George Harrison – “Living in the Material World” (1973)
Stephen Holden’s July 19, 1973 Rolling Stone album review…
At last it’s here, beautifully-packaged with symbolic hand-print covers and the dedication, “All Glories to Sri Krsna.” Even if Living in the Material World were as trivial and regressive as McCartney’s Red Rose Speedway, there would be many who would dub it a pop classic. Happily, the album is not just a commercial event, it is the most concise, universally conceived work by a former Beatle since John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
Given everything George Harrison represents, it would be virtually impossible for one to try to separate the man, the myth and the music, and undertake an in vitro analysis of Living in the Material World. Suffice it to say that these three aspects blend harmoniously into a single creation that is vastly appealing and in places very moving. Harrison inherited Read the rest of this entry »
Elton John – “Honky Château” (1972)
Jon Landau’s Aug. 17, 1972 Rolling Stone review of The Rocket Man’s Honky Château album — my personal favorite of his, perhaps because it was the first album of his I ever purchased and it contains my favorite Elton song, “Rocket Man”…
Elton John’s Honky Chateau is a rich, warm, satisfying album that stands head and shoulders above the morass of current releases and has now succeeded in toppling the Stones from the top spot on the charts in only three weeks. Musically more varied, emotionally less contrived, lyrically more lucid than Tumbleweed Connection, Chateau rivals Elton John as his best work to date and evidences growth at every possible level.
The core of Tumbleweed was lyricist Bernie Taupin’s confused evocation of the American past, especially the Civil War epoch. On Chateau, his interest in myth has been transformed into an obsession with fantasy. John continues to assume a wide range of separate personalities who act out their personal trials against suggestive social backgrounds Read the rest of this entry »
R&B Singer Tina Marie Dead at 54
Sadly, R&B singer, Teena Marie, passed away suddenly yesterday. This news report by Andy Greenecomes from Rolling Stone, Dec. 26th…
R&B singer Teena Marie, best known for her 1980s hits “Lovergirl,” “Ooo La La La” and “Lead Me On,” died in her sleep last night of unknown causes in her Los Angeles home. She was 54.
Marie’s debut LP, 1979’s Wild and Peaceful, was written with her mentor Rick James, who dueted with Marie on her breakthrough single “I’m A Sucker For Your Love.” Motown, who rarely signed white artists, didn’t put her photo on the cover — leading to a longstanding belief that Marie was actually black.
Mary Christine Brockert was born in Santa Monica Read the rest of this entry »
Perrey-Kingsley – “The In Sound from Way Out!” (1966)
A short review on this groundbreaking electronic pop album from the June 1967 pages of Rogue magazine, by someone that I’m assuming is named J.R.R. …
An inviolable law of nature is that some things are more inevitable than others. High on the list of inevitables was electronic pop music. With the ever increasing dependence of the pop crowd on electronic effects and enhancement, going all the way was as fated as the final escalation in a petting session.
Surprisingly (how’s that for humanistic Read the rest of this entry »
Lauri Adverb – “math”
Three ninety-six
Unemployment
said I deserved each week
for being
fired
Three ninety-six
I could:
pay rent, buy groceries
a Diet Dr. Pepper each morning
six-pack of Pabst every afternoon
Chilean wine at night.
Monthly membership to the cigar club where I’d pick up weekly
fresh Hondurans. Read the rest of this entry »
Hugo Ball – “Gadji beri bimba”
gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori
gadjama gramma berida bimbala glandri galassassa laulitalomini
gadji beri bin blassa glassala laula lonni cadorsu sassala bim
gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban
o katalominai rhinozerossola hopsamen laulitalomini hoooo
gadjama rhinozerossola hopsamen
bluku terullala blaulala loooo
zimzim urullala zimzim urullala zimzim zanzibar zimzalla zam
elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata
velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor
gadjama bimbalo glandridi glassala zingtata pimpalo ögrögöööö
viola laxato viola zimbrabim viola uli paluji malooo
Read the rest of this entry »
Willie Nelson – “Country Music” (2010)
Written by Juli Thanki for The 9513 website (www.the9513.com), May 28, 2010. Willie’s most recent album, produced by T Bone Burnett…
Willie Nelson releases albums like most people change their underpants. For the most part, that’s a good thing. He’s had some missteps along the way, but his recent offerings (Willie and the Wheel, American Classic, and Two Men with the Blues) rank as some of the best work in his long and storied career.
Produced by T-Bone Burnett, Country Music is just that: a collection of classic country songs without any frills, even in the album’s title. 15 of country’s best songs, sung by Willie Nelson’s instantly recognizable voice and released by Rounder Records? Theoretically, this combination sounds like the perfect storm of country music excellence. Is it? Read the rest of this entry »
Leonard Cohen – “Songs of Love and Hate” (1971)
This review was written by Arthur Schmidt in the Sept. 2, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone (issue #90)…
Songs from a Room, Cohen’s second album, was for me a great improvement over his first because of restraint in the use of strings, clarions and angelic choirs, and because the compositions themselves were fairly even in quality (with “Bird on the Wire” and “Story of Issac” two really tight, clean stand-outs). And short — he shouldn’t be straining the frail but frequently quite lovely melodies to five and six minutes, as he does on Songs of Love and Hate. But this record, alas, goes back to all the trash that cluttered up the first album — schlock horns, schlock strings, schlock chorus — as if to make of it a style. Recognizable, yes no one but Leonard Cohen could have come out with these arrangements but a style, no. Read the rest of this entry »
Robert Christgau – “Chuck Berry: Eternal Rock and Roller” (1972)
Taken from Newsday, October 1972 about the man who, more or less, invented the artform we know as rock & roll…
Chuck Berry is the greatest of the rock and rollers. Elvis competes with Tom Jones. Little Richard cavorts after hours for Dick and Johnny, Fats Domino looks old, and Jerry Lee Lewis looks down his noble honker at die-hards who refuse to understand that Jerry Lee has chosen to become a great country singer. But for a fee – only two thousand dollars until recently – Chuck Berry will hop a plane and play some rock and roll. In this year of the boogie the man who used to be the ideal second attraction, drawing a core of raving fanatics like me and a broad base of casual admirers who dug to get off on a legend every once in a while, has come into his own. Everyone from the folkies to the heavy metal kids claims his songs for encores, and much better than that, Chuck Berry himself is back on top: The London Chuck Berry Sessions reached top ten in the wake of a number-one single, his first certified million-seller, “My Ding-a-Ling.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 