Eric Burdon & The Animals – Love Is

Love Is is a double album by Eric Burdon and The Animals which was released in 1968 in both the United Kingdom and United States. It was the last album released before The Animals’ second dissolution in 1969. An edited version of the track “Ring of Fire” was released as a single and peaked at No. 35 in the UK pop charts, breaking the top 40 in Germany, Holland, and Australia as well.
Aside from the self-penned “I’m Dying (or am I?)”, the album consists entirely of cover songs with extended arrangements by the Animals and sometimes even additional lyrics and musical sections. The entire Side D is occupied by a medley of songs originally by Dantalian’s Chariot, a former group of band members Zoot Money and Andy Summers. Dantalian’s Chariot archivists have been unable to locate a recording of “Gemini”, and it is possible that Eric Burdon and the Animals were the first to actually record the song.
This album captured the only studio work of guitarist Andy Summers with the group. The recording of Traffic’s “Coloured Rain” includes a guitar solo by Summers which runs a full 4 minutes and 15 seconds. To ensure he ended at the right place, Zoot Money kept count throughout the solo and gave him the cue out at bar 189

Eric Burdon – My Secret Life

My Secret Life consists of 13 tracks that form a loose song cycle revolving around Eric Burdon’s love of American music, specifically R&B, soul, blues, and jazz. While that theme dominates the entire record it is especially true on the eight tunes penned or co-written by Burton. “Can’t Kill the Boogieman” is a heartfelt tribute dedicated to John Lee Hooker featuring Burdon’s cherished memories of the blues legend sung over the tune of Hooker’s classic “Boogie Chillen.” He also shades/characterizes such artists as Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Philly Joe Jones, Billie Holiday, Josephine Baker, Otis Redding, and Chet Baker with first person observations, a skill no doubt honed with a foray into writing his autobiography Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood: A Memoir. Burdon’s voice is in fine shape, and he effortlessly jumps from soft spoken passages to his trademark blues grit that remains instantly recognizable from his days as vocalist of the Animals in the ’60s. What really makes this effort stand out from previous solo albums is the music itself. Instead of relying on the vocals to carry the music, My Secret Life allows the music to flow with unrestrained character darting off in several eclectic directions. “Once Upon a Time” apes both the Band and Van Morrison circa 1970, “The Secret” has slight elements of world rhythms, “Factory Girl” and “Highway 62” are dominated by a snaky Memphis guitar reminiscent of Pops Staples, and “Black and White World” (not the Elvis Costello tune) combines a breezy Hammond B-3 organ penetrated by a hyper ska beat. This disc should please any Burdon or Animals fan, but, more importantly, it may gain him some new listeners as well.

Harvey Mandel – Righteous Games Guitars Play

Digitally remastered edition of 2 original albums on a single CD of these late 60’s albums from American rock/blues guitarist Harvey Mandel. He produced a series of fine solo albums before joining Canned Heat. He was also at one time tipped to join the Rolling Stones as replacement for Mick Taylor, but joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers instead.How can you play the guitar solo on a Rolling Stones’ song, (“Hot Stuff”, which was actually somewhat of a hit), and still draw a blank expression when your name is mentioned in the typical conversation on favorite guitarists?… Mandel has had both the advantages and and the disadvantages of persisting with his unique point of view on guitar: His output is mainly instrumental, and,(although bluesy),somewhat sophisticated, which has drawn a core of lifetime fans and imitators, but doesn’t contain enough rock cliches to capture the masses. So which are you? This contains two of the original recordings by rock’s least known great modernist, who predates Beck and Clapton, not in release dates of commercial recordings, but in truly finding that magic tone we now expect from our guitar heroes. Find out what the Stones, Canned Heat, John Mayall, The Ventures, Charlie Musselwhite, and many others already know.

Flower Power Generation- Let’s Go to San Francisco

Eric Burdon & The War – The Best Of

Eric Burdon, the white singer with the most privileged black voice ever born established during the brief time together (1969-1971) with WAR a true halo of musical fluency and literally opened a gate for the necessary exit of so many encountered rhythms that were in baling point at that moment. On one hand, Santana and his fusion elements, the Soul as the most genuine expression from the sixties, was in decay.
This fortunate blending of jazz elements and the Latin swing (alas Poncho Sanchez- Dizzy Gillespie and Manteca) was much more than a simple ensemble with successful results as Chicano for instance.
Burdon knew wisely to arrange famous versions of the hard rock and could harmonize them through his potent voice and a memorable team of notable musicians. Lonnie Jordan recalled with admiration these revealing opinions: 2 Eric taught me a lot – we were able to improvise with him in ways that I had not thought were possible before. Sometimes we’d play for 45 minutes nonstop on stage, improvising all the way through. He really amazed me.”
Tobacco road and Paint in black were two anthological themes that literally received a new treatment and shone with own light. On the other hand you should take into ccou8nt the fantastic blues “Mother earth” and “Home dream”, two track many times forgotten and even neglected at the moment to consider the most representative pieces of this famed ensemble.
Nevertheless “Spill the wine” would become the main presentation card and practically its hymn through the world.
In this sense this ensemble marked a landmark and not simply a transition vehicle as you could suppose, around the richness and future source of inspiration to many future ensembles that found and still on determining clues to create new possibilities of expression.

 

 

Captain Beefheart – Unconditionally Guaranteed

The most reviled album of Captain Beefheart’s entire career, 1974’s ironically titled Unconditionally Guaranteed unfortunately largely deserves its negative reputation. Recorded in the U.K. as the first album of Captain Beefheart’s contract with Virgin Records, it’s also the last album that features any members of the Trout Mask Replica-era band, notably guitarists Zoot Horn Rollo and Alex St. Clair, plus former Mothers of Invention percussionist Art Tripp. Rather like Van Morrison’s later album, A Period of Transition, Unconditionally Guaranteed is clearly a deliberate attempt by the Captain to restrain his more peculiar tendencies in search of a wider audience. As might be expected, the wider audience didn’t show up, and his longtime fans were put off by the album’s more commercial facets. It’s not an entirely useless album, as the tunes do have some of the blues-rock punch that’s at the root of Beefheart’s work, and the lyrics, mostly declarations of love for his wife, Jan Van Vliet, who receives co-writing credit with producer Andy DiMartino on all ten tracks, seem heartfelt enough. The problem is that DiMartino’s production and arrangements are flaccid and dull, and Beefheart (purposely) sings as if he’s half asleep throughout. Even Captain Beefheart himself disowns this record.

Blood, Sweat & Tears- Live

No late-’60s American group ever started with as much musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully — and then blew it all in a series of internal conflicts and grotesque career moves. It could almost sound funny, talking about a group that sold close to six million records in three years and then squandered all of that momentum. Then again, considering that none of the founding members ever intended to work together, perhaps the group was “lucky” after a fashion.
Live is a live album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, that was recorded in 1980 and released on compact disc in 1995 by Avenue Records through Rhino Records. This album was recorded at the Street Scene in Downtown Los Angeles on October 12, 1980. This set was recorded five years after the Live In Concert/Live And Improvised album. The band’s hit songs included in this collection were compressed into a 15 minute medley instead of the full length versions that were included on their previous live album. The rest of the songs here are from the Nuclear Blues album they were touring to support at the time of this recording. One exception was an eleven and a half minute version of “Gimme That Wine” that was originally released on the Brand New Day album in 1977.

Tim Buckley – Dream Letter

One of the great rock vocalists of the 1960s, Tim Buckley drew from folk, psychedelic rock, and progressive jazz to create a considerable body of adventurous work in his brief lifetime. His multi-octave range was capable of not just astonishing power, but great emotional expressiveness, swooping from sorrowful tenderness to anguished wailing. His restless quest for new territory worked against him commercially: By the time his fans had hooked into his latest album, he was onto something else entirely, both live and in the studio. In this sense he recalled artists such as Miles Davis and David Bowie, who were so eager to look forward and change that they confused and even angered listeners who wanted more stylistic consistency. However, his eclecticism has also ensured a durable fascination with his work that has engendered a growing posthumous cult for his music, often with listeners who were too young (or not around) to appreciate his music while he was active.

Jose Feliciano – The Best of

The first Latin singer to “cross over” to the English music market, Jose Feliciano is not only a singer/songwriter, but also an acclaimed guitarist. Feliciano has received many awards throughout his career, including nods for Best Pop Guitarist and Greatest Living Guitarists, and is considered by many in the industry to be a living legend. This  set features Feliciano’s greatest hits as well as his most famous Latin tunes!

 

Blood, Sweat & Tears – 1992-06-03 – Lugano, Switzerland