If there was a time and a place when progressive rock was at it peak, it would probably have been in England from 1968 through 1972. Those were the years when bands like Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes sold millions of records and filled thousands of stadium seats.

Shortly before prog-rock’s demise, around 1971, an eccentric, classically-trained organist and flautist from the Netherlands named Thijs van Leer recorded this, his second album with a quartet he formed called Focus. Unlike their first album, which went largely unnoticed, Moving Waves was a huge hit for the band, propelled to #8 on the Billboard album chart behind a shortened version of a song called Hocus Pocus.

Underscored by a melange of flute riffs, accordions, guitars, nonsensical Dutch lyrics and not a little baying and yodeling, Hocus Pocus was one of the weirdest songs to ever hit the American Top 40 this side of Dr. Demento. Most people who have any history of listening to rock music known the song, even if they don’t know the title.

But, for people who bought the album on the strength of that one song, what of the rest of Moving Waves? Taken today, the remaining five cuts ranging — from the 2 minute guitar and strings of Le Clochard (”Bread’) to the broad-sweeping 23 minute suite of songs called Eruption — sound distinctly dated and, for the most part, strangely out of sync with Hocus Pocus.

Though Le Clochard is a pretty enough song that predated New Age by at least 10 years, it can’t escape from sounding today like Will Ackerman fronting a primitive synthesizer. Janis, which features van Leer’s flute stands the test of time a bit better, evoking the best of Blood, Sweat and Tears middle-era work. Moving Waves is simply bad poetry atop flourishing piano while Focus II seems like a song without real direction.

One the flip side, the five-part song cycle Eruption delivers a bit more satisfaction, bringing to mind both Yes and ELP. The drum work Pierre Van der Linden introduces on Hocus Pocus comes into, well, focus midway through the piece. Likewise, at about 6 minutes into the piece, Jan Akkerman is set free to explore a variety of colors ranging from George Benson styled hollow body to Steve Hackett-like electric. Though somewhat disjointed from passage to passage, it’s easy the most interesting piece on the record behind the much vaunted single.

So, was my enthusiasm at finding this nearly pristine copy of Moving Waves for only 99 cents — tucked inside an audiophile inner sleeve — worthy of the music contained therein? Probably not. But certainly as a museum piece, it wasn’t a bad purchase.

BUY-O-METER

LP (99 cents at Goodwill): In nearly perfect condition, it was well worth the money…but not much more.

CD (ranging from 12.99 to 68 bucks for the JVC Japanese version): You have to be really into prog to make that kind of purchase.

DOWNLOAD: Not available.

MP3 Taste Test

Hocus Pocus
Eruption

As I sit at my desk looking at the inner sleeve of this record, I can’t help but think that Emmylou Harris is one of the most beautiful women to ever attach her voice to a song.

There she sits, in front of the standard issue photographer’s backdrop, wearing jeans and a Danskin and looking as breathtaking as any woman ever photographed. Fast forward to 2009, as she turns 62 years old this coming April 2nd, and you’ll see not much has changed over the past 30 years: she remains as stunningly beautiful as ever.

Putting my crush aside, what about the music on this, the fourth album she did for the Warner Brothers group (and the first to actually bear the Warner Brothers name).

From the very first note — as she sings “there he goes, he’s gone again” — she tells us this record is about love and loss and how it can be thrilling and frustrating and painful all at once.

She’s saying it will be Easy From Now On but she doesn’t really believe it. In the Susanna Clark/Carlene Routh tune that also bears the album’s title line, Emmylou lies that “it’s gonna be easy to fill the heart of a thirsty woman” but her plaintive fragile voice, backed by Mickey Raphael’s harmonica work that descends down a bass line to the chorus, says otherwise.

The theme of thirst continues with Two More Bottles of Wine, a mid-tempo piece from the Delbert McClinton catalog that Emmylou dives into with typical wit. Her voice this time is light and airy, capable of anything it would seem, but again, there’s an undercurrent of loss and heartbreak. Behind the whistling-in-the-dark courage she sings, Albert Lee supports her with workmanlike guitar and piano that highlights the work of her LA session group, the Hot Band.

Passing over her take on Dolly Parton’s To Daddy to get to first of two Jesse Winchester tracks, My Songbird, Emmylou continues the theme as she sings “how I crave the liquor of her song”. The bird is not the one suffering; it’s Emmylou who craves her freedom. As much as any tune on the record, this one cuts to the core what made Harris such a wonderful interpreter.

The side closes with Leaving Lousiana In The Broad Daylight, broken hearted and heading out of town, she is, with the help of friends Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, loading the truck (and providing vocals and accordion, respectively)

The highlights of side two are the songs of redemption: Utah Phillips Green Rolling Hills and Winfield Scott’s Burn That Candle. “The green rolling hills of West Virginia, are the nearest thing to heaven that I know,” she says, as she’s put away her hurt from living in an apartment in West L.A. to seek heaven on earth in West Virginia.

Garth and Rick are back for the final redemption on Burn That Candle, with Garth contributing a smashing sax solo and Hank DeVito doing yeoman’s work on pedal steel.

Having raved about the beauty of her voice (and her face), I can now admit that I’ve never been a fan of Emmylou Harris. That is to say I’ve never been a “fanatic,” settling for more of a passing affection. But every time I look and listen, the crush becomes a little deeper.

LP ($1.50 cents at Goodwill): Great shape, save for the last tune, and well worth the money.

CD ($18 minimum, used): As near as I can tell, the CD is out of print. You can get a used copy as low as $18 or a new copy for as (little!) as $89. Yeah, $89.

DOWNLOAD: You can download the full album from Amazon for less than $10.

MP3 TASTE TEST

Easy From Now On

My Songbird

Two More Bottles of Wine

It’s unfortunate that what society considered to be Mama Cass’ failings have overshadowed her contributions to rock and roll music. Yes, she was overweight and, yes, she died an unfortunate death. But without her popular music would likely have traveled a much different road.

Legend has it that the Lovin’ Spoonful was created as the result of John Sebastian meeting Jerry Yester while sitting at Cass’ apartment, watching the Beatles on TV. It’s widely documented that she heard the voices of Crosby, Stills and Nash singing in her head, long before they’d ever sung together. It was her match-making, inviting them to get together at her house in Laurel Canyon, that yielded one of the monumental singing trios in rock and roll history.

She was the house mother of the Laurel Canyon fraternity — matchmaker, confidant, family cook — and her influence was quiet but forceful.

She also had a brilliant voice. Some may argue there were others who were better trained, more talented or more recognizable (and that’s probably true). But like CSN was what they were because of all three voices, that which was the Mamas and The Papas couldn’t have happened without her voice in the mix.

Taken alone, her voice was sometimes tremendously deep and heart-wrenching and at other times mellifluous and delicate. Such was the case with Bubblegum, Lemonade and Something For Mama, an eleven song set Cass cut in 1969 under the production aegis of Steve Barri.

Supported by Jimmie Haskell’s brilliant west-coast pop arranging and the taste and style of The Wrecking Crew (Joe Osborn, Hail Blaine, Larry Knetchel), this is sunshine pop, tap-dancing standards and heartfelt ballads.

The record opens with one of my favorites, It’s Getting Better, the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil chestnut originally recorded by Bobby Rydell. With a full-on arrangement of strings, horns and flutes, the song immediately establishes Bubblegum as a big production, a full-on dose of sunshine pop.

Side one continues with Blow Me A Kiss, a Lovin’ Spoonful style stroll through the park, featuring a top hat swaying clarinet solo and a wonderful brush-and-bass-drum backbeat from Blaine. Cass changes gears again with the countrified two-step of Sour Grapes and then sits down in the shade for some lemonade and bubblegum with Easy Come, Easy Go. Cass turns quiet with the slow jazz of I Can Dream, Can’t I? (with a beautiful string arrangement a la the Fifth Dimension) then closes the side with the bubbly Welcome To The World.

Mama tackles some great songwriters on the second set. She opens side two with another top and tails tune, an interpretation of Delaney Bramlett’s Lady Love, a song she sings “especially for (her) little daughter” followed by the gem of the album: Laura Nyro’s He’s A Runner. Over a deep, intuitive string arrangement, Larry Knetchel’s subtle piano and Hal Blaine’s just-right percussion, Mama’s voice soars, glides and floats. With this song, alone, we hear why the Mamas and the Papas couldn’t have been without their Mama.

He’s A Runner is so intense and beautiful it’s difficult to recover for the remaining three cuts. Move In A Little Closer, Baby is a fine piece of pop, paying homage to some of the Mamas and the Papas best songs, while When I Just Wear My Smile is fun, but disposable. Cass closes with Haskell’s treament of Leah Kunkel’s Who’s To Blame.

When all is said and sung, Bubblegum, Lemonade and Something For Mama is a world-class production that shows the versatile, gentle voice of a wonderful singer in a variety of pop settings.

MP TASTE TEST:

Lady Love

It’s Getting Better

He’s a Runner

BUY-O-METER

LP ($1.99 cents at Goodwill): A few scratches here and there but no skips. Considering it’s out of print, I have to say this is the best buy I’ve made in awhile.

CD (over $40, used, here and around): As near as I can tell, the CD is out of print, as well, and the lowest price I’ve seen is over $40

DOWNLOAD: Not available.

Few movies antagonized pre-Microsoft paranoia about man and machine quite the way 2001: A Space Odyssey did when it was released in 1968. Though Neil Armstrong’s walk in space was imminent, the movie’s sparse dialogue and chilling cinematography addressed far more than space technology: artificial intelligence and human evolution were the more critical topics that sparked people’s fearful imaginations.

Though it was met with mixed reviews when it was released, the movie has been retrospectively called one of the greats of all time, particularly in the science fiction genre. And its theme song, Also Sprach Zarathustra, though composed as a tone poem in 1896 by Richard Strauss, is as well-known to the masses today as the theme from Rocky or the Star Spangled Banner.

Part of the song’s popular evolution came from an unlikely melding of jazz fusion and disco.

In 1972, it was Eumir Deodato, a Brazilian-born keyboard player, who fused the sounds of the nightclub and Latin jazz together and created the version of Also Sprach Zarathustra that became a pop music classic. The single, which rose to #2 on the Billboard chart and won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental, sold several million copies.The album version, which clocked in at over 9 minutes, fueled the sales of his first US release, Prelude, to a level of 5 million copies sold.

Following the single on side one are two Deodato-penned tunes: Spirit of Summer and Carly And Carole. Recalling that Prelude was recorded at a time in American popular culture when the Odd Couple was the Friday night hit on TV, you can hum Neal Hefti’s theme song and hear, with some slight variations, most of what Deodato laid down on Prelude’s first side: an easy listening, lounging about the New York apartment vibe that sounds like a combination of Bob James and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

On side two, Deodato returns to classical music and movies as his source of inspiration, relaxing into a version of the George Forrest/Robert Wright chestnut, Baubles, Bangles And Beads (taken from the musical, Kismet, and based on Borodin’s String Quartet In D). Hubert Laws’ flute takes center stage on Deodato’s articulate reading of Debussy’s Prelude To An Afternoon of A Faun while John Tropea’s guitar steals the spotlight on the album’s last cut, September 13.

It’s on September 13 where, belatedly, the album takes on some life: Billy Cobham lays down a groove in keeping with his solo work, Tropea plays a smoking guitar and the horn arrangement, which echoes some of Quincy Jones’ work from that period, frames the tune nicely.

While the top quality musicians from the CTI Records are there in full force (Tropea, Laws, Cobham, Ray Barretto and Stanley Clarke), Prelude suffers from being too polite and too restrained for too long. Sadly, Ray Baretto’s NY street vibe didn’t inspire Deodato quite as much as would’ve been beneficial.

MP3 TASTE TEST:

Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)

September 13

BUY-O-METER

LP (99 cents at the Salvation Army): In good condition, it’s an enjoyable listen for under a buck.

CD (as low as $3.45, used, at Amazon): If early 70’s latin lounge turns you on, it wouldn’t be untoward to drop 4 bucks on it.

DOWNLOAD (99 cents pe cut at iTunes): Well, considering I paid 99 cents for the whole record (and the CD is only a few more dollars more), that seems a little expensive.

BEST BET: The next time you’re on Amazon, toss it in for good measure. But, don’t spend the postage to buy it separately.

I’m in the middle of three music books right now: The Rock Snob’s Dictionary and Lost In The Grooves are great books to drop in on when you have a few minutes waiting in the grocery line. The Mansion on the Hill by Fred Goodman requires a bit more concentration. It’s Goodman’s perspective on how rock and roll went from being a product of the underground to simply being a product, largely through work and personalities of three people: Albert Grossman, Jon Landau and David Geffen.

David Geffen gets quite a bit of ink, from his beginning at William Morris to his founding of Elektra/Asylum and Geffen Records.

Goodman recounts how Geffen was behind the signing of Crosby, Stills and Nash on Atlantic Records, how he irked off the guys in Poco when he tried to recruit Richie Furay for this project and, ultimately, lost the management of the Eagles to Irving Azoff over what the band considered an unfair contract arrangement. It’s a balanced accounting of Geffen’s early career, weighing his desire for fame against his frustration over his failures.

As was often the case, however, Geffen got his way in the end. He managed to bring J.D. Souther, Chris Hillman and Richie Furay together and this album was one of the spoils of victory. The first of three they recorded, this was intended to be the first salvo over the bow of the country rock wars, proving to the world that Geffen could create as super a group as anyone else. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite happen that way.

As with many projects composed of star parts (Little Village being the first to come to mind), the elements didn’t coalesce quite the way they might have. There are Souther songs, there are Hillman songs and there are Furay songs, all pleasant and well executed. But there aren’t any band songs and that leaves the album feeling incomplete.

There are some highlights, though. The ill-fated drummer of great renown Jim Gordon lays downs some terrific drum work and Al Perkins contributes some nice work on dobro and steel guitar.

And there are some good songs. Contrary to what Brett Hartenbach says in his All Music Guide review, the best songs are actually those written by Souther. Both The Heartbreaker and Border Town swing with the distinctive sound that made California rock the coolest thing in 1974; Pretty Goodbyes is certainly Eagles-esque (but, well, pretty, just the same) and Deep, Dark and Dreamless, though a little self-indulgent, has some nice textures.

The verdict? For $1.50 at the Salvation Army store, it was worth the price of admission (if for nothing else than the over the top southern California neon graphics). If I had bought it when it first came out (for probably $3.98) I would’ve probably felt pretty good about my purchase; being that I was 12, I probably would’ve played it to death. For the price of a CD today, though, even if it were only $7.99, I’d take a pass.

Border Town

Pretty Goodbyes

The Flight of The Dove

Delbert McClinton cut his chops in the late 1950’s as a guitarist and harp player for the Straitjackets; they were the house band at Jack’s Place in Forth Worth. Along with playing their own Monday night shows, the Straitjackets supported the blues artists who passed through town (guys like Howlin’ Wolf and Jimmy Reed).

After cutting a few local singles and playing harmonica on Bruce Channel’s 1962 hit, Hey Baby, McClinton took off for L.A. in the early 70’s with his friend, Glen Clark.

While McClinton’s career went on to include Grammy Awards, Top 40 singles and blues cruises, Clark’s bread-and-butter has always been as a session player and touring musician. In the studio, he’s supplied everything from keyboards to graphic art for performers ranging from Kris Kristofferson to Jim Belushi; on the road, he’s played keyboards and sung with a number of artists, most notably Bonnie Raitt.

This album, the second of two that McClinton and Clark cut for WEA, came before McClinton’s fame and Clark’s many miles on the road. Interestingly enough, this album from McClinton’s “California Period” was actually recorded in New York.

Critically acclaimed but largely ignored by people with money in their pockets, Subject To Change is a fun, well-executed record full of country rock and blues.

My scratchy copy starts with Oh My, a lazy country blues tune featuring the boys singing in fitful harmony: “we can’t talk about the things we need to talk about, baby, ‘cuz we don’t see nothing the same”. With its lilting two-step rhythm and steel guitar, it’s straight out of the New Riders of the Purple Sage songbook.

If You Don’t Leave Me Alone (I’m Gonna Find Somebody Who Will) sounds more like the classic Delbert we’ve been hearing for years. Kicking off with a chooglin’ rhythm guitar lick (a la B-Movie Boxcar Blues), the tune cooks along for the first sixteen bars until the horns pull in, the harmonies take over and Delbert knocks out a nasty harp solo. It’s classic party blues that mixes nicely with Tower of Power and just about anything from the Rolling Stones.

There’s a bit of peace, love and religion in the song Too Much as Delbert and Glen witness a world where people play too many games and take too much (proving that things haven’t changed much in 30 years). Delbert digs out the harp and the bullet on Sidewalk Diploma another tune that fits nicely into the Rolling Stones meets William Clarke vibe.

There are a number of other good tunes on the record that dabble in a couple of different styles and sound like a couple of different artists. But the two songs that truly standout on this fall right in the middle: Cold November, which ends side one and I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore, which kicks off side two.

I’m a sucker for an acoustic ballad, so I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore stands out as my favorite. Also covered by Loretta Lynn, his song has the hook of a song you’ve heard before…but have never heard before (if you know what I mean).

When I first listened to this record, it struck me as a fun but not very deep record. With a few more passes, it reveals much more below the surface that one might think.

I recommend buying it and giving it a spin.

MP3 Taste Test:

California Livin’

Oh My

Too Much

BUY-O-METER

LP - $1.50 at Salvation Army - Even in scritchy-scratchy condition, this was well worth the money.
CD - $6.66 to $11.99 at assorted retailers - Always go cheap, I say.
DOWNLOAD - Doesn’t appear to be available

Admittedly this is more a sampler of this album than a full review. I didn’t notice until I pulled it out of the sleeve that someone had bit a chunk out of the disc, rendering cuts one, six and seven performus non gratis. The rest of the album, another buck-fifty thrift shop gem, is a crackly, crinkly dip in a pool full of acoustic jazz, folk and blues.

My version of Ice Water opens with Pamela Brown, a sardonic take on Tom T. Hall’s largely unknown tune from the 1960’s. I tend to zoom in on one or two tunes per album and play them over and over. This is the one that catches my fancy hereabouts.

Kottke follows with A Good Egg, seemingly a polite stroll out to the porch for lemonade until he opens up with some heavy strumming in the middle 64. From there, all pretensions of gentlemenliness are set aside as he and his three band members (all named Bill) dive headlong into Tilt Billings and the Student Prince, a raucous fusion of Barbara Ann, Jaco Pastorius and irish bar band. Then suddenly, the wind whispers through the trees as Kottke solos with the beautiful All Through The Night.

With two cuts missing from side two, my version concludes with just three cuts. Of the three cuts, it’s Born To Be With You that stands out. Though not as witty or melodic as Pamela Brown, it shows the romantic side of Kottke.

Leo Kottke - Pamela Brown

BUY-O-METER

LP ($1.50 at Sal’s) Even with three cuts missing, Pamela Brown and Born To Be With You are worth the price of admission.
CD ($9.79 to $12 here) If you like what you hear here, it might be worth the investment.
DOWNLOAD doesn’t appear to be available (on Amazon, anyway)

This is not a perfect record.

There are times when timeless songs sound dated because of trendy production choices. The arrangement of It’s About Time, with its cheesy sounding clavinet and electric piano lines, sounds like a bad Jimmy Buffett imitation. Black Haired Boy could’ve stood some brushes rather than drum sticks. Texas Cookin’ likewise sounds a little too electric when acoustic would’ve done just fine, thank you.

But these are small potatoes on the menu of Clark’s Texas Cookin’. The songwriting is mostly brilliant, the arrangements generally exceptional and the end result exactly what we want from a record: songs that stick in your head.

What’s more, there are some priceless harmonies from Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings and Hoyt Axton.

This isn’t a perfect record but it is a great record.

Guy Clark - Me, I’m Feeling The Same

BUY-O-METER
LP ($1.99 at Salvation Army) - Score! Makes up for all the bad records.
CD ($7.00 to $25 here) - Can’t imagine why you’d spend $25 for a new one when a $7 used one will suit fine
DOWNLOAD - Doesn’t appear it’s available for download. That’s cool. There are plenty of good songs to make it worth buying the whole thing.

The Wiki on Danny O’Keefe is that he was born in Spokane, cut his teeth in the clubs of Minnesota, got on Atlantic by singing to Ahmet Ertegun over the phone, cut a half dozen albums (and a Top 10 single) in the mid-seventies and then retired to The Home For Folk Singers Who Were On Atlantic In the Seventies (10:00AM: go for walk in country; 12:00PM: nap; 2:00PM: start own record label; 6:00PM: do environmental activist’s concert).

This album, the last he recorded for Atlantic in 1975 (three years after scoring with Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues) is an album with a goal: to show that O’Keefe can handle more than a style or two. There are narratives, rockers, novelties, swinging blues and ballads all spread through the album’s 10 cuts.

It was a law in California, ratified by Jerry Brown in 1969, that any musician found holding a guitar within the Los Angeles County boundaries was required to dedicate at 20% of his time trying to sound like The Eagles. To make sure he wasn’t deported back to Washington for breaking the law of the land, O’Keefe enlisted the actual Eagles themselves to play on the record. The results were mixed: Covered Wagon definitely does sound like the Eagles (hmmm, is that Randy Meisner?) but it tries too hard to be a rocker. Later, Steel Guitar suffers from not knowing whether its Texas Swing or Delta Blues.

The narratives also try too hard to be relevant. Hard Times is so unoriginal that, five minutes later, I found myself humming Holding On by Ambrosia. The Kid/The Last Days, with O’Keefe reciting Garcia Lorca in Spanish, is one of those songs that makes me feel embarrassed to be in the same room with my ears. Elton John and Billy Joel both managed to tame the wild west in a much more charming fashion; twenty years later, Robert Earl Keen made it look positively easy.

All is not lost, however. The title cut, with its post-Watergate, post-Vietnam cry for “a decent man,” and The Delta Queen, which shows off O’Keefe’s range are treasures. Most remarkable are the ballads: Quits with John Boylan’s airy production and It’s Been a Good Day, with it’s easy groove and Tom Scott sax part are a joy, as well.

Danny O’Keefe - The Delta Queen

Buy-O-Meter

LP ($1.50 at the thrift store) Highly Recommended
LP ($14.50 on eBay) Not so much
CD ($9.26 on CD Connection) No thanks
DOWNLOAD (.99 per song on Amazon) PICK THE GOOD ONES: So Long, Harry Truman; Quits; The Delta Queen; and It’s Been A Good Day

When Carole King recorded this album, she had nothing to prove. Not to herself, her fans or her accountants. She’d already co-written a dozen hit singles and Tapestry had been on the charts for two years (with four more to come). She was a bonafide superstar singer and performer and a multi-millionaire. What better time to leave behind spare arrangements and three-minute pop songs for something more experimental? None.

We are forewarned: less than a minute into Fantasy Beginning, CK says: “I may step outside myself and speak as if I were someone else”. Indeed she does, launching into a 20 minute side of “pazz and jop” that evokes Show Biz Kids, Papa Was A Rolling Stone and Here My Dear vintage Marvin Gaye. Floating strings, flugelhorn solos, songs mixed together without any breaks in between.

Her effort is admirable; it is not Tapestry revisited. Unfortunately, that which was her experiment is also her undoing. The first full cut after her introduction, entitled You’ve Been Around Too Long, with its loping strings and horn solo is a pleasant mix that evokes the Temptations mixed with Laura Nyro. Unfortunately, the next two songs sound just like the first and it soon becomes tedious. Not until That’s How Things Go Down, with its gospel vibe and organ solo does the album bring your ears back to life.

The second side suffers from the same story. Nice enough music but it takes fifteen minutes — when she kicks into You Light Up My Life — to feel anything but a smooth jazz vibe (before smooth jazz was even created).

When the basis of a review is the inherent lack of financial investment required for entry, it’s hard to be too critical without sounding like a wonk. At the same time, the very fact that nothing is lost — the album didn’t cost me $20 — allows for a purer point of view. The final determination: God Bless Carole King, for not having taken the easy road by trying to produce Tapestry II. But, when it comes time to make an investment, I once again encourage you to pick the best songs and leave the rest behind.

Carole King - Haywood/A Quiet Place To Live

BUY-O-METER

LP (1.50 at the Salvation Army) Knowing what I know now, probably not
CD (7.85 at CD Universe) It’s Your DOugh, Baby
DOWNLOAD (.99 each on Amazon) BUY You’ve Been Around Too Long, That’s How Things Go Down, You Light Up My Life, Corazon and Believe In Humanity.