Tag: Beverly MA
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Iggy Pop, The Idiot, 1977 on RCA Victor
Iggy Pop is one of those threads that lives in the lineage of Bowie, Bauhaus, and Love and Rockets – lots of records i’ve posted lately. David Bowie produced The Idiot just before producing his own Low, though Low came out just before The Idiot. Bowie and Pop get cowriting credits, plus Carlos Alomar on…
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Bauhaus, Press the Eject and Give Me The Tape, 1982 on Beggars Banquet
Live album from Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David Haskins, and David J, recorded in London and Liverpool in 1981 and 1982. I always loved this cover – a photo by Eugene Merinov – and the labels with the Bauhaus style faces in black and white. Great set of live versions, including a nine-and-a-half minute “Bela…
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Love and Rockets, Love and Rockets, 1989 on Beggars Banquet.
Although self-titled, this was actually the fourth LP from Love and Rockets, following after Earth Sun Moon. It was also their last for 5 years as they pursued various solo projects. “So Alive” became their biggest hit in the US and made the album their best-selling here. It’s not my absolute favorite—that would be Seventh…
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Depeche Mode, Construction Time Again, 1983 on Sire / Mute / Reprise
This was the third full length from Depeche Mode, originally released in 1983 on Mute, distributed in the US by Sire. Alan Wilder had joined and wrote two of the songs on the album. (Vince Clarke had departed after the debut album). One of my favorites, including “Love, In Itself,” “More Than a Party” and…
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Love and Rockets, Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, 1985 on Beggars Banquet
Debut album for Love and Rockets, though “Ball of Confusion” preceded it as a single under that band name. I always called this “Seventh Dream of a Teenage Heaven” but clearly it isn’t. Daniel Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins crafting just a fantastic and new sound here after Bauhaus split in 1983 and after…
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Prince, For You, 1978 on Warner Bros.
This was the debut album from his purple majesty, with all songs written, performed, and recorded by Prince himself. Recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito CA. It’s not my favorite of his albums but it shows his early promise and he was doing it all himself. Very sexy and funky even now. My copy—via…
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Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 on Columbia
Dylan’s sixth studio album, following the infamous Dylan-goes-electric Newport Folk Festival and following Bringing It All Back Home. A masterpiece from start to finish, including “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Ballad of a Thin Man,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” and “Desolation Row.” Dylan just turned 85 recently—his birthday is just 2 days (and many years)…
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The B-52’s, Party Mix!, 1981 on Warner Bros.
This EP came out after both the debut self-titled and Wild Planet, and features three songs from each, remixed (as a “Party Remix” by Daniel Coulombe, Steven Stanley, and Paul Wexler and mixed into one long track per-side (cross-faded). Who can resist an album called Party Mix! from the ultimate party band? My copy—via Big…
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The Specials, More Specials, 1980 on Two-Tone
Second album from Coventry’s own The Specials, with Jerry Dammer, Sir Horace Gentleman, John Bradbury, Dick Cuthell, Roddy Radiation, Lynval Golding, Rico Rodrigues, Neville Staples and Terry Hall. Several members of the Go-Go’s join for backing vocals: Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, and Jane Wiedlin (who would co-write “Our Lips Are Sealed” with Hall). My copy—via…
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Herbie Hancock, My Point of View, 1963 on Blue Note
Hancock’s sophomore album as a leader, recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs NJ. Hancock joined by Donald Byrd (trumpet), Gracham Moncur III (trombone), Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Grant Green (guitar), Chuck Isreals (bass), and Anthony Williams (drums). Herbie Hancock is a master, and it is wonderful to find the early Blue Note albums…
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Mose Allison, Your Mind is On Vacation, 1976 on Atlantic
Allison’s 10th record on Atlantic and 20th overall. Of course the rest of the title couplet is “but your mouth is working overtime.” Great record, executive produced by Nesuhi Ertegun, with Jack Hannah (bass), Gerry Granelli (drums, Al Cohn & Joe Farrell (tenor sax), David Sanborn (alto sax), and Al Porcino (trumpet) – players vary…
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Lou Rawls, Live!, 1966 on Capitol
Fantastic early Lou Rawls live album, with a nearly six minute “Tobacco Road” and a couple of monologues. If you don’t know mid-sixties Lou Rawls you are missing out. My copy—via Big Fun Records in Beverly MA—is a later reissue pressed by Capitol Los Angeles (with * in the runouts).
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Mose Allison, Back Country Suite, 1957 on Prestige
Mose Allison’s debut album, recorded at Van Gelder’s studio in Hackensack in March 1957, with Taylor La Fargue (bass) and Frank Isola (drums). Largely instrumental. The song titled here just “Blues” was later recorded on Live at Leeds by the Who as “Young Man Blues”: Well a young man ain’t got nothing in the world…
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Suzanne Vega, Flying With Angels, 2025 on Cooking Vinyl
Vega’s tenth studio album and her first of new material since 2014. Bob Dylan gets cowriting credit on “Chambermaid” as a kind of alternate version of “I Want You.” “Speaker’s Corner” is a great song as well: I have a newfound sympathy For the madman in the square Who rants and raves his rhetoric Into…
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Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Imperial Bedroom, 1982 on Columbia
Seventh studio LP from Costello and the sixth with The Attractions, out of F-Beat in the UK and Columbia in the US. A must have for collectors of Costello or indeed the whole new wave / alternative era of the late seventies to mid eighties. My copy – direct from the artist at a show…
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The Robert Cray Band, That’s What I Heard, 2020 on Nozzle Records
Robert Cray (often attributed as The Robert Cray Band) has been making great electric blues albums since 1980’s Who’s Been Talkin’. This is their most recent studio album and won the Soul Blues Award at the Blues Music Awards from the Blues Foundation in 2021. I’m a huge fan of Cray’s approach to the blues…
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Suzanne Vega at The Cabot, June 5th, 2025
Suzanne Vega is on 13-night tour of the east coast (Maine to DC), and one of the stops was in Beverly at the Cabot. The show is Vega, accompanied by Gerry Leonard, with cellist Stephanie Winters joining on maybe 2/3rds of the songs. There are some backing tracks (percussion) on some songs and I think…
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Brandy Clark, Brandy Clark, 2023 on Slate Creek / Warner
Clark’s fourth studio album, self-titled, and produced by Brandi Carlile, who provides backing vocals, piano and guitar on a number of tracks and is featured on “Dear Insecurity,” which they performed live at the Grammys in 2024 – and for which she won a “Best Americana Performance” Grammy. She’s been a great songwriter for many…