Tag: vinyl me please
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Nina Simone, Baltimore, 1978 on CTI
The inimitable Nina Simone recorded in Brussels in January 1978 – her first and only record with CTI (Creed Taylor Inc). Apparently she and Creed Taylor did not find good creative collaboration and she disclaimed any choice of material or creative control. “Baltimore” is the Randy Newman song from Little Criminals. Quincy Jones’ version of…
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Rodney Crowell, The Houston Kid, 2001 on Sugar Hill Records
Released on CD in 2001 but issued on vinyl for the first time in 2024, this was Crowell’s tenth full length album. Johnny Cash (Crowell’s former father-in-law) is featured on “I Walk The Line (Revisited).” It’s a bit of an autobiographical concept album as Tony Scherman lays out in “Great Songwriter Mines His Past” –…
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Destroyer, Labyrinthitis, 2022 on Merge Records
Dan Behar and co’s 13th studio album with John Collins, Joshua Wells, David Carsell, Nicolas Bragg, Ted Bois, and JP Carter. Was number 30 on Pitchfork’s 50 Best of 2022. My copy is the Vinyl Me Please edition on gray vinyl with black spatter.
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The Runaways, The Runaways, 1976 on Mercury
Debut album from Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox, and Sandy West, aka The Runaways – though apparently Nigel Harrison actually plays the bass on the album. Currie published a memoir (Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway) on which the 2010 biopic The Runaways was based, with Kristen Stewart playing Joan Jett,…
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Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, 1975 on Asylum
Mitchell’s seventh studio LP and third on Asylum – continuing to draw on more jazz-rock influences and more synthesizers (Moog, ARP). Some find it a step down from 1974’s Court and Spark but I really love this record and this presing. My copy is the 2024 Vinyl Me, Please reissue by Rhino in the Vinyl…
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T. Rex, T. Rex, 1970 on Reprise
Debut album as “T. Rex” for Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn, having previously released as Tyrannosaurus Rex, out on Reprise in 1970. Tony Visconti produced and reportedly added bass and recorder to some tracks. The electric guitar Bolan holds on the gatefold cover signals the shift into a more rock sound from the folkier early…
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Isaac Hayes, Black Moses, 1971 on Enterprise
This double LP was Hayes’ fifth studio album and was the follow-up to Shaft. Wonderful covers of “Never Can Say Goodbye” as well as “Close To You” and “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again.” Reportedly the label exec Dino Woodward called Hayes “Black Moses.” The Bar-Kays are here on a few tracks, otherwise the band…
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Boogie Down Productions, By All Means Necessary, 1988 on Jive
Second album from KRS-One under the Boogie Down Productions moniker, after the 1987 killing of Scott La Rock. Arguably the birth of socially conscious hip-hop, undeniably a key album in it. So, you’re a philosopher? Yes, I think very deeply In about four seconds, a teacher will begin to speak Let us begin, what, where,…
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Guy Clark, Old No. 1, 1975 on RCA Victor
Guy Clark’s debut album, out in 1975 on RCA Victor, reissued here by Vinyl Me Please in their Country track in 2024. Cover painting by his wife Susanna Clark. Backing vocalists here include Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, and Steve Earle – among a shortlist of the folks Guy Clark was a tremendous influence on. Liner…
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Freddie Hubbard and Art Blakey, Feel The Wind, 1989/2023 on Tidal Waves Music
Originally issued in 1989 on Timeless Records out of the Netherlands, this was reissued by Tidal Waves music in 2023. Hubbard and Blakey are joined by Leon Dorsey (bass), Benny Green (piano), and Javon Jackson (tenor sax). The last track swaps Lonnie Plaxico for Dorsey and Mulgrew Miller for Green. Blakey died in 1990 so…
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Nilsson, Pussy Cats, 1974 on RCA Victor
I first came to discover Harry Nilsson via The Point!, the fable accompanied by an animated film adaptation that aired on ABC in 1971. (I was too young for it at the time but came upon it later). I then came to realize all the songs he was responsible for and how deep and broad…
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Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Texas Flood, 1983 on Epic
Hard to believe given how fully formed the sound is, but this was the debut album for Vaughan and Double Trouble. Said to have been recorded in two days with no overdubs. What a fantastic debut: “Love Struck Baby,” “Pride and Joy,” and the title track lead off side one. The band here is Vaughan…
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Ambrose Akinmusire, When the Heart Emerges Glistening, 2011 on Blue Note
Akinmusire is an avant-garde jazz trumpeter from Oakland by way of the Manhattan School of Music, USC, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in LA. This was his second album (first on Blue Note) with Walter Smith III on sax, Gerald Clayton on piano, Harish Raghavan on bass, and Justin Brown on drums. “My…
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Broadcast, Tender Buttons, 2005 on Warp Records
This was the third studio album from Broadcast, at this point largely a proect of Trish Keenan and James Cargill as a duo, credited on the album as James & Trish. Tender Buttons was also a book of poetry by Gertrude Stein that came out in 1914 – I took a flyer on the album…
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Jimmy Scott, Falling In Love Is Wonderful, 1963 on Tangerine Records
American jazz vocalist sometimes referred to as “Little” Jimmy Scott, who had a very high contralto voice due to Kallmann’s syndrome, a genetic condition.Scott performed in the final episode of Twin Peaks which led to a bit of a career resurgence in the 1990s. This album was out of print between the 1963 release and…
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Willie Nelson, Phases and Stages, 1974 on Atlantic
This was Nelson’s 17th studio album and second (and last) of the Atlantic era, following Shotgun Willie, produced by Jerry Wexler and recorded at Muscle Shoals in Alabama. As the listening notes explain, while Nelson disclaimed the autobiographical elements of the record, “when you make . . . the most devastating divorce record of all…
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Gus Cannon, Walk Right In, 1963 on Stax
Jug Band leader Gus Cannon started recording in the late 20s as “Banjo Joe” and reappeared as part of the folk revival in the 50s on Folkways. This was his first and only Stax LP released in 1963. “Walk Right In” the song became a hit for the Rooftop Singers – who were credited with…
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Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willy and the Poor Boys, 1969 on Fantasy
This was the fourth LP from CCR, and the third released in 1969 (one in January, one in August, and this one in November) – talk about striking while the iron is hot / saturating the market. John Fogerty, older bother Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook, and Doug Clifford are in fine form, including “Down On…