Tag: vinylfinds
-
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, The Sky is Crying, 1991 on Epic
This was the fifth and final studio album from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, compiling tracks cut earlier and released more than a year after Vaughan’s death in August of 1990. (Compiled by Jimmie Vaughan). It includes a wonderful version of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” in addition to the title track and Willie Dixon’s “Close…
-
Daryl Hall and John Oates, Private Eyes, 1981 on RCA
I thought of this as an early Hall & Oates record, until I checked out their discography, which goes back to 1972’s Whole Oats. Turns out it is their 10th full length studio record! It was the source of the hit singles “Private Eyes” and “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).” The album…
-
Bob Dylan / The Band, Before the Flood, 1974 on Asylum
This was the first released live album by Dylan, though of course since then many earlier live recordings have been released. After this came out Dylan went back to Columbia records, having recorded only Planet Waves and this LP for Asylum – later reissues starting in the 80s are actually on Columbia or imprints of…
-
Steve Earle & The Dukes, Jerry Jeff, 2022 on New West Records
Earle’s made a number of “tribute” records: Guy (for Guy Clark), J.T. (for his son Justin Towns Earle), Townes (for Townes Van Zandt), and this one, for Jerry Jeff Walker, known to most of us as the writer of “Mr. Bojangles.” Bojangles is here, of course, but so are a number of lesser known Walker…
-
Various Artists, Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Three, 1980 on Twin/Tone
Technically the first version of this 2xLP set came out in 1979, but my pressing is from 1980. Twin/Tone was concerned about the Yipes’ track “The Ballad Of Roy Orbison” for legal reasons (copyright clearance) and replaced it with “Specialization” by the New Psychenauts. “SPECIALIZATION” (side four, track two) was recorded at Blackberry Way in…
-
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…
-
Billy Bragg, The Million Things That Never Happened, 2021 on Cooking Vinyl
This is Bragg’s COVID album, the title referring to all the events that didn’t take place due to social distancing and stay-at-home protocols. It was produced by The Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart and ends with a track co-written with Bragg’s son, Jack Valero: “”Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained.” I particularly like “I’ll Be…
-
Adele, 21, 2011 on XL Recordings
What can you say about Adele, so popular to be parodied in SNL as the one voice capable of uniting all Americans in adoration? This of course was her followup to her debut “19” and was a massive success in its own right with “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You” which were sort…
-
The Cure, Boys Don’t Cry, 1980 on PVC/Fiction
Fiction was the UK label, PVC the US label (a sublabel of Passport Records). This was really a compilation album for the US market, drawing eight tracks from Three Imaginary Boys (their UK debut) supplemented with five other tracks from that era. It’s been reissued multiple times with different track order this is the same…
-
Van Halen, Van Halen, 1978 on Warner Bros
The debut, self-titled album. Certainly one of the most recognizable band logos, and one millions sketched on notebooks, jackets, and the like when I was growing up. Hard to overstate the importance of Eddie Van Halen’s playing on Eruption here and the impact it had on guitar players from then on: Also included on their…
-
Eric Von Schmidt, Eric Sings Von Schmidt, 1965 on Prestige
I first heard of Eric Von Schmidt via Bob Dylan’s “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” which begins with the intro: I first heard this from Ric von Schmidt. He lives in Cambridge / Ric is a blues guitarplayer. I met him one day on / The green pastures of the Harvard University As someone…
-
Lucinda Williams, Runnin’ Down a Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty, 2021 on Highway 20 Records
As a fan of both Tom Petty and (especially) Lucinda Williams, I couldn’t pass on this three sided LP – the fourth side is etched with the photo of Williams used on the cover. The album was the first volume in the “Lu’s Jukebox In Studio Concert” series that has gone on to include tributes…
-
The Waterboys, Modern Blues, 2015 on Harlequin and Clown
Underappreciated album from The Waterboys on the label Mike Scott created from 2015 – I believe this album (in all its formats) was the the label’s only release. Sides three and four are one track – “Long Strange Golden Road” – in both fully realized and acoustic demo format. The album was recorded in Nashville,…
-
Jeff Tweedy, Chelsea Walls (Soundtrack), 2002 on Rykodisc / 2022 on Omnivore
Wonderful soundtrack featuring Jeff Tweedy collaborating with Glenn Kotche, around the time of supergroup Loose Fur just before Kotche become Wilco’s drummer. There’s also two great covers: Jimmy Scott doing a somewhat unhinged but wonderful version of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and Robert Sean Leonard doing Wilco’s “Promising” (a bonus track that was in the…
-
Tin Machine, Tin Machine II, 1991 on Victory.
Is this post going to get me flagged on various social platforms? The cover image is four Greek Kouroi, status of nude male youths. That led to the cover being changed in the US to airbrush out the bits you’d expect. (The Canadian covers followed the European releases). Tin Machine was a band fronted by…
-
The Suburbs, In Combo, 1980 on Twin/Tone
The debut album from Minneapolis band The Suburbs. Twin/Tone’s catalog (in 1984) described it thusly: Inspired, frenetic, sometimes absurb, the Suburbs’ debut LP is a rocker. Considerably more raw and flippant than their latter efforts. In Combo documents phase one. New York Rocker said that the Suburbs “alternate btween clenched teeth acid boogie and cartoon…
-
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…
-
John Mayall, Blues from Laurel Canyon, 1968 on London Records
Released on Decca in the UK and London Records in the US, this was Mayall’s first LP after the breakup of the Bluesbreakers and his last on Decca before moving to Polydor. Mayall wasn’t yet living in the US when this was released – this was recorded at the Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London.…