Tag: Columbia
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Toto, Tovo IV, 1982 on Columbia
Toto came together as a group of studio / session musicians, including Jeff, Steve, and Mike Porcaro with Steve Lukather and David Paich. This was their breakout album, with the now unavoidable “Africa” and “Rosanna.” Per wikipedia, although Steve Porcaro was dating Rosanna Arquette at the time, songwriter David Paich insists “Rosanna” was not about…
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Paul Collins’ Beat, The Beat, 1979 on CBS / Columbia
Paul Collins’ Beat was originally just called “The Beat” (as is evident in the artwork) but was renamed Paul Collins’ Beat to avoid confusion with that other “The Beat” (itself renamed to The English Beat in the US). Collins’ legacy includes the Nerves and the Plimsouls, both with Peter Case. Columbia could not use the…
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Dave Brubeck Quartet, Brubeck On Campus, 1972 on Columbia
This is actually a reissue of two earlier LPs: Jazz Goes To College (1954) and Jazz Goes To Junior College (1957). The former featured Bob Bates (bass), Joe Dodge (drums), Paul Desmond (sax), and Brubeck (piano); the latter Joe Morello on drums and Norman Bates on bass (Norman and Bob were brothers). Jazz Goes To…
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Stephane Grappelli, Uptown Dance, 1978 on Columbia
Only available on vinyl, cassette, and 8-track, Grappelli is joined here by two different bands – one with Jimmy Rowles, Ron Carter, Grady Tate, and Jay Berliner and the other with Richard Tee, Anthony Jackson, Steve Gadd, Hugh McCracken, and Rubens Bassini. For my ears, this album veers at times into easy listening / fusion,…
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Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust, 1987 on CBS / Columbia
Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, and Martin Rotsey are the core of Midnight Oil, the politically earnest band from down under. This was their sixth full length (the band started all the way back in the 70s and released their self-titled debut in 1978), but it was their breakout album in the US, with…
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Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska, 1982 on Columbia
Springsteen’s sixth studio album, which he recorded himself on a four track to use as demos but then decided to release them directly. (Somewhere in the vaults exist at least some of these songs in full band versions, but they’ve not surfaced yet). Springsteen has cites as inspiration both the story of Charles Starkweather (who…
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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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Bob Dylan, Self Portrait, 1970 on Columbia
Another of the “difficult” Dylan albums, which he later himself said was something of a joke, designed to relieve some of the pressure he felt from the sixties and his enormous popularity – to do something his fans could not relate to. It is a sprawling double album, including live versions of “Like a Rolling…
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Dylan, Dylan, 1973 on Columbia
This was the album Columbia famously released without Dylan’s authorization after he signed with Asylum Records. (He would release Planet Waves and Before the Flood on Asylum before returning to Columbia, who later reissued both). In short these are outtakes from the Self Portrait and New Morning sessions widely considered part of Dylan’s inconsistent early…
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Willie Nelson & Webb Pierce, In the Jailhouse Now, 1982 on Columbia
i love a good Willie Nelson tribute album or duet album: San Antonio Rose with Ray Price, For the Good Times (a tribute to Price), the tribute album to Harlan Howard, the duets collected on Heroes, and the like. This is in the realm of a duet album, while his hero Webb Pierce was still…
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Various Artists, Footloose: Original Soundtrack of the Paramount Motion Picture, 1984 on Columbia
So in 1984 I’d have thought myself too cool for the Footloose soundtrack: Kenny Logins and Deniece Williams? But I also would have secretly loved it (as I do now unashamedly): the title track, Let’s Hear It For The Boy, Holding Out For A Hero, Dancing In The Sheets, and Almost Paradise. My copy via…
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Fugees, The Score, 1996 on Columbia / Ruffhouse
Very hard to find original pressings of this – my copy is a 2021 reissue. This is an absolute must have, alongside The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which followed 2 years later. How Many Mics, Ready or Not, Killing Me Softly, No Woman No Cry – so much of this album is just perfect. It’s…
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Willie Nelson, Stardust, 1978 on Columbia
Probably my favorite Willie Nelson album. Produced by Booker T Jones – Nelson using his newly found creative control to follow successful outlaw country records with a bunch of covers of pop songs and standards. His sister Bobbie on piano. Great version of Blue Skies, All of Me, and Georgia on My Mind, plus the…
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Willie Nelson, Red Headed Stranger, 1975 on Columbia.
This was the follow up to Shotgun Willie, and was a commercial and critical breakthrough as Nelson moved away from RCA (with two albums on Atlantic in between) and into the Outlaw Country phase. At Columbia he got the creative control he’d been after. It’s an early concept album with a continuous story running through…
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Willie Nelson, Always On My Mind, 1982 on Columbia.
I had always thought that “Always on My Mind” was a much older song than 1982 – and it turns out it is. It was recorded by Brenda Lee in 1972 – but Willie’s take didn’t come out until 1982. The album also includes Willie’s takes on “Do Right, Do Right Woman,” “A Whiter Shade…
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Leonard Cohen, Songs of Leonard Cohen, 1968 on Columbia
You don’t often find Leonard Cohen LPs in record stores as people tend to hold on to them to the end. Even if you haven’t had a turntable in years you’re reluctant to give these up. Cohen is one of those artists I came to a bit later in life but feels like he’s always…
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Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Almost Blue, 1981 on Columbia
Recorded in Nashville, this is Costello’s covers album of country greats – including Hank Williams and George Jones. I love Costello in his Americana / roots / country incarnations, and I love cover records, so this is among my favorites from him. My copy via Academy Records in New York City.
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Weather Report, I Sing The Body Electric, 1972 on Columbia
Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, Eric Gravatt, and guests, in a foundational fusion album from the early 70s. This was their second album after a self-titled debut. Side A is new studio work, Side B is live from a concert in Tokyo. I’m certain I actually had a copy of this back in the…