Tag: 1977
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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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Tavares, The Best of Tavares, 1977 on Capitol
Wonderful collection of disco/soul/funk from the mid-seventies, including their biggest hits “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel” and “It Only Takes a Minute.” They ended up on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, doing “More Than A Woman.” But even if you don’t like disco, they are well worth checking out. They were from New Bedford…
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The Beatles, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, 1977 on Capitol
Recorded in 1964 and 1965, restored by George Martin for release in 1977, and then re-released in 2016 with four additional tracks and fully remastered by Giles Martin as Live At The Hollywood Bowl. It’s been out of print for a long time so I was happy to find a copy in the used market.…
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Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True, 1977 on Columbia
Costello’s debut album, coming roaring out of the gate with a new mix of punk, rockabilly, new wave, and British pub rock. Produced by Nick Lowe and recorded in Islington, London. Out on Stiff Records originally in the UK, then Columbia in the US. The original US version added “Watching the Detectives” but this version…
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John Mayall, Lots of People, 1977 on ABC Records
Mayall live from The Roxy in LA, recorded November 24th, 1976. This was Mayall’s eighth live album, with supporting band including a horn section with Red Holloway, Ann Patterson, David Li, Jimmy Roberts, Bill Lamb, and Nolan Smith. That’s lots of people on stage. I’m something of a Mayall completist – this mid-seventies California Jazz…
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Randy Newman, Little Criminals, 1977 on Warner Bros
Randy Newman’s fifth studio LP and his highest charting, in part due to “Short People,” which was also a hit single. Produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman, with supporting players including Waddy Wachtel, Joe Walsh, Glen Frey, J.D. Souther, Tim Schmit, Klaus Voorman, Jim Keltner, Willie Weeks, and even Ry Cooder on mandola on…
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Neil Young, Decade, 1977 on Reprise
It’s amazing to me that all of this music was before 1977. I came to Neil Young’s music well into the 1980s and while I knew some of the legacy (Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y and combinations thereof) I didn’t know just how many great songs he’d put out in the first decade of his career. This…
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Duke Ellington, The Intimate Ellington, 1977 on Pablo Records
Recorded in NYC between 1969 and 1971, with a variety of players. Includes “Moon Maiden” with just Ellington singing and accompanying himself on Celeste, and also some great renditions of “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” and “Sophisticated Lady” but also some less well known songs. Pablo Records was Norman Granz’s label created…
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Pink Floyd, Animals, 1977 on Columbia
What a fantastic album – from the opening note to the closing. I came to Pink Floyd later – not discovering their albums in the sequence they came out, but starting with The Wall and then branching out, eventually getting back to the Syd Barrett days. This record was their 10th studio LP and came…
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Bruce Cockburn, Circles in the Stream, 1977 on True North
I came to Cockburn through the activist tours of the 80s and his hit “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” from Stealing Fire. But he had a decades long career before that, especially with success in his native Canada. Cockburn is joined by Robert Boucher, Pat Godfrey, and Bill Usher. This album was recorded live…
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Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Hard Travelin’: songs by Woody Guthrie and others, 1977 on Fantasy
This is really a 2xLP reissue of two Prestige records: Jack Elliott Sings The Songs of Woody Guthrie (1960) and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (1961). Fantasy purchased the catalog of Prestige, Riverside, and Milestone in the early seventies. My copy is a pressing from some time in the 80s with the blue Fantasy labels, which I…
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Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, 1958 on Atlantic.
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk, 1958 on Atlantic. My copy is a 1977 reissue with the Rockefeller Plaza address. Classic collaboration
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Johnny Winter, Nothin’ But The Blues, 1977 on Blue Sky.
Johnny Winter, Nothin’ But The Blues, 1977 on Blue Sky. Dedicated to Muddy Waters who joins on his own “Walking Thru The Park” – much of the band is the same as Muddy’s Hard Again album, also 1977, which Winter produced.
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Chewing, Pacific Ocean Blue, 2018 on Turntable Kitchen.
Chewing, Pacific Ocean Blue, 2018 on Turntable Kitchen. Full album cover of Dennis Wilson’s 1977 solo LP of the same name, by Nik Ewing from Local Natives.
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Joan Armatrading, Show Some Emotion, 1977 on A&M.
Joan Armatrading, Show Some Emotion, 1977 on A&M. Her fourth full length LP and third on A&M. Produced by Glyn Johns
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Steely Dan, Aja, 1977 on ABC Records.
Steely Dan, Aja, 1977 on ABC Records. Deacon Blue, Peg, Josie. Love the liner notes on this release: “In retrospect, I should have realized the assignment would not be all sweetness and light; in no way has Steely Dan made its reputation by catering to the rock press. In fact their contempt for pop music…
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Experience Unlimited, Free Yourself, 1977 on Black Fire Records.
Experience Unlimited, Free Yourself, 1977 on Black Fire Records. My copy is the 2019 Vinyl Me, Please reissue on Now-Again Records with custom artwork by Allen Jackson and loner notes by Kevin Coombe E.U. were a Washington DC based funk/soul/jazz outfit, unfortunately) most well know for their song “Da Butt” that was in Spike Lee’s…
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Chuck Mangione, Feels So Good, 1977 on A&M
Chuck Mangione, Feels So Good, 1977 on A&M With James Bradley Jr, Charles Meeks, Grant Geissman, and Chris Vadala Was one of the LPs that inspired me to play the trumpet in Jr high and high school. I think I still know the fingering for the title track though I probably couldn’t actually play it…
