Author Archives: Steve Matteo

Billy J. Kramer was a key artist of the British Invasion. He had many hits including several penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Like The Beatles, he was managed by Brian Epstein, recorded at Abbey Road Studios (then called EMI Studios), and was produced by George Martin.

Kramer released his comeback album, I Won the Fight, ten years ago. While it’s taken him 10 years to do a follow-up, it was more than worth the wait. The new release does not feel like an album from a heritage artist making what could be his final musical statement. This sounds like an artist of the moment with many albums yet to come. The release celebrates Kramer’s 60th anniversary in music. To commemorate his beginnings, Kramer ventured back to Abbey Road Studios last summer to record the album.

The album was co-produced by Jeff Perholtz and Laurence Juber. Juber was of course in Wings with Paul McCartney. Another Wings member Steve Holley reteams here with Juber and plays drums on five tracks. Also contributing is Liberty DeVitto, Billy Joel’s original drummer, who wrote “I was Only Sleeping.” Additionally, Mark Hudson, who has worked extensively with Ringo Starr, co-wrote “I Couldn’t Have Done It Without You.” Kramer doesn’t just sing on the album; he also wrote “Be Kind to Emma” and “Peace of Mind.”

While Kramer was obviously influenced by Lennon and McCartney through his recording of some of their songs, this album actually has a more updated, latter-day Ringo Starr and even George Harrison feel in parts, with the Ringo-esque sound on the first two tracks and Harrison’s influence on “Go On Girl.”

Read More »

The Fest for Beatles Fans will be held in Chicago from August 9–11, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Some of the guests who will appear are Billy J. Kramer, Mickey Dolenz, Randy Bachman, Freda Kelly, Chris O’Dell, and Steve Holley and Laurence Juber of Wings. There will also be other musicians, panelists, historians, disc jockeys, experts, and writers. Bruce Spizer and Aaron Badgley are two authors who will be there who have recently published Beatles-related books. Here is a roundup of recent Beatles-related books, included those from Spizer and Badgley.

The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night & More by Bruce Spizer (498 Productions) Happening concurrently with the 60th anniversary of the release of the film A Hard Day’s Night, and related soundtrack and non-soundtrack albums, Bruce Spizer has come up with yet another indispensable book on The Beatles. Along with Mark Lewisohn, Ken Womack, and arguably a few others, Spizer is one of the most authoritative chroniclers of The Beatles.

This new book is Spizer’s eighth in his recent album series of books. The eight books prior to this series, which launched Spizer, focused on the various record labels the group recorded for during their short time together in the 1960s. This is the fourth book in the album series in which Spizer covers multiple Beatles albums.

The previous books in the series covered Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Introducing The Beatles, and Meet The Beatles; Yellow Submarine, and Magical Mystery Tour; and Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Yesterday and Today, respectively. This book is focused on the British and American versions of A Hard Days Night, The Beatles’ Second Album, and Something New.

The beautiful hardcover book begins with carefully researched writing on the four albums and singles from this period, along with album jacket art, singles sleeve art, and a healthy dose of rare memorabilia of all kinds. There is also coverage of other music that was released and, in some cases, popular at the same time, along with details on then current movies, and further context on the news and cultural makeup of the era.

Read More »

The following releases are part of the Start Your Ear Off Right, limited-edition, colored vinyl reissue series from Rhino.

Yes was one of the cornerstone groups from the UK that established Progressive rock as a major commercial musical genre of the 1970s. Although Yes and other Prog bands had their roots in British Psychedelia and/or released their debut albums in the late ’60s, the commercial zenith of the movement was in the ’70s. This self-titled first album from Yes (originally released on Atlantic), released in 1969, very much established the group’s sound and lyrical foundation.

Two members of this lineup would go on to be part of the key studio albums that reflected the group’s ’70s peak—lead singer Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. The other members, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford would also be on the group’s next album Time and a Word. On the group’s first major studio hit release, The Yes Album, Steve Howe would replace Peter Banks. Fragile would mark the departure of Tony Kaye, replaced by Rick Wakeman, which would also be the lineup for Close to the Edge. Tales From Topographic Oceans would see the departure of drummer Bill Buford and arrival of drummer Alan White.

Listening to the first album from Yes in retrospect, one can hear many if not most of the elements that would define Yes during its commercial peak. The songs on their first album are less part of a larger conceptual effort and more individual songs. The sound can be a bit more Prog in the almost pre-fusion jazz sense, somewhat like early King Crimson. Banks is a fine guitarist and on first listen, he doesn’t sound that different from Howe’s later legendary work. The same could be said for Tony Kaye’s keyboard, but clearly, the dynamic instrumental prowess of Howe and Wakeman is what elevated the group to incomparable heights of Prog majesty.

Read More »

Nektar was a ’70s progressive rock band that never quite achieved the success it so rightly deserved. While bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis and even groups that weren’t strictly Prog, like Jethro Tull and the Moody Blues had enormous success, Nektar never really had that one breakthrough song or album.

Also, it was a UK group who was based in Germany, but who had a sizeable following in the US. The group went through many lineup changes and never really had the chance to galvanize its following with a consistent sound. Regardless, two recent fulsome box set reissues of perhaps the group’s two most popular albums make the case that this is a band destined for a reevaluation.

Remember the Future, the group’s fourth album and second to be released in 1973 was its most popular and most well-conceived album. It should easily be included on any list of the best Prog albums of the ’70s. It’s a conceptual work, but one that is not bogged down in ponderous thematic narratives or over-wrought musical noodling. It’s a concise work with lovely vocals, shimmering guitar, atmospheric, yet forceful keyboards, and a tight rhythm section. This foursome wrings a lot of musical depth out of a fairly stripped-down musical setup. There are echoes of Pink Floyd at the beginning, the warmth and autumnal shadings of the Strawbs, and some of the jagged intricacies of Yes.

The box is a beautiful package with a striking and sturdy slipcase. There are four CDs and one Blu-ray. CD one is a 2023 remaster of the album, that also includes a live bonus track. CD two includes a 2023 stereo remix of the album and two bonus single releases. CD three and CD four are of a concert at the Stadthalle in Muenster, Germany from January 1974. The entire concert was previously unreleased.

Read More »

This is the third box set reissue of studio albums from Joni Mitchell, released as part of a far-reaching Joni Mitchell Archives reissue program of Mitchell’s music that also includes several live, rare, and previously unreleased music projects.

The first box in this series, The Reprise Albums (1968–1971), covered Mitchell’s first four albums (Song to a Seagull, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, and Blue). The second box, The Asylum Albums (1972–1975), covered her first four albums on Asylum (For the Roses, Court and Spark, Miles of Aisles, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns). This box covers her last four albums on Asylum (Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus, and Shadows and Light).

While Mitchell’s studio album Court and Spark, her second Asylum album, which was released in 1974, was her commercial zenith in the ’70s, her next album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns released in 1975, boasted a broader musical palette. Although she had been expanding her sound as far back as For the Roses and introduced healthy doses of jazz into her pop/folk-rock sound on Court and Spark, Hissing was a real departure and the beginning of narrow-minded, mostly male rock critics and record executives questioning her less-commercial direction and experimentation.

This new box picks up where Hissing left off. As with the two previous boxes in this series, we will review the vinyl box set version of this project. Hejira, the first album here, released in 1976 and the follow-up to Hissing, is an even more varied musical effort, with many songs essentially long prose poem travelogues. The music is evocative of a woman living her life out on the road, but also recalling her Canadian upbringing.

Read More »

Peter Gabriel has waited nearly 22 years to finally release an album of new music, his first since Up in 2002. He did release Scratch My Back in 2010 that featured other artists covering some of his best-loved songs and New Blood where he made new orchestral recordings of some of his songs released in 2011. It was certainly worth the wait and this new album proves in a myriad of ways that Gabriel is still on the cutting edge.

Music from this new album began being released in January 2023. Each month through the year, on the full moon, Gabriel digitally released one song. This very unique way of releasing music and conceiving an album is also a throwback, as it recalls the way Charles Dickens would serialize his novels in the 1800s. This is one of the elements of what makes this project so exciting. While creating new sounds that are very forward thinking, there is also music here that feels ancient in a timeless way. Gabriel respects traditional artistic and cultural ways, but is using electronics and other modern methods to create new music.

Staying with his unique approach to this music, the album is offered in a “Bright Side” mix and “Dark Side” mix. The Bright Side mix was produced by Spike Stent and the Dark Side mix was produced by Tchad Blake. There is also technically a third mix, called the “Inside” mix, that is a Dolby Atmos mix.

This new project is also offered in many different digital and physical formats. There is a streaming download, and a vinyl edition, CD editions, along with a deluxe combination of all the formats with a hardcover book and a Blu-ray disc. For our purposes here, we will look at the two double-album vinyl versions. The vinyl albums offer the twelve tracks spread out over four sides, making for superior sound and avoiding any potential groove-cramming.

Read More »

Celebrating Paul McCartney on his 82nd birthday. —Ed.

The continued intense interest, unprecedented influence, and mythology of The Beatles can sometimes obscure and undervalue the musical contribution of the solo works of the four Beatles. More significantly, the works from the four that came after what is perceived as their solo heyday in the 1970s are given even less fair treatment.

Ringo Starr’s studio work has probably received the least praise, but his live All-Starr bands and his film and television work add more to his creative resume. John Lennon didn’t have a chance to move forward with his music, due to his senseless murder in 1980. One of the joys of the lives of fans of Lennon would have been to see what he would have done musically over the decades. George Harrison had some post-’70s glory with his Cloud Nine album and especially his two albums with the Traveling Wilburys, not to mention his place in cinema with Handmade Films.

Paul McCartney, however, has had a fruitful, if uneven, post-’70s musical life. While he has released some truly classic albums throughout his entire Wings and solo career, some of his albums have been inconsistent. Much of his work during the ’70s was as part of the group Wings with his wife Linda, Denny Laine, and a rotating cast of studio and live members, most notably Denny Seiwell, Henry McCullough, Jimmy McCulloch, Geoff Britton, Joe English, Laurence Juber, and Steve Holley.

His output as a singles artist is more consistent, as is evidenced by the uber 7″ Singles Box. Released in a limited, numbered quantity of 3,000 and including 81 singles (plus a 148-page booklet), the set is housed in a Redwood pine and Birch Ply wooden art crate that was made in the UK, while the actual entire physical package was made in France. This is a wide-ranging collection that covers 50 years. It is a remarkably consistent and listenable experience and McCartney’s uncanny knack for writing catchy, yet quirky and adventurous songs, with charm and wit, is in full display.

Read More »

Rhino’s High Fidelity series has been a roaring success. Drawing from the vast catalogs of the esteemed Warner Brothers, Elektra, and Atlantic labels and their subsidiary imprint labels, the records released so far span a wide variety of time and genres. Here are four such recent releases.

If there ever was a perfect album to receive the deluxe audiophile treatment, it’s The Captain and Me by The Doobie Brothers. Released in 1973, it was the group’s third album. Their previous album, Toulouse Street, did have FM staples such as “Rockin’ Down the Highway,” “Jesus Is Just Alright” (a rocked-up gospel cover, no doubt gleaned from the 1969 Byrds cover), and “Listen to the Music,” which became a big hit.

The Captain and Me has less of the New Orleans feel of Toulouse Street and is even farther from the San Francisco biker bar rock. Warner Brothers staff producer Ted Templeman brought out the subtleties of the group’s acoustic side and gave their more accessible material a glossier and more pristine sound. This music was the height of the best of the slick LA studio sound, but Templeman’s deft touch maintained the band’s roots and virtuoso playing while spotlighting their great songs and tight vocal harmonies.

He also worked wonders for fellow Warner Brothers label mates Little Feat, although their sound was much more idiosyncratic and they never scored hits like the Doobies. Both bands also shared the New Orleans-inspired keyboardist Bill Payne, although with the Doobies he was always credited as a sideman. The Doobies at this time also shared some of the commercial LA sound of Steely Dan and again, both bands shared personnel at various times in an even more incestuous and fruitful way.

Read More »

Neil Young continues to issue new and archival music in various formats at a breakneck pace. Two recent releases reflect his unflagging avalanche of excellent new music and the bounty of astonishing unreleased music from the vast, seemingly endless well of music from his historic vaults.

Before and After is a live solo acoustic performance from Young’s 2023 “Coastal Tour” that includes mostly older and some newer music in a stripped-down, bare bones setting. Young sings accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, piano, pump organ, and harmonica, with Bob Rice adding vibraphone on “My Heart” and additional piano on “When I Hold You In My Arms.” The music has a solemn, unadorned, pleading faintness like the premature confession of a man dictating what he thinks could be his last will and testament.

Young sings in a craggy glory that is at times heartbreaking. He invokes a new sense of a time long faded away, particularly on the Buffalo Springfield material, where he has chosen one song from each of that mythical group’s three albums (“Burned,” “Mr. Soul,” “On May Way”). “Birds” from After the Gold Rush, is astonishing in its beseeching rawness. “If You Got Love” was to be a part of the Trans album and “Homefires” has only been previously released on Neil Young Archives Volume II: 1972–1976.

Young co-produced the album with the legendary Lou Adler. Adler hasn’t produced an album in years and only Neil Young could have coaxed him out of retirement. As an aside, it would be great if the man who produced The Mamas & The Papas and Carole King’s Tapestry used this album as a springboard to a return to producing.

Read More »

Celebrating Lenny Davidson on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

The Dave Clark Five may be one of the most underrated groups of the British Invasion. While it was one of the many groups from the era who faded away after its hit success in the early and mid-’60s, they scored many hits and their music holds up extremely well.

The group had eight top ten hits in the UK and the US, and one number one in the UK and the US. Unlike most of the artists who hailed from the original British Invasion, the group was not from Liverpool, but was instead from Tottenham, in North London. The group’s powerful sound was led by Clark on drums and keyboardist Mike Smith, and also sometimes included honking brass from Denis Payton. The other two original members were Rick Huxley and Lenny Davidson. The group was most well-known for its hits “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Anyway You Want It,” “Because,” and its powerhouse cover of “Do You Love Me,” but also for such singles as “Catch Us If You Can,” “Having A Wild Weekend,” and “Over and Over.”

Dave Clark has been an attentive curator of the group’s legacy and the last few years have seen a number of excellent reissues. The latest reissue is All The Hits: The 7″ Collection. The box set includes 10 seven-inch, 45 RPM releases. Rather than duplicating UK or US singles from the 1960s, these 10 records are reconfigured “double-A” sides, with newly conceived picture sleeve cover art and labels that are new BMG labels of various colors. The music was remastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell under the supervision of Dave Clark in 2019. As can be expected, the sound quality is superb and listening to these dazzling British Invasion hits on 45-RPM, seven-inch vinyl is the way to go.

In some cases, this box set goes against the way more and more reissues are formatted. Typically, new mixes of original albums or individual tracks are presented, along with B-sides, outtakes, demos, and various studio takes. Also, album jackets, gatefolds, inner sleeves, labels, and original extras usually are preserved with great attention to detail, or in some cases are augmented with additional new materials and lavish books.

Read More »

The Rolling Stones are wrapping up their Hackney Diamonds US run. It’s yet another successful tour in the books. It’s uncertain whether any of the shows from this tour will be released on any audio or video formats. Regardless, there’s no shortage of live vinyl albums, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays of past tours from the group.

For decades, the band has put out live releases from far in the past and some from very recent tours. There have been live releases from intimate clubs and even huge stadiums. Since Bill Wyman left the group in January of 1993, there have been many releases and now since the passing of Charlie Watts in August of 2021, there have been others.

While Steve Jordan has filled in admirably for Watts, being able to get a new live Stones release from the band when Watts was still in the group is more than welcome. Getting one from a concert hall is even better. Such is the case with this new release recoded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. It is actually another official bootleg release, from a series that began in 2011 and now includes 24 releases, with three that are part of the From the Vault Collection. Prior to the series, there were 10 live Stones albums and concurrently with these official bootlegs, another three live albums. The vinyl version of this release is a real winner with 20 songs spread out over three albums.

From tour to tour there are set lists that include certain staples, but the songs performed for a given tour that were added or dropped are what make these official bootleg live releases so much fun. Some of the more interesting choices here are “Hand of Fate” (Black and Blue), “Dance Part 1” (Emotional Rescue), “Stray Cat Blues” (Beggars Banquet), and a cover of “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” with guest Solomon Burke adding vocals.

Read More »

The Rolling Stones are currently out on tour continuing to earn the moniker greatest rock and roll band in the world. While some can argue if they are indeed the greatest, it’s safe to say they are certainly the best live act in rock and roll history. They are also one of the longest running groups of all time. Additionally, they released a quartet of albums between 1968 and 1972 (Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St.) that are as strong a streak of classic and iconic albums as anyone in rock history.

The group also released a string of singles since their inception through the early ’70s that constitute what has come to be known as their Decca/London period. The singles have been celebrated in two massive box sets of 45 RPM vinyl singles. The first was The 7” Singles 1963–1965 box set, released in 2022, and this follow-up is the second. Both are comprised of 18 singles each.

That first box primarily featured the group’s singles since their recording debut in 1963 through 1965. Heavy on R&B, blues, and rock and roll covers, that set’s latter singles boasted the maturation of the new-found songwriter prowess of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction),” “Get Off Of My Cloud,” “As Tears Go By,” and “19th Nervous Breakdown” closing out the box.

This new box picks up where those gems left off. The singles in this set show a further evolution of the songwriting partnership of Jagger/Richards, but also how Brian Jones and his multitude of instrumental talents on a wide variety of instruments helped the group grow and make their music a step above the pop singles of the period. The first seven singles here coupled with the last four on the first box reflect the group’s peak as hitmakers in the 1960s.

The rest of this box marks some major changes. First there is the experimental psychedelic period and inclusion of a single from Bill Wyman. From there the group’s next major surge as hitmakers spotlights a sound that’s leaner, tougher, and moves beyond the subtleties and textures of the key Brian Jones-era singles of the mid-’60s.

Read More »

If a time machine existed, there might be several periods and more importantly places cultural travelers would love to go back and visit. Going way back, a trip to Florence during the Renaissance would be heaven for art lovers. Also appealing would be Paris in the 1920s, an explosion of modern art and literature and an exploration of new modes of living.

More recently, there were many happening places to be during the 1960s, such as the Greenwich Village folk scene and San Francsico for the psychedelic experience, but few would rival England during the Swinging London scene. While this time only lasted a few years, primarily in the mid-’60s, that time-frame is somewhat elastic. Though new modes of living, art, fashion, photography, film, pirate radio, the shops, the clubs and other happenings exploded, perhaps the music of the era was its best feature and has had the most enduring legacy.

This new 3-CD, 63-track box set presents some of the grooviest sounds from that amorphous time, with tracks here from 1963 through 1968, but it also includes music that is part of other scenes, genres and sounds. The tracks here mostly reflect the period just before The Beatles made the A Hard Days’s Night movie and mostly before psychedelic music seemed to be at its peak.

There are many familiar names included here such as Kiki Dee, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds, Dusty Springfield, The Troggs, The Kinks, Eric Burdon & the Animals, The Who, Tom Jones, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, The Spencer Davis Group, The Easybeats, Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames, Small Faces, Jack Bruce (including as a member of The Graham Bond Organization with Ginger Baker), The Moody Blues, and Petula Clark (with England Swings). The tracks from these artists are wonderful, some are even fairly well known and certainly Small Faces, The Kinks and The Who were also central to the mod scene.

Read More »

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History by Bill Janovitz (Hachette Books)

It’s nearly impossible to sum up the extraordinary musical career, diversity of talents and skills, and important place Leon Russell holds, particularly at a key time in rock music. That daunting task is accomplished in spades in this new, breathtakingly complete, accomplished and definitive biography of Russell, written by Bill Janovitz, founding member of the group Buffalo Tom. It is not hyperbole to call this one of the best books on popular music in years.

To just skim the surface, Russell was a lynchpin of the late-’60s and early-’70’s pop and rock scene. Some of the key albums, concerts, and projects he was involved in include Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Concert for Bangladesh, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton, and Derek & the Dominos. Not to mention his work as a major player with the famed Wrecking Crew, co-owner of Shelter Records and the composer of the rock standards “Song For You” and “This Masquerade.”

And that thumbnail history doesn’t even begin to do justice to his legacy. Janovitz deftly and painstakingly takes the reader through Russell’s entire life, including his shaky formative years, his breaking into the music business, his studio session years, and the period when he began to gain prominence as a bandleader and producer, as well as when he started commanding the attention of such superstars as George Harrison, Bob Dylan and many others.

Russell was an eccentric, quirky, and sometimes misunderstood figure. His talents were prodigious as a keyboardist, singular vocalist, songwriter, and master chef in mixing a musical gumbo often centered around Tulsa, Oklahoma and its players and converging styles. He was also a man of many appetites who could spend money, party, and eat anyone under the table. Russell came in for some late-career revaluation thanks to Union, the album he did with Elton John.

Read More »

It would be very presumptuous for any musical artist to title an album “everybody digs,” followed by their name. In the case of Bill Evans, it’s nearly a fact, especially if you are a fan of the best jazz pianists of all time.

This 1959 album was his second as a leader and perhaps his best, prior to the four albums he would release as a member of the Bill Evans Trio between 1959 and 1961 with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. All five of the albums mentioned above were released on Riverside. His debut as leader was also on Riverside, with his third album on Milestone, and then a quartet release on United Artists with Bob Brookmeyer, Percy Heath, and Connie Kay. Other than another album on United Artists, one on Atlantic and one on Verve, he would have three more Riverside releases through 1963.

Between his solo debut in 1956 and this album, in 1958 alone he worked as a sideman on albums for George Russell, Don Elliot, Joe Puma, Jimmy Knepper, Sahib Shihab, Idrees Sulieman, Eddie Costa, Hellen Merrill, Hal McKusick, Michel Legrand, Cannonball Adderley, Art Farmer, Chet Baker, and Charles Mingus, along with three for Tony Scott. He also recorded with Miles Davis, was in his band, and would appear on the legendary Kind Of Blue the following year.

There are three solo piano pieces here and Evans is joined on the other tracks by Sam Jones on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Evans wrote a short musical epilogue that clocks in at under a minute and that closes each side, as well as the classic and sprawling “Peace Piece,” with the rest of the songs here covers. The other absolute classic here is also a long, sprawling track: a cover of Cole Poter’s “Night and Day” that Evans moves through with ingenious modulations. The drumming by Jones in spots adds a jaunty kick that elevates this beautiful song to something heart-stopping.

Read More »