Author Archives: Vinyl Connection
PINK PULSE
There are many reasons for not having attended a live concert by an artist you love. Maybe the tickets sold out quicker than you could say ‘Scalpers!’. Perhaps the concert was in another city—or another country. For artists long gone, you may have been born too late. Whatever the reason, the live album has long […]
CONTRACT OF LOVE
He is a powerful voice backed by a forceful band, an entertainer who shirtfronts his fans while elevating them; a singer-poet-preacher who roars about suffering while channelling exaltation. He is Warracknabeal born global citizen Nick Cave, and his latest album is Wild God. If you follow Cave’s music, you already know that Wild God has […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | THE LIST
Here is the entire 1974 COUNTDOWN, with links to the original posts. Following this are the other 1974 posts including live albums, film soundtracks and jazz. And here is an invitation to add their your own favourite 1974 albums in the Comments… ranked or unranked, two or twenty, curated our plucked out of the ether, […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #5 — #1
It has certainly been a long, strange trip yet here we are near the end of the 74 FROM ’74 album countdown. With a dozen-and-a-half days of 2024 still remaining. What efficiency! Before launching into the final five albums, it is timely to recall that this is neither a ‘Best of’ list, nor a ‘Greatest […]
MUSIC VON HARMONIA
Although the German Top 40 of the late Sixties and early Seventies remained resolutely traditional and cringingly bland, elsewhere this was a highly creative time for German rock music. Beyond the safe confines of radio-friendly singles dwelt tribes of restlessly inventive and determinedly non-Anglo-American musicians creating some of the most interesting and exciting music of […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #10 — #6
#10 BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS — NATTY DREAD If, like your correspondent, you have tended to be a bit puzzled by reggae and respectfully bewildered by the deification of Robert Nesta Marley, may I recommend Natty Dread? This is Marley’s first album after parting company with Peter Tosh and you can almost hear him […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #15 — #11
#15 LOU REED — ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ANIMAL Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner on guitars supercharge this live Lou Reed classic. Drawing heavily on his Velvet Underground period, but in updated arrangements, the song-list is user friendly but never cuddly. The version of “Heroin” is scarifying and “Lady Day” despairing. But at other times the […]
BAD GIRLS GOOD TIMES
Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines but widely known as the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer sold over 100 million records worldwide and was responsible for the wearing out more pairs of dancing shoes than any artist in pop history. (Possibly not true, but then again…) Having racked up an astonishing forty-two hit singles on the US […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #20 — #16
#20 STEELEYE SPAN — NOW WE ARE SIX This is the LP where the British folk-rockers really emphasised the latter. Now We Are Six rocks! “Thomas the Rhymer” bolts out of the gate at a gallop, and the pace and energy are maintained through the hilarious “Two Magicians” and mythic “Seven Hundred Elves”. Indeed, common […]
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A buzzing, industrial sound, a bass pulse, somewhere in the distance a noise, a scream. Distorted guitars offer a grinding melody that rolls like a broad dark river cluttered with storm flotsam. The tune evokes “Oh Shenandoah”, a classic American folk song. After a couple of minutes, when the melody is kicked up an octave, […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #25 — #21
#25 SANTANA — LOTUS Given that they announced themselves to the world via their performance at Woodstock, it is surprising that this was Santana’s first live album. Recorded during a 1973 tour of Japan and released in May ’74, it is the pinnacle of the band’s jazz-rock phase. Musically, Lotus is a tour-de-force of mind-blowing […]
1974 COUNTDOWN | #30 — #26
#30 STEELY DAN — PRETZEL LOGIC What is the difference between a VG and an EX Steely Dan album? Countdown To Ecstasy from 1973 came in at #21 on the 73 FROM ’73 COUNTDOWN while Pretzel Logic sits at a more modest (but still creditable) #30. There’s something here about expectations, of course, but that […]
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