Mississippi John Hurt)
10 M'Banjo 03:17 (Taj Mahal)
11 Statesboro Blues (Take 2) 02:23 (Blind Willie McTell)
12 Bye & Bye 03:31 (Charleyt Patton)
13 Six Days On The Road 02:58 (Earl Green, Carl Montgomery)
14 We Gonna Rock 05:54 (Taj Mahal)
15 Ain't It Funky Now 02:42 (Taj Mahal)
16 Tom & Sally Drake 03:39 (Taj Mahal)
17 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
18 Blues With A Feeling 04:12 (Little Walter)
19 Freight Train 03:17 (Elizabeth Cotten)
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19: Previously Unreleased
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 14: Live

*****

DISC THREE (72:19)
1 When I Feel The Sea Beneath My Soul 03:06 (Taj Mahal)
2 West Indian Revelation 06:04 (Taj Mahal)
3 Eighteen Hammers 03:30 (Taj Mahal)
4 Johnny Too Bad 03:12 (Winston ''Shadow'' Bailey, Hylton Beckford, Derric Crooks, Sydney Crooks, T. Wilson)
5 Slave Driver 02:34 (Bob Marley)
6 (Clara) St. Kitts Woman 04:13 (Taj Mahal)
7 Do I Love Her 04:04 (Taj Mahal)
8 Everybody Is Somebody 03:29 (Warren Bailey)
9 But I Rode Some 02:25 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
10 Crossing 02:31 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
11 Sentidos Dulce (Sweet Feelings) 03:05 (Taj Mahal)
12 The Most Recent Evolution Of Muthafusticus Modernusticus 03:20 (Taj Mahal, K. Smith)
13 Curry 03:35 (Ray Fitzpatrick)
14 Follow The Drinking Gourd 02:38 (Traditional)
15 Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) 03:31(William Attaway, Irving Burgie)
16 Little Brown Dog 04:13 (Traditional)
17 Señor Blues 03:43 (Horace Silver)
18 Ain't That A Lot Of Love 03:58 (Homer Banks)
19 Take A Giant Step 04:15 (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
20 Freight Train 04:45 (Elizabeth Cotten)

**********

REVIEW/AMG
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For being a nearly omnipresent figure, Taj Mahal has never quite gotten the respect he's deserved. At the beginning of his career, he earned a significant amount of attention, but as the years passed, he had woven himself into the fabric of blues culture so well that his presence was taken for granted. That is why the 1998 release of In Progress & in Motion: 1965-1998 was so welcome. Spanning three discs and over three decades, the box set accurately summarizes Mahal's career and makes a convincing case for his talents as a roots synthesist. Dedicated fans may notice a favorite or two missing, but they'll be pleased by the 15 unreleased tracks, including two songs intended for his debut album. There are a number of other rarities for the dedicated here, including several unheard live cuts, material from his early group the Rising Sons, and his entire contribution to the Rolling Stones' legendary Rock and Roll Circus. Even with this plethora of rarities, In Progress & in Motion is primarily for fans who want a solid, comprehensive summary of Mahal's achievements without delving into the particular records, especially since it chooses its songs judiciously, concentrating on his groundbreaking late-'60s/early-'70s work. Indeed, much of his post-Columbia/CBS recordings are quickly recounted on the third disc, but that isn't a problem -- the first two discs show how Mahal created his own sound; the third shows how he maintained it. By balancing the music this way, Mahal and his partner, Lawrence Cohn, have created a representative, enlightening retrospective that is appealing to casual and hardcore fans alike.

**********

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Steve Huey
One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal soon broadened his approach, taking a musicologist's interest in a multitude of folk and roots music from around the world -- reggae and other Caribbean folk, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, various West African styles, Latin, even Hawaiian. The African-derived heritage of most of those forms allowed Mahal to explore his own ethnicity from a global perspective and to present the blues as part of a wider musical context. Yet while he dabbled in many different genres, he never strayed too far from his laid-back country blues foundation. Blues purists naturally didn't have much use for Mahal's music, and according to some of his other detractors, his multi-ethnic fusions sometimes came off as indulgent, or overly self-conscious and academic. Still, Mahal's concept was vindicated in the '90s, when a cadre of young bluesmen began to follow his lead -- both acoustic revivalists (Keb' Mo', Guy Davis) and eclectic bohemians (Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart).

Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Clair Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent, his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was quite young, and while growing up there, he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues -- both acoustic and electric -- and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahal (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & the Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed the Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992.

Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, Natch'l Blues. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set Giant Step followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's Happy Just to Be Like I Am heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms and the following year's double-live set, The Real Thing, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, Mo' Roots.

Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, upon which point he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film Brothers). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with Taj, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with Shake Sugaree. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991.

The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, Like Never Before. Follow-ups, such as Dancing the Blues (1993) and Phantom Blues (1996), drifted into more rock, pop, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for Señor Blues. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, Mumtaz Mahal teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's Sacred Island was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band, exploring Hawaiian music in greater depth; 1999's Kulanjan was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Maestro appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabaté, Angélique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. A holiday album with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Talkin' Christmas, appeared in time for the season in 2014.

**********

WEBSITE

**********

TO THE TOP

**********

10855 - TAJ MAHAL - IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC ONE (1998)

TAJ MAHAL
''IN PROGRESS & IN MOTION 1965-1998, DISC ONE''
OCTOBER 13 1998
203:22

**********

DISC ONE (65:25)
1 You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond 06:15 (Blind Willie Johnson)
2 Corrina 04:26 (Jesse Ed Davis, Taj Mahal)
3 Checkin' Up On My Baby 05:39 (Sony Boy Williamson II)
4 Leaving Trunk 06:24 (Sleeping John Estes)
5 Buck Dancer's Choice 03:09 (Traditional)
6 Going Up To The Country, Paint My Mailbox Blue 03:32 (Taj Mahal)
7 She Caught The Katy & Left Me A Mule To Ride 03:26 (Taj Mahal)
8 Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') 01:00 (Chuck Blackwell, J. Davis, Gary Gilmore, Taj Mahal)
9 Stagger Lee 03:18 (Harold Logan, Lloyd Price)
10 Built For Comfort 04:44 (Willie Dixon)
11 Natural Man 04:26 (Taj Mahal)
12 Railroad Bill 02:33 (John Work III)
13 Texas Woman Blues 02:54 (Taj Mahal)
14 Early In The Morning 04:58 (Roy Milton)
15 Dust My Broom 04:28 (Robert Johnson)
16 Blind Boy Rag 04:07 (J. Davis, Taj Mahal)

*****

DISC TWO (65:38)
1 Oh, Susanna 02:57 (Traditional)
2 Cakewalk Into Town 02:32 (Taj Mahal)
3 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
4 Nobody's Busines But My Own 03:27 (Taj Mahal)
5 Sweet Mama Janisse 03:31 (Taj Mahal)
6 Little Red Hen Blues 04:54 (Taj Mahal)
7 Mary Don't You Weep 02:37 (Traditional)
8 Sweet Home Chicago 03:14 (Traditional)
9 Frankie & Albert 03:57 (Mississippi John Hurt)
10 M'Banjo 03:17 (Taj Mahal)
11 Statesboro Blues (Take 2) 02:23 (Blind Willie McTell)
12 Bye & Bye 03:31 (Charleyt Patton)
13 Six Days On The Road 02:58 (Earl Green, Carl Montgomery)
14 We Gonna Rock 05:54 (Taj Mahal)
15 Ain't It Funky Now 02:42 (Taj Mahal)
16 Tom & Sally Drake 03:39 (Taj Mahal)
17 Fishin' Blues 03:14 (Henry Thomas)
18 Blues With A Feeling 04:12 (Little Walter)
19 Freight Train 03:17 (Elizabeth Cotten)
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 15, 17, 18, 19: Previously Unreleased
Tracks 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 14: Live

*****

DISC THREE (72:19)
1 When I Feel The Sea Beneath My Soul 03:06 (Taj Mahal)
2 West Indian Revelation 06:04 (Taj Mahal)
3 Eighteen Hammers 03:30 (Taj Mahal)
4 Johnny Too Bad 03:12 (Winston ''Shadow'' Bailey, Hylton Beckford, Derric Crooks, Sydney Crooks, T. Wilson)
5 Slave Driver 02:34 (Bob Marley)
6 (Clara) St. Kitts Woman 04:13 (Taj Mahal)
7 Do I Love Her 04:04 (Taj Mahal)
8 Everybody Is Somebody 03:29 (Warren Bailey)
9 But I Rode Some 02:25 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
10 Crossing 02:31 (Langston Hughes, Taj Mahal)
11 Sentidos Dulce (Sweet Feelings) 03:05 (Taj Mahal)
12 The Most Recent Evolution Of Muthafusticus Modernusticus 03:20 (Taj Mahal, K. Smith)
13 Curry 03:35 (Ray Fitzpatrick)
14 Follow The Drinking Gourd 02:38 (Traditional)
15 Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) 03:31(William Attaway, Irving Burgie)
16 Little Brown Dog 04:13 (Traditional)
17 Señor Blues 03:43 (Horace Silver)
18 Ain't That A Lot Of Love 03:58 (Homer Banks)
19 Take A Giant Step 04:15 (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
20 Freight Train 04:45 (Elizabeth Cotten)

**********

REVIEW/AMG
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For being a nearly omnipresent figure, Taj Mahal has never quite gotten the respect he's deserved. At the beginning of his career, he earned a significant amount of attention, but as the years passed, he had woven himself into the fabric of blues culture so well that his presence was taken for granted. That is why the 1998 release of In Progress & in Motion: 1965-1998 was so welcome. Spanning three discs and over three decades, the box set accurately summarizes Mahal's career and makes a convincing case for his talents as a roots synthesist. Dedicated fans may notice a favorite or two missing, but they'll be pleased by the 15 unreleased tracks, including two songs intended for his debut album. There are a number of other rarities for the dedicated here, including several unheard live cuts, material from his early group the Rising Sons, and his entire contribution to the Rolling Stones' legendary Rock and Roll Circus. Even with this plethora of rarities, In Progress & in Motion is primarily for fans who want a solid, comprehensive summary of Mahal's achievements without delving into the particular records, especially since it chooses its songs judiciously, concentrating on his groundbreaking late-'60s/early-'70s work. Indeed, much of his post-Columbia/CBS recordings are quickly recounted on the third disc, but that isn't a problem -- the first two discs show how Mahal created his own sound; the third shows how he maintained it. By balancing the music this way, Mahal and his partner, Lawrence Cohn, have created a representative, enlightening retrospective that is appealing to casual and hardcore fans alike.

**********

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Steve Huey
One of the most prominent figures in late 20th century blues, singer/multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal played an enormous role in revitalizing and preserving traditional acoustic blues. Not content to stay within that realm, Mahal soon broadened his approach, taking a musicologist's interest in a multitude of folk and roots music from around the world -- reggae and other Caribbean folk, jazz, gospel, R&B, zydeco, various West African styles, Latin, even Hawaiian. The African-derived heritage of most of those forms allowed Mahal to explore his own ethnicity from a global perspective and to present the blues as part of a wider musical context. Yet while he dabbled in many different genres, he never strayed too far from his laid-back country blues foundation. Blues purists naturally didn't have much use for Mahal's music, and according to some of his other detractors, his multi-ethnic fusions sometimes came off as indulgent, or overly self-conscious and academic. Still, Mahal's concept was vindicated in the '90s, when a cadre of young bluesmen began to follow his lead -- both acoustic revivalists (Keb' Mo', Guy Davis) and eclectic bohemians (Corey Harris, Alvin Youngblood Hart).

Taj Mahal was born Henry St. Clair Fredericks in New York on May 17, 1942. His parents -- his father a jazz pianist/composer/arranger of Jamaican descent, his mother a schoolteacher from South Carolina who sang gospel -- moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was quite young, and while growing up there, he often listened to music from around the world on his father's short-wave radio. He particularly loved the blues -- both acoustic and electric -- and early rock & rollers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. While studying agriculture and animal husbandry at the University of Massachusetts, he adopted the musical alias Taj Mahal (an idea that came to him in a dream) and formed Taj Mahal & the Elektras, who played around the area during the early '60s. After graduating, Mahal moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and, after making his name on the local folk-blues scene, formed the Rising Sons with guitarist Ry Cooder. The group signed to Columbia and released one single, but the label didn't quite know what to make of their forward-looking blend of Americana, which anticipated a number of roots rock fusions that would take shape in the next few years; as such, the album they recorded sat on the shelves, unreleased until 1992.

Frustrated, Mahal left the group and wound up staying with Columbia as a solo artist. His self-titled debut was released in early 1968 and its stripped-down approach to vintage blues sounds made it unlike virtually anything else on the blues scene at the time. It came to be regarded as a classic of the '60s blues revival, as did its follow-up, Natch'l Blues. The half-electric, half-acoustic double-LP set Giant Step followed in 1969, and taken together, those three records built Mahal's reputation as an authentic yet unique modern-day bluesman, gaining wide exposure and leading to collaborations or tours with a wide variety of prominent rockers and bluesmen. During the early '70s, Mahal's musical adventurousness began to take hold; 1971's Happy Just to Be Like I Am heralded his fascination with Caribbean rhythms and the following year's double-live set, The Real Thing, added a New Orleans-flavored tuba section to several tunes. In 1973, Mahal branched out into movie soundtrack work with his compositions for Sounder, and the following year he recorded his most reggae-heavy outing, Mo' Roots.

Mahal continued to record for Columbia through 1976, upon which point he switched to Warner Bros.; he recorded three albums for that label, all in 1977 (including a soundtrack for the film Brothers). Changing musical climates, however, were decreasing interest in Mahal's work and he spent much of the '80s off record, eventually moving to Hawaii to immerse himself in another musical tradition. Mahal returned in 1987 with Taj, an album issued by Gramavision that explored this new interest; the following year, he inaugurated a string of successful, well-received children's albums with Shake Sugaree. The next few years brought a variety of side projects, including a musical score for the lost Langston Hughes/Zora Neale Hurston play Mule Bone that earned Mahal a Grammy nomination in 1991.

The same year marked Mahal's full-fledged return to regular recording and touring, kicked off with the first of a series of well-received albums on the Private Music label, Like Never Before. Follow-ups, such as Dancing the Blues (1993) and Phantom Blues (1996), drifted into more rock, pop, and R&B-flavored territory; in 1997, Mahal won a Grammy for Señor Blues. Meanwhile, he undertook a number of small-label side projects that constituted some of his most ambitious forays into world music. Released in 1995, Mumtaz Mahal teamed him with classical Indian musicians; 1998's Sacred Island was recorded with his new Hula Blues Band, exploring Hawaiian music in greater depth; 1999's Kulanjan was a duo performance with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté. Maestro appeared in 2008, boasting an array of all-star guests: Diabaté, Angélique Kidjo, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. A holiday album with the Blind Boys of Alabama, Talkin' Christmas, appeared in time for the season in 2014.

**********

WEBSITE

**********

TO THE TOP

**********

10854 - GRAZIANO ROMANI - BETWEEN TRAINS (2008)

GRAZIANO ROMANI
''BETWEEN TRAINS''
2008
55:08

**********

1 Genesis Hall 03:34 (Richard Thompson)
2 Between Trains 04:13 (Robbie Robertson)
3 The Living End 03:07 Judee Sill)
4 Sound Of Free 03:32 (Dennis Wilson)
5 Mutineer 02:58 (Warren Zevon)
6 Brand New Day 05:28 (Van Morrison)
7 Wichita Lineman 04:29 (Jimmy Webb)
8 Don't Fall Apart On Me Tonight 05:57 (bob Dylan)
9 Grace Darling 03:27 (Dave Cousins)
10 White Shadow 04:22 (Peter Gabriel)
11 Last Chance Lost 04:28 (Joni Mitchell)
12 Real World 05:15 (Bruce Springsteen)
13 Struggling Man 04:12 (Jimmy Cliff)

**********

Graziano Romani - voce; Chitarra acustica; Chitarra elettrica; Flauto traverso: Cori; Armonica
Pat Bonan - batteria; Percussioni nelle tracce nr. 01/03; 05; 06; 08; 09 ; 13
Gigi Cavalli Cocchi - batteria; Percussioni nelle tracce nr. 04; 07; 10; 11; 12
Max Ori - Basso elettrico nelle tracce nr. 01/03; 05; 06; 08; 09 ; 13
Elisa Minari - Basso elettrico nelle tracce nr. 07; 12
Romme Manzotti - Basso elettrico nelle tracce nr. 04; 10; 12
Massimo "Ice" Ghiacci - Contrabbasso nella traccia nr. 11
Cristiano "Cris" Maramotti - Chitarra elettrica; Chitarra acustica nelle tracce nr. 03; 08; 13
Nicola "Niki" Milazzo - Chitarra elettrica nelle tracce nr. 02; 04; 10
Max Cottafavi - Chitarra elettrica nelle tracce nr. 07; 12
Erik Montanari - Chitarra elettrica nelle tracce nr. 05; 06; 09
Giacomo "Jack" Baldelli - Chitarra classica nella traccia nr. 11
Fabrizio "Tede" Tedeschini - Chitarra elettrica nella traccia nr. 01
Chris Gianfranceschi - Pianoforte; Organo; tastiere nelle tracce nr. 01 e

**********

WEBSITE

**********

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**********

10853 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE KING OF COMEDY (1983)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
''THE KING OF COMEDY''
1983
39:59

**********

1 The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde) 03:50
2 B. B. King - 'Tain't Nobody Bizness (If I Do) (Porter Grainger, Everett Robbins) 03:36
3 Talking Heads - Swamp (David Byrne, Talking Heads) 05:13
4 Bob James - King Of Comedy (Bob James) 04:22
5 Ricky Lee Jones - Rainbow Sleeve (Tom Waits) 03:39
6 Robbie Robertson - Between Trains (Robbie Robertson) 03:25
7 Ric Ocasek - Steal The Night (Ric Ocasek) 03:42
8 Ray Charles - Come Rain Or Come Shine (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) 03:39
9 David Sanborn - The Finer Things (Donald Fagen) 04:30
10 Van Morrison - Wonderful Remark (Van Morrison) 03:58

**********

WIKIPEDIA

**********

ALBUM
Robbie Robertson produced the music for the film's soundtrack and contributed his first original work after leaving The Band entitled "Between Trains". This song, a tribute to a member of the production staff who had suddenly died, is on the soundtrack album but not in the movie itself. The King of Comedy soundtrack is a mix of popular music and thematic orchestral scoring by composer Bob James. The soundtrack includes songs from artist such as B.B. King, Van Morrison and Ray Charles. This kind of hybridization of pop and scored music would later be used in Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed.

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10852 - THE DOORS - WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE (REMASTERED 2014), DISC TWO (1972) (REPOST)

THE DOORS
''WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE, DISC TWO''
MAY 19 2014
99:12

**********

DISC ONE
1 Break on Through 2:25
2 Strange Days 3:05
3 Shaman's Blues (Jim Morrison) 4:45
4 Love Street 3:06
5 Peace Frog/Blue Sunday (Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger) 5:00
6 The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) 4:12
7 End of the Night 2:49
8 Love Her Madly 3:18
9 Spanish Caravan 2:58
10 Ship of Fools (Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger) 3:06
11 The Spy (Jim Morrison) 4:15
12 The End 11:35

*****

DISC TWO
1 Take It as It Comes 2:13
2 Running Blue (Robby Krieger) 2:27
3 L.A. Woman 7:49
4 Five to One 4:22
5 Who Scared You 3:51 ("Wishful Sinful" single B-side)
6 (You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further (Willie Dixon) 3:37 ("Love Her Madly" single B-side)
7 Riders on the Storm 7:14
8 Maggie M'Gill (Jim Morrison, The Doors) 4:25
9 Horse Latitudes 1:30
10 When the Music's Over 11:00

**********

Jim Morrison – vocals
Robby Krieger – guitar
Ray Manzarek – piano, organ, marimba, bass, vocals on "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further"
John Densmore – drums
Additional Personnel:
Doug Lubahn – bass
Harvey Brooks – bass
Jerry Scheff – bass
Ray Neapolitan – bass
Larry Vinegar – acoustic bass on side one 9
Paul Harris – orchestral arrangements
Curtis Amy – saxophone
George Bohanon – trombone
Champ Webb – english horn
Jesse McReynolds – mandolin
James Buchanan – fiddle
Reinol Andindo – conga
Marc Benno – rhythm guitar on disc two 3
Lonnie Mack – acoustic bass on disc two 8

**********

ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine was The Doors' second compilation album (following 13) and first to be released after the death of Jim Morrison. The album's title is a lyric from the song "The End". The album will be released on compact disc for the first time on 20 May 2014 (exactly one year after keyboardist Ray Manzarek died).The album was certified Gold by the RIAA. The album cover was designed by Bill Hoffman, with inside band shots by Joel Brodsky.

Two of the songs on the compilation, "Who Scared You" and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further," were originally released as B-sides to 1969's "Wishful Sinful" and 1971's "Love Her Madly," respectively. They were not included on albums until "Who Scared You" appeared in the The Doors: Box Set in 1997 and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further" appeared in the 2006 Perception box set.

The version of "Who Scared You" that was released on the The Doors: Box Set is an edited version, as part of the last verse is omitted. The full length song was released in 1999 on Essential Rarities and later on the 2006 remastered release of The Soft Parade as a bonus track.

The album was reissued for the first time in over 40 years by Rhino Records on special amber colored vinyl as part of Record Store Day on 19 April, 2014. The album will appear as a double CD for the first time on 20 May, 2014.

All tracks written by Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore, except as indicated.

**********

BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Richie Unterberger
The Doors, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the 1960s, were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by UCLA film students Ray Manzarek, keyboards, and Jim Morrison, vocals; with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The group never added a bass player, and their sound was dominated by Manzarek's electric organ work and Morrison's deep, sonorous voice, with which he sang and intoned his highly poetic lyrics. The group signed to Elektra Records in 1966 and released its first album, The Doors, featuring the hit "Light My Fire," in 1967.

Like "Light My Fire," the debut album was a massive hit, and endures as one of the most exciting, groundbreaking recordings of the psychedelic era. Blending blues, classical, Eastern music, and pop into sinister but beguiling melodies, the band sounded like no other. With his rich, chilling vocals and somber poetic visions, Morrison explored the depths of the darkest and most thrilling aspects of the psychedelic experience. Their first effort was so stellar, in fact, that The Doors were hard-pressed to match it, and although their next few albums contained a wealth of first-rate material, the group also began running up against the limitations of their recklessly disturbing visions. By their third album, they had exhausted their initial reservoir of compositions, and some of the tracks they hurriedly devised to meet public demand were clearly inferior to, and imitative of, their best early work.

On The Soft Parade, the group experimented with brass sections, with mixed results. Accused (without much merit) by much of the rock underground as pop sellouts, the group charged back hard with the final two albums they recorded with Morrison, on which they drew upon stone-cold blues for much of their inspiration, especially on 1971's L.A. Woman.

From the start, The Doors' focus was the charismatic Morrison, who proved increasingly unstable over the group's brief career. In 1969, Morrison was arrested for indecent exposure during a concert in Miami, an incident that nearly derailed the band. Nevertheless, The Doors managed to turn out a series of successful albums and singles through 1971, when, upon the completion of L.A. Woman, Morrison decamped for Paris. He died there, apparently of a drug overdose. The three surviving Doors tried to carry on without him, but ultimately disbanded. Yet The Doors' music and Morrison's legend continued to fascinate succeeding generations of rock fans: in the mid-'80s, Morrison was as big a star as he'd been in the mid-'60s, and Elektra has sold numerous quantities of The Doors' original albums plus reissues and releases of live material over the years, while publishers have flooded bookstores with Doors and Morrison biographies. In 1991, director Oliver Stone made The Doors, a feature film about the group starring Val Kilmer as Morrison.

The remaining three members of The Doors -- Manzarek, Densmore, and Krieger -- were involved in various musical activities in the decades following Morrison's death but never saw successes approaching the levels of the original Doors. After the turn of the millennium, Manzarek and Krieger performed live under the name Doors of the 21st Century with singer Ian Astbury of the Cult handling vocals; a legal battle ensued when Densmore filed suit against his former bandmates over use of the Doors name. Ray Manzarek died in May 2013 in Rosenheim, Germany after battling bile duct cancer; he was 74 years old.

**********

WEBSITE

**********

TO THE TOP

**********

10851 - THE DOORS - WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE (REMASTERED 2014), DISC ONE (1972) (REPOST)

THE DOORS
''WEIRD SCENES INSIDE THE GOLD MINE, DISC ONE''
MAY 19 2014
99:12

**********

DISC ONE
1 Break on Through 2:25
2 Strange Days 3:05
3 Shaman's Blues (Jim Morrison) 4:45
4 Love Street 3:06
5 Peace Frog/Blue Sunday (Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger) 5:00
6 The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) 4:12
7 End of the Night 2:49
8 Love Her Madly 3:18
9 Spanish Caravan 2:58
10 Ship of Fools (Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger) 3:06
11 The Spy (Jim Morrison) 4:15
12 The End 11:35

*****

DISC TWO
1 Take It as It Comes 2:13
2 Running Blue (Robby Krieger) 2:27
3 L.A. Woman 7:49
4 Five to One 4:22
5 Who Scared You 3:51 ("Wishful Sinful" single B-side)
6 (You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further (Willie Dixon) 3:37 ("Love Her Madly" single B-side)
7 Riders on the Storm 7:14
8 Maggie M'Gill (Jim Morrison, The Doors) 4:25
9 Horse Latitudes 1:30
10 When the Music's Over 11:00

**********

Jim Morrison – vocals
Robby Krieger – guitar
Ray Manzarek – piano, organ, marimba, bass, vocals on "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further"
John Densmore – drums
Additional Personnel:
Doug Lubahn – bass
Harvey Brooks – bass
Jerry Scheff – bass
Ray Neapolitan – bass
Larry Vinegar – acoustic bass on side one 9
Paul Harris – orchestral arrangements
Curtis Amy – saxophone
George Bohanon – trombone
Champ Webb – english horn
Jesse McReynolds – mandolin
James Buchanan – fiddle
Reinol Andindo – conga
Marc Benno – rhythm guitar on disc two 3
Lonnie Mack – acoustic bass on disc two 8

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ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine was The Doors' second compilation album (following 13) and first to be released after the death of Jim Morrison. The album's title is a lyric from the song "The End". The album will be released on compact disc for the first time on 20 May 2014 (exactly one year after keyboardist Ray Manzarek died).The album was certified Gold by the RIAA. The album cover was designed by Bill Hoffman, with inside band shots by Joel Brodsky.

Two of the songs on the compilation, "Who Scared You" and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further," were originally released as B-sides to 1969's "Wishful Sinful" and 1971's "Love Her Madly," respectively. They were not included on albums until "Who Scared You" appeared in the The Doors: Box Set in 1997 and "(You Need Meat) Don't Go No Further" appeared in the 2006 Perception box set.

The version of "Who Scared You" that was released on the The Doors: Box Set is an edited version, as part of the last verse is omitted. The full length song was released in 1999 on Essential Rarities and later on the 2006 remastered release of The Soft Parade as a bonus track.

The album was reissued for the first time in over 40 years by Rhino Records on special amber colored vinyl as part of Record Store Day on 19 April, 2014. The album will appear as a double CD for the first time on 20 May, 2014.

All tracks written by Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore, except as indicated.

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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Richie Unterberger
The Doors, one of the most influential and controversial rock bands of the 1960s, were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by UCLA film students Ray Manzarek, keyboards, and Jim Morrison, vocals; with drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger. The group never added a bass player, and their sound was dominated by Manzarek's electric organ work and Morrison's deep, sonorous voice, with which he sang and intoned his highly poetic lyrics. The group signed to Elektra Records in 1966 and released its first album, The Doors, featuring the hit "Light My Fire," in 1967.

Like "Light My Fire," the debut album was a massive hit, and endures as one of the most exciting, groundbreaking recordings of the psychedelic era. Blending blues, classical, Eastern music, and pop into sinister but beguiling melodies, the band sounded like no other. With his rich, chilling vocals and somber poetic visions, Morrison explored the depths of the darkest and most thrilling aspects of the psychedelic experience. Their first effort was so stellar, in fact, that The Doors were hard-pressed to match it, and although their next few albums contained a wealth of first-rate material, the group also began running up against the limitations of their recklessly disturbing visions. By their third album, they had exhausted their initial reservoir of compositions, and some of the tracks they hurriedly devised to meet public demand were clearly inferior to, and imitative of, their best early work.

On The Soft Parade, the group experimented with brass sections, with mixed results. Accused (without much merit) by much of the rock underground as pop sellouts, the group charged back hard with the final two albums they recorded with Morrison, on which they drew upon stone-cold blues for much of their inspiration, especially on 1971's L.A. Woman.

From the start, The Doors' focus was the charismatic Morrison, who proved increasingly unstable over the group's brief career. In 1969, Morrison was arrested for indecent exposure during a concert in Miami, an incident that nearly derailed the band. Nevertheless, The Doors managed to turn out a series of successful albums and singles through 1971, when, upon the completion of L.A. Woman, Morrison decamped for Paris. He died there, apparently of a drug overdose. The three surviving Doors tried to carry on without him, but ultimately disbanded. Yet The Doors' music and Morrison's legend continued to fascinate succeeding generations of rock fans: in the mid-'80s, Morrison was as big a star as he'd been in the mid-'60s, and Elektra has sold numerous quantities of The Doors' original albums plus reissues and releases of live material over the years, while publishers have flooded bookstores with Doors and Morrison biographies. In 1991, director Oliver Stone made The Doors, a feature film about the group starring Val Kilmer as Morrison.

The remaining three members of The Doors -- Manzarek, Densmore, and Krieger -- were involved in various musical activities in the decades following Morrison's death but never saw successes approaching the levels of the original Doors. After the turn of the millennium, Manzarek and Krieger performed live under the name Doors of the 21st Century with singer Ian Astbury of the Cult handling vocals; a legal battle ensued when Densmore filed suit against his former bandmates over use of the Doors name. Ray Manzarek died in May 2013 in Rosenheim, Germany after battling bile duct cancer; he was 74 years old.

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WEBSITE

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10850 - CAPABILITY BROWN - LIAR (1976)

CAPABILITY BROWN
''LIAR''
1976
41:57

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1 Midnight Cruiser 03:40 (Walter Becker, Donald Fagen)
2 No Range 04:05 (Dave Nevin)
3 Im So Are You 03:54 (Alan Hull)
4 Sole Survivor - A) Scape; B) Sole Survivor; C) Cosmic Ride; D) Time Machine 09:43 (Tony Ferguson)
5 Keep Death Off The Road (Drive On The Pavement) 06:14 (Dave Nevin)
6 Redman 03:19 (Andy Curtis, Steve Gould, Dave Kaffinetti, Fred Kelly)
7 Sad Am I 03:44 (Tony Ferguson)
8 Liar 07:14 (Russ Ballard)

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Tony Ferguson/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Dave Nevin/Keyboards, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Grahame White/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Kenny Rowe/Bass Guitar, Vocals, Percussion
Roger Willis/Vocals, Drums, Keyboards
Joe Williams/Vocals, Percussion

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BIOGRAPHY/
www.progarchives.com
Capability Brown had and still have a cult following in UK music history as a "progressive" band, ultimately based on an outstanding piece from their second album, Voice. But largely their range covered mainstream pop music, treated in an "arty", alternative fashion. The band was a six-piece in which everyone sang and played instruments. The line-up consisted of Tony Ferguson (guitar, bass), Dave Nevin (keyboards, guitar, bass), Kenny Rowe (bass, percussion), Grahame White (guitar, lute, balalaika, keyboards), Joe Williams (percussion) and Roger Willis (drums, keyboards).
Ferguson and Nevin wrote the majority of the band's material, and the band also excelled in covers of obscure material (Rare Bird's Beautiful Scarlet and Redman, Argent's Liar, Affinity's I Am And So Are You and Steely Dan's Midnight Cruiser).
Capability Brown's forte was vocalizing. Together they sounded not unlike The Association: a massed choir of voices, ranging from baritone to high clean falsettos. Their first album, From Scratch, which included Liar, was average and unexceptional. The second album Voice, released in 1973, was their claim to fame, incorporating an over-20-minute richly melodic piece called Circumstances (In Love, Past, Present, Future Meet) - a stunning piece of music incorporating keyboards, a cappela voices, synthesizers and mellotrons, solo vocals, delicate harpsichord-like acoustic guitar sections, powerful electric guitar chords and massed vocal choirs.
The band did not manage to record again after this, and in 1974 Tony, Roger and Graham were recruited by friend and Christie member Roger Flavell to join his group, Christie for a tour of South America. Thus Capability Brown was no more.

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10849 - CAPABILITY BROWN - VOICE (1973)

CAPABILITY BROWN
''VOICE''
1973
38:57

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1 I Am And So Are You 03:56 (A. Hull, Capability Brown)
2 Sad Am I 03:51 (Tony Ferguson)
3 Midnight Cruiser 03:58 (Donald Fagen, Walter Becker)
4 Keep Death Off The Road (Drive 06:20 (Dave Nevin)
5 Circumstances: (In Love, Past, 20:49 (Capability Brown)

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Tony Ferguson/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Dave Nevin/Keyboards, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Grahame White/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Kenny Rowe/Bass Guitar, Vocals, Percussion
Roger Willis/Vocals, Drums, Keyboards
Joe Williams/Vocals, Percussion

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BIOGRAPHY/
www.progarchives.com
Capability Brown had and still have a cult following in UK music history as a "progressive" band, ultimately based on an outstanding piece from their second album, Voice. But largely their range covered mainstream pop music, treated in an "arty", alternative fashion. The band was a six-piece in which everyone sang and played instruments. The line-up consisted of Tony Ferguson (guitar, bass), Dave Nevin (keyboards, guitar, bass), Kenny Rowe (bass, percussion), Grahame White (guitar, lute, balalaika, keyboards), Joe Williams (percussion) and Roger Willis (drums, keyboards).
Ferguson and Nevin wrote the majority of the band's material, and the band also excelled in covers of obscure material (Rare Bird's Beautiful Scarlet and Redman, Argent's Liar, Affinity's I Am And So Are You and Steely Dan's Midnight Cruiser).
Capability Brown's forte was vocalizing. Together they sounded not unlike The Association: a massed choir of voices, ranging from baritone to high clean falsettos. Their first album, From Scratch, which included Liar, was average and unexceptional. The second album Voice, released in 1973, was their claim to fame, incorporating an over-20-minute richly melodic piece called Circumstances (In Love, Past, Present, Future Meet) - a stunning piece of music incorporating keyboards, a cappela voices, synthesizers and mellotrons, solo vocals, delicate harpsichord-like acoustic guitar sections, powerful electric guitar chords and massed vocal choirs.
The band did not manage to record again after this, and in 1974 Tony, Roger and Graham were recruited by friend and Christie member Roger Flavell to join his group, Christie for a tour of South America. Thus Capability Brown was no more.

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10848 - CAPABILITY BROWN - FROM SCRATCH (1972)

CAPABILITY BROWN
''FROM SCRATCH''
1972
48:06

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1 Beautiful Scarlet 04:55 (Rare Bird)
2 Do You Believe 04:25 (Dave Nevin)
3 The Band 03:41 (Tony Ferguson)
4 Garden 03:20 (Tony Ferguson)
5 Liar 07:15 (Russ Ballard)
6 No Range 04:07 (Dave Nevin)
7 I Will Be There 03:20 (Tony Ferguson)
8 Redman 03:23 (Andy Curtis, Steve Gould, Dave Kaffinetti, Fred Kelly)
9 Day In Day Out 03:48 (Dave Nevin)
10 Sole Survivor: A) Scape; B) Sole Survivor; C) Cosmic Ride; D) Time Machine 09:46 (Tony Ferguson)

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Tony Ferguson/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Dave Nevin/Keyboards, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Vocals
Grahame White/Vocals, Guitar, Bass Guitar
Kenny Rowe/Bass Guitar, Vocals, Percussion
Roger Willis/Vocals, Drums, Keyboards
Joe Williams/Vocals, Percussion

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BIOGRAPHY/
www.progarchives.com
Capability Brown had and still have a cult following in UK music history as a "progressive" band, ultimately based on an outstanding piece from their second album, Voice. But largely their range covered mainstream pop music, treated in an "arty", alternative fashion. The band was a six-piece in which everyone sang and played instruments. The line-up consisted of Tony Ferguson (guitar, bass), Dave Nevin (keyboards, guitar, bass), Kenny Rowe (bass, percussion), Grahame White (guitar, lute, balalaika, keyboards), Joe Williams (percussion) and Roger Willis (drums, keyboards).
Ferguson and Nevin wrote the majority of the band's material, and the band also excelled in covers of obscure material (Rare Bird's Beautiful Scarlet and Redman, Argent's Liar, Affinity's I Am And So Are You and Steely Dan's Midnight Cruiser).
Capability Brown's forte was vocalizing. Together they sounded not unlike The Association: a massed choir of voices, ranging from baritone to high clean falsettos. Their first album, From Scratch, which included Liar, was average and unexceptional. The second album Voice, released in 1973, was their claim to fame, incorporating an over-20-minute richly melodic piece called Circumstances (In Love, Past, Present, Future Meet) - a stunning piece of music incorporating keyboards, a cappela voices, synthesizers and mellotrons, solo vocals, delicate harpsichord-like acoustic guitar sections, powerful electric guitar chords and massed vocal choirs.
The band did not manage to record again after this, and in 1974 Tony, Roger and Graham were recruited by friend and Christie member Roger Flavell to join his group, Christie for a tour of South America. Thus Capability Brown was no more.

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