My trusty vinylfly Albino Dino and I are doing a deep dive into my record collection to share albums you might like. Some you'll know. Some you won't. All will be worth a listen so bookmark this page. Let me know what your Vinyl of The Day picks are. Tweet @93XRT and use hashtag #XRTVOTD and tag me @RyanArnoldRocks.
Your pal,-Ryan A.
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Saturday July 25, 2020
Peter Gabriel - ein deutsches album (1980) -
Peter Gabriel's first three solo records are each self-titled. The final in the trilogy is commonly referred to as
Melt because of the album cover art.
Peter Gabriel recorded a German language version of the album translated word-for-word, note-for-note and titled
ein deutsches album (A German Album). Listening to
"Games Without Frontiers" and
"Biko" puts an entirely new spin on the music! Many thanks to
Oak Park Records for finding this very clean first pressing! I picked up a Russian pressing of
So a while back, too. Net, ne na Russkom yazyke.
**
July 1 -
My Morning Jacket - Z (2005) - My friend Zack gave me this record when I moved into my new place a few years ago. I ❤️ this record and Zack, too.
July 2 -
Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978) -
Blondie's Debbie Harry celebrated a birthday this week and it's right to crank up both sides of their third album!
July 5 -
Grateful Dead - Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) (1971) -
Grateful Dead is their second live double album. It wasn't given a proper title (the band's original and only title
Skullf**k was rejected) so it's referred to as
Skull & Roses because of the cover art.
Grateful Dead played their final show on July 5, 2015 at Soldier Field as part of the 50th anniversary
Fare Thee Well tour. Some Deadheads feel (and defend to the point of absurdity) the final
Grateful Dead show was July 9, 1995 - a month before Jerry Garcia died - and dismiss the
Fare Thee Well shows. I know I'll take heat for writing this so, hear me now and I'll answer, no question: lighten up.
July 6 -
U2 - Wide Awake In America (1985) -
U2's four-song EP is two live songs from their 1984
The Unforgettable Fire tour and two studio recordings that had not yet been released in the US. The live performance of
"Bad" is second only to the performance from
Live Aid 1985 in terms of its sheer rawness. This version is, ironically, an import from Germany.
July 7 -
Supertramp - Breakfast In America (1979) - this week
Supertramp saxophonist John Helliwell returned a gift given to the band by a fan during a 1983 concert at Alpine Valley Music Theatre - a state of Wisconsin license plate
S TRAMP. A very cool story about how he reconnected with the fan posted yesterday. Check it out
here.
Supertramp's 1979 release
Breakfast In America is one of my
Desert Island records.
July 8 -
Jimi Hendrix - Last Night (1981) - Don't expect to hear any Hendrix classics on this album. They hadn't been written yet! Hendrix played a show with R&B singer
Curtis Knight at George's Club 20 in Hackensack, NJ in late 1965 or early 1966. It was released in 1981 in Germany and made its way to fabled "Import Boxes" at record stores around the country. You can find them floating around but beware! There are copies that are, well, bootlegs of a bootleg. Albums with the blue "Time Wind" sticker are originals.
July 9 -
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976) - This is the first
Genesis album after Peter Gabriel departed after the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour in 1975. Coincidentally, the tour started in Chicago on November 20, 1974 at the Auditorium Theatre. A reluctant Phil Collins became the permanent lead singer after a couple of singers auditioned for the album. Listen to side one in one sitting (preferably through headphones.)
"Dance On A Volcano'' / "Entangled" / "Squonk" / "Mad Man Moon" sound INCREDIBLE when you hear them together!
July 10 -
Mavis Staples - Mavis Staples (1969) - R&B, gospel, soul singer
Mavis Staples celebrates her birthday today! I gave a spin to her 1969 debut solo album
Mavis Staples at home this morning. Too much soul for two sides of wax. This is a
Vinyl Me, Please reissue from a couple'a years back.
July 11 -
Broken Bells - After The Disco (2014) - Two albums and a surprise single in 2018 is all we have from
Broken Bells. They are a creation of
Dangermouse from
Gnarls Barkley and
James Mercer of
The Shins. They got together in 2009, released a debut the following year,
After The Disco in 2014 and a single called "Shelter" in 2018. Such a cool collaboration and a great weekend listen!
July 12 -
Neil Diamond - Gold: Recorded Live at The Troubadour (1972) -
Neil Diamond. Live. Nothing more to say. Where it began, I can't begin to knowing. Whoever believed they never could record a string of Neil Diamond concerts at LA's legendary Troubadour in July, 1970 and release an album jammed full of hits? This record is so good. So good. So good. So good. I'm inclined (
bah-bah-baaaaaaah!) to pick up the two-CD greatest hits collection called
Gold that's floating around.
July 13 - Queen - A Night At The Opera (1975) - I chose Queen's fourth album for today's pick because on this date in 1985 they blew Wembley Stadium in London to pieces at Live AID. Live AID remains an unmatched live music undertaking. It was actually two simultaneous concerts - one at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia and the other at Wembley Stadium in London. It was televised to a global audience of nearly 2 billion people in 140 countries. To hear Bob Geldof tell the story, the wheels started rolling when he called Elton John to say "Queen's gonna do it!" and the called Queen to say "Elton's gonna do it!" before either had actually committed! Very very sneaky.
July 14 -
The Record Company - All Of This Life (2018) -
The Record Company had a tough job - put out a follow up album that is as raw, powerful, and flat out good as their debut
Give It Back to You. It's not like they let the sand sit under their feet, either.
The Record Company hit the road for what seemed like two straight years. They managed to record a couple'a tunes along the way and save up enough gas to make another blistering ten-song album in 2018.
July 15 -
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School (1980) - My all time favorite
Warren Zevon song is on this album:
"Jeannie Needs A Shooter" co-written with
Bruce Springsteen. In addition to his regular band, Zevon brought in some heavy southern California hitters to lend a hand:
Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt (who, coincidentally, celebrates a birthday today),
J.D. Souther, and
The Eagles. Like, the whole band. "Play It All Night Long" is the song many people know from this album. It deals with touchy subjects, pokes fun at
Lynyrd Skynyrd, and might be the only song in the musical universe to use the word
brucellosis in its lyrics. Side bar - for reasons surpassing understanding, Warren Zevon is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
July 16 -
Richard Thompson - Mock Tudor (1999) - You don't really hear people compare a musician to
Richard Thompson; he is a musician beyond comparison. I can't think of a guitarist who melds straight-ahead rock and roll with folk and celtic stylings or a songwriter with as nuanced vocabulary. His songs are short stories with an amazing musical accompanyment. My dad turned me onto Richard Thompson's first band
Fairport Convention and I was hooked immediately.
Mock Tudor is his ninth solo album and his last on a major record label. Fave tracks include
"Cooksferry Queen", "Bathsheba Smiles", "Crawl Back (Under My Stone)", and
"Sights And Sounds Of London Town." This double LP release from 2018 has a coffee table book, wall art, and other goodies. Pick it up if you can
find it online or at your fave local, independent, or family-owned music store. Side bar - as is the case with
Warren Zevon, for reasons surpassing understanding,
Richard Thompson is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
July 17 - Beck - Songs of Leonard Cohen (2017) - This is the second of Beck's Record Club releases. It was recorded in 2009 and not made available on vinyl till 2017. Here's how Beck describes Record Club:
“For those new to the Record Club, it is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day. An album is chosen to be reinterpreted and used as a framework. Nothing rehearsed or arranged ahead of time. A track is put up here once a week. As you will hear, some of the songs are rough renditions, often first takes documenting what happened over the course of a day. There is no intention to ‘add to’ the original work or attempt to recreate the power of the original recording. Only to play music and document what happens. And those who aren’t familiar with the albums in question will hopefully look for the songs in their definitive versions. ‘Songs Of Leonard Cohen’ by Leonard Cohen was chosen by Andrew from MGMT. For those interested, our close second choice was Ace Of Base, which we’ll keep on the list for next time." I wish I could link to it but I can't find a single copy on Amazon, MusicStack, or eBay. Maybe poke around YouTube? ***UPDATE: Thanks to Facebook Memories I remember where I found the record - on a trip to London a few years back!
July 18 -
The Staples Singers - Freedom Highway Complete (Recorded Live at Chicago's New Nazareth Church) (2015) -
Freedom Highway was recorded at New Nazareth Baptist Church at 79th and Yates in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. Originally released in spring 1965 to support the civil rights marches from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama, the expanded
Freedom Highway Complete was released in spring 2015 in honor of their 50th anniversary. Civil rights leader, and later Congressman,
John Lewis'
vivid accounts of the march served to inspire the song and album title.
Congressman John Lewis of Georgia passed away last night (July 17, 2020). "If not us, then who? If not now, then when?" is a quote that is widely attributed to
Congressman Lewis. Register to vote
here.
July 22 - Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me (1973) - This is my favorite Fleetwood Mac album. It features guitarist and singer Bob Welch and the final to feature Bob Westen on guitar. They were a formidble "one-two" punch on guitars. The sound is closer to the original Fleetwood Macgroove - blues, melodic, guitar-driven - than when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined a few years later. "Hypnotized" is a fave on the album.
July 23 -
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973) - I played
"Living For The City" on the radio yesterday and listened to the whole album when I got home.
Steve Wonderplays every instrument ona couple of the tracks including
"Higher Ground." I recommend listening to this albums through headphones and straight through.
July 24 -
Jimmy Chamberlin Complex - The Parable (2017) - We know
Jimmy Chamberlin as the drummer for
The Smashing Pumpkins and post-Pumpkin project Zwan. I've long been a fan of his jazz project
Jimmy Chamberlin Project. The first album,
Mary Star of The Sea, came out in 2005. The cliche "it was well worth the wait!" is true!
The Parable features some pretty heavy hitters (
Billy Mohler, Chris Speed, Randy Ingram, and
Sean Woolstenhulme). Look these guys up! My fave tracks are "
The Parable" and
"Dance of the Grebe."
