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.
Anderson for many is still the one and only true vocalist of Yes that matters and his unmistakable vocal style is one of the most distinct voices in British rock history. Like Anderson, many would argue that Squire’s bass is an irreplaceable piece in the singular Yes musical puzzle. White would prove to be a bit more of a fluid and versatile drummer, but Bruford is one of the great Prog drummers, whose talents extended far beyond Prog.
This is a worthwhile album to have as part of this excellent reissue series. Coupled with Time and a Word, a more fulsome picture of Yes is realized. Boasting excellent sound quality, the album is available on limited-edition cobalt-blue vinyl.
The Velvet Underground’s short, unruly, contrarian tenure in the latter ’60s and early ’70s has never been judged by how many records it sold or how famous it was. Brazenly out of step with the hippie/Woodstock generation, the group’s debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico in 1967 is easily one of the most influential albums ever recorded. It helped launch punk, glam, and art rock and mapped out the decadence and influence on music of hard drugs as well as the urban grit of lower Manhattan in the ’70s.
While the group recorded three worthy studio follow-ups to their debut, shifting lineups, erratic management, messy record company relationships, drugs, intergroup infighting, and much more brought about a quick breakup of the band, not to mention the instability of a group that couldn’t contain the talents of Lou Reed and John Cale—artists destined for greener, more personal pastures.
The lineup on this 1972 release includes original members Reed and Sterling Morrison with Doug Yule on bass and his brother Chris sitting in for Moe Tucker on drums. The group could hardly be called a great live act, but two official releases came out just before and after the group’s first breakup. Its first live album, this shambolic, low-fi double-album recorded at the downtown New York watering hole of the ages, Max’s Kansas City, has aged well. Released on Cotillion Records and recorded on a cassette tape machine and sounding like it was performed in someone’s living room in front of 10 people, there’s a studied naivete and raw sweetness to this whole mess.
Audible audience conversations almost drown out some of the quieter tracks, yet surprisingly the sound isn’t bad, making it more than just a curio. It’s also surprising how the songs Nico sang are still in the group’s set, long after her departure. They are also missing the other woman in the group, Mo Tucker, who left to be a mom.
This album captures a time and place long gone; one that couldn’t last for more than a brief grimy moment of feedback and junkie licks. In keeping with the garish hue of the future glam stars to come, the albums are pressed on orchid and magenta vinyl.
The original Nuggets double album compilation was released in 1972 on Elektra Records. It was affectionately curated by then rock critic and future Patti Smith group guitarist Lenny Kaye. The album was not so much a compilation of psychedelia, but a collection of well-known and obscure American garage rock singles.
In the midst of Prog, singer-songwriter, and other lofty and complex musical genres, the tracks on Nuggets reached back to the that long wave of American musical groups inspired by the early Beatles to form bands in garages. The music was concise, sometimes sloppy, often fuzzy and sneering, and also at times very catchy.
This double album reflects what would have been a planned volume two in the series, which was to include 32 tracks. While some of these tracks would appear on other Nuggets complications, many didn’t. Again, like the first volume, this set is more of a garage rock compilation. “Do You Believe in Magic?” from the Lovin Spoonful is pure pop. “Laugh, Laugh” from the Beau Brummels is baroque pop at its best. “7 and 7 Is” from Love is the only true psychedelia classic here, from a group that also explored baroque pop.
Garage classics include “Double Shot of My Baby’s Love” from the Swinging Medallions, “A Little Bit of Soul” from The Music Explosion, and “96 Tears” from ? & the Mysterians, a song that is part of the holy trinity of garage rock classics that also includes “Louie, Louie” from The Kingsmen and “Wooly Bully” from Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs.
There are plenty of other gems and obscurities here and it’s great to have these tracks all together in one place, under the Nuggets banner, and with liner notes by national treasure Lenny Kaye. Given the various sound sources and ragged, raw nature of many of the recordings, the sound quality is mixed at best, but ultimately just right. The vinyl albums are pressed on psychedelic splatter vinyl.
The Grateful Dead carried on recording and especially performing long after their ’60s/’70s hippie heyday. Even today, long after the death of their guiding force Jerry Garcia, various incarnations of the group continue to tour. The ’80s were not kind to hippie survivors of the Aquarian ethos of that age, but surprisingly, the Grateful Dead recorded, if not one of their best, certainly one of their most popular studio albums in 1987, In The Dark.
This was the group’s 12th and second-to-last official studio album. It was their sixth album for Arista after their stint with Warner Brothers and releases through their own Grateful Dead Records. This was the period when Brent Mydland was the group’s keyboard player.
While the group was in no way pandering to the tastes and music of the times, they came up with songs that, for the most part, eschewed the trippy, meandering fusion that marked their earlier albums and live concerts. These are some of the most accessible songs the various Dead songwriters (Garcia, Bob Weir, Robert Hunter, John Perry Barlow) ever wrote.
The album came at a time when people were just starting to wake up from the coma that was the Reagan/yuppie years of the ’80s and were pining for the transcendence of the ’60s and early ’70s. There is an emphasis placed on the good-time hippie vibe of their sound, and a touch more polish than exhibited on their previous Arista studio albums Shakedown Street and Go To Heaven.
“Touch of Grey,” the album’s opening track succinctly and poignantly, with a good-time vibe, reflect the baby boomer generation grappling with changing times and the near-death of the ’60s dream, in the face of the death of John Lennon, the election of Reagan, AIDS, and the age of “greed is good.” The album hasn’t dated and still sounds good today, with excellent audio fidelity but many of the issues tackled unfortunately still resonate. The album is pressed on silver vinyl.
Terrapin Station from 1977 was the final studio album of the three the Grateful Dead recorded between their initial record deal with Warner Bros. and their second with Arista. These three albums and the live Steal Your Face were released on Grateful Dead Records.
This group reflects the lineup after Pigpen’s departure when Keith Godchaux was the keyboardist and his wife Donna was in the group on vocals. They were in the band from Wake of the Flood (their last Warner’s studio album) through Shakedown Street (their first Arista album).
This album is very much like the others on Grateful Dead Records in that it is a conceptual effort that includes interesting new musical experiments. In this case there are some orchestral passages and music that foretells the group’s playing at the pyramids in Egypt in 1978. Unlike the other Grateful Dead Records releases, though, the conceptual base is taken to new heights with the title cut taking up the entire second side.
The subtleties of this album and care that went in to this recording are obvious, but as far as audio fidelity, this edition is maybe not as crisp and clear as the original pressing and is a little bass-heavy and boomy in spots. The Dead are obviously a band that relies on improvisation and rootsy simplicity in their music, but this album shows how successfully they can tackle complex works on a very big canvas.
Although this album was released as part of all of the aforementioned Start Your Ear Off Right vinyl reissue series, it is oddly the only one here not released on limited-edition colored vinyl.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Yes, Yes
B
The Velvet Underground, Live At Max’s Kansas City
B
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1964-68, Vol. 2
B
Grateful Dead, In The Dark
B+
Grateful Dead, Terrapin Station
B+
