CLOVER - The Sound City Sessions 1975 [USA pop, rock 1975] 2008 Sonic Past Music SPMECD103

 

Before the band headed from San Francisco to London to establish itself as one of the few American outfits on the pub rock scene, Clover cut some demo sessions at a studio called Sound City. These remained unreleased until 2006, when Sonic Past Music issued the aptly named The Sound City Sessions, a 16-track collection of these early recordings from the band that later went on to back Elvis Costello on My Aim Is True and still later spawned Huey Lewis & the News and a Doobie Brother in John McFee. Hints of these later incarnations can be heard throughout The Sound City Sessions -- there are a few sprightly pop sessions and a bit of boogie -- but for the most part this is friendly, slightly sloppy country-rock designed for mellow sunny afternoons, not dimly lit honky tonks. Sometimes, they sound designed for the radio, too, a giveaway regarding the participation of Keith Olsen, who would soon produce Fleetwood Mac's eponymous 1975 pop breakthrough, but make no mistake, these are demos, sometimes sounding just a little bit shy of full-blooded arrangements. Nevertheless, these recordings are pretty charming. Even if they didn't always put the pieces together in the best possible combinations, Clover had the songs and they had much of the bright pub rock feel that enlivened My Aim Is True, and that's enough to make this a worthy stroll through the past.

Clover

GIDIANS BIBLE - 1969, The Golden Voice Recordings [USA psychedelic rock 1969] 2017 Alona's Dream Records ADR CD 024

 

Gidians Bible got their start in the fertile 1960’s Illinois music scene. During their brief existence they recorded five heavy psychedelic originals at Golden Voice Recording Co. This EP features all their songs: two from their sought after Golden Voice 45 and all three of their other unreleased cuts.

Bible

THE STEVE MILLER BAND - King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents [USA rock 1973-76] 2002 King Biscuit Flower Hour Records 7930188001-2

 

By the early 70s Steve Miller was a beaten man. Still only in his mid-twenties, the precocious purveyor of acid-tinged blues rock had seen his stomping ground of the West Coast crumble at the hands of 'the man 'and had seen his band (which had featured a young Boz Skaggs) whittled away to nothing. His critically-lauded albums had made little money and Miller, himself injured in a car crash, was on the verge of quitting for good. Times were not good for the man once referred to by Miles Davis as a 'sorry-ass cat'. Yet a sabbatical spent licking his wounds and recapturing his muse was to prove his making. Within a year the 'Gangster of Love' was back with an album that was about to put him in the platinum league and sign his meal ticket forever. The album was The Joker and was rapidly followed by his masterpiece, Fly Like An Eagle. With a fresh band and a new fire in his playing, Steve was back. His return to favour is gloriously captured on this double live CD.

Taken from two shows separated by three years; this album is as good a testament to Miller's numerous strengths (and occasional weaknesses) as you could get. The first set, from 1973, has Steve retaining his stock in trade blues repertoire and blending it with the newer, fresher material. By the second set (from 1976) he's incorporated the stylish harp playing of the wonderfully monickered Norton Buffalo and has pushed further into the pop-rock that he was surely born to make.

Many people forget that his early work was coloured by a restless experimentation in the studio. Early successes such as Sailor were peppered with sound effects and state of the art electronics. Miller used this experience to good use in later years. The introduction to ''Fly Like An Eagle'', the floaty ''Wild Mountain Honey'' and the gorgeous re-versioning of ''Song for Our Ancestors'' bear witness to this.

He's also often accused of simplistic song writing, but the simplicity itself was a mark of sophistication. It's true that he wasn't above re-tooling his own back catalogue in search of new material. It's a technique made all too obvious when, on the first set, an early version of ''Fly...'' is immediately followed by ''My Dark Hour'', from which he nicked the opening guitar figure! Even ''The Joker'' contains references to characters from his previous work - yet it's his unerring sense of great pop dynamics that make one forgive his self-plagiarisation.

However it's his obvious joy at being back and playing to an appreciative audience that really comes across in this excellent album. The voice is wonderfully lithe; the guitar is as bluesy and funky as ever; and when he speaks of 'the pompitous of love' well - you just have to listen...

Steve Miller

LARRY BRIGHT - Shake That Thing! [USA rhythm & blues, rock and roll, 1960-64] 1997 Del-Fi Records DFCD 71253

 

Larry Bright was born Julian Ferebee Bright in Norfolk, VA, on August 17, 1934. His stepfather, a Navy man, nicknamed him "little Larry." The Bright family moved frequently around the South, finally settling in Corpus Christi, TX, where Bright learned to play the guitar. He was exposed to a musical diet comprised mainly of southern Texas blues, which later influenced everything he ever played or wrote. Bright moved to Southern California for his own somewhat brief stint in the Navy (he was released on a Section 8) and quickly established a reputation as both a dynamic guitarist and a performer with a penchant for odd behavior. He began jamming in the local clubs, including the Sea Witch, where, in 1959, he was scouted by producer Joe Saraceno (the Ventures, the Marketts), who invited Bright to lay down some tracks at Western Recorders. Once in the studio, Bright, inspired by Muddy Waters' "mojo song" (he didn't know the title) decided to make up a mojo song of his own: "Mojo Workout." After local black-owned Tide Records picked it up, the track received heavy airplay on KGFJ, the major R&B station in L.A. Jim Randolph, a black disc jockey at the station, thought Bright was a black artist and pushed him heavily. The song went on to hit number one on the black music charts in June 1960, and also charted, barely, on the Hot 100 at number 90.

After the Tide label refused to advance him any royalties (he intended to purchase a new suit for an upcoming American Bandstand appearance), Bright signed another recording contract, this one with Rendezvous Records. Tide found out and sued Rendezvous, retrieving the master tapes for a number of singles (Rendezvous, meanwhile, released Bright's "Twinkie Lee" single under the name Pete Roberts). Bright continued to record for Tide and released several more singles, including "Bloodhound," "One Ugly Child" (later covered by the Downliners Sect), and a great version of Andre Williams' "Bacon Fat." Tide later leased his contract to Del-Fi Records, which was already handling their national distribution. Del-Fi impresario Bob Keane attempted to have Bright cash in on the surf music craze of 1963, recording various surf and hot rod instrumentals, Johnny Rivers-style teen rock, and a Goffin-King penned dance number ("When I Did the Mashed Potatoes With You"). Bright continued to remain a fixture on the Sunset Strip scene and toured as the only white blues performer on an otherwise all-black tour headlined by Chuck Berry. He later worked with Lou Rawls and Roy Clark, and developed a bizarre friendship with Elvis Presley, who wanted to hire Bright as his guitarist, but eventually declined because of Bright's drinking problem. Bright remains an unknown due to his poor business dealings, legal problems, and alcohol-fueled madness. In 1997, Del-Fi collected most of his singles for a collection called Shake That Thing!

Larry

THE CONTENTS ARE - Four Each Other [USA psychedelic rock 1969] 2017 Alona's Dream Records ADR-12-021

Classic midwestern American psychedelic rock from Iowa legends The Contents Are. Recorded in 1969 at Golden Voice Recording Co. South Pekin, IL and unreleased until 2017. 

A lost late ’60’s psych gem produced by studio legend Jerry Milam. 

The Contents Are

 

DR. JOHN - Medical School The Early Sessions Of Mac Dr. John Rebennack [USA blues, swamp, rhythm and blues '50s - '60s] 1999 Music Club 50103

 

Dr. John's early work as a producer, sessionman, and songwriter for Ace Records is legendary, not only among fans of Mac Rebennack but among devotees of New Orleans R&B. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to hear this material until Music Club's 1999 release, Medical School: The Early Sessions of Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. Clocking in at 18 tracks, the disc isn't complete, but it is definitive -- all the best-known cuts are here, along with a generous selection of little-known gems. To anyone but scholars and aficionados, most of the names on the compilation will not be familiar (The Ends, Al Reed, Ronnie & the Delinquents, Sugar Boy Crawford, Bobby Hebb, among others), and many of these cuts have never been well-circulated, or even released, but that's what makes the compilation so special. Not only are these lost classics from Dr. John, but these are lost gems from the prime period of New Orleans R&B. And this is not hyperbole -- listening to Medical School, it's hard not to escape the feeling that almost every song is a hit you've never heard or have forgotten about. The instrumentals are not weak, the novelties (such as "Morgus the Magnificent") are fun, and cuts like "It Ain't No Use," "Bad Neighborhood," "You Don't Leave Me No Choice," and "Keeps Dragging Me On" are simply fantastic, sounding for all the world like classics, not throwaways. And that's the reason why Medical School isn't simply a necessary addition to Dr. John's catalog -- it's an essential addition to any New Orleans R&B library.

Medical School

REMEDY - The Golden Voice Sessions 1970-1974 [USA hard rock, psychedelic rock 1970-74] 2016 Alona's Dream Records ADR 12019

 

Remedy was one of the top live rock bands in Illinois in the early 1970s with a recorded legacy that has remained largely unheard until now. This previously unreleased album was puzzled together from the restored four-track masters. 

Remedy