Tag Archives: Neil Young
1975 COUNTDOWN | #20 — #11
#20 BETTY DAVIS — NASTY GAL Paradoxically, Nasty Gal is Betty Davis’s fiercest and most polished record. Produced by Davis herself, it fuses hard funk with glam-inflected edge: serrated guitar riffs, tight horn stabs over a rhythm section that struts and swaggers. Davis’s vocals are raw, confrontational and defiantly sexual, pushing beyond the already bold […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #30 — #21
#30 NEIL YOUNG — ZUMA After the grim soul scouring of Tonight’s The Night, Young reformed Crazy Horse with new guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro replacing Danny Whitten. Zuma blends wistful reflection with raw electric power. “Don’t Cry No Tears” and “Barstool Blues” evoke rough-edged tenderness, while “Cortez the Killer” stands among his finest works—a thunderhead […]
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 […]
1973 COUNTDOWN: #20 — 11
20 ALLMAN BROTHERS — BROTHERS AND SISTERS These days I might rate the 2nd Allman Brothers album higher in an “all eras” list, but even allowing for “first love” bias, this excellent example of Southern rock would poll well. From high octane opener “Wasted Words” through to the acoustic “Pony Boy”, this is a quality […]
1972 COUNTDOWN — #40-36
40 PINK FLOYD — OBSCURED BY CLOUDS Falling between Meddle (1971) and Dark Side Of The Moon (1973), Pink Floyd’s soundtrack music for the Barbet Schroeder film La Vallée tends to be only ever mentioned in passing. Showing their more straight ahead rock side and capacity for focus, Obscured By Clouds is an excellent, understated record […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 4
4. CROSBY STILLS NASH AND YOUNG — Déjà Vu “Carry on” begins with purposeful strummed acoustic guitar before the voices enter, harmonising like a heavenly hippy chorus. Some slithery electric guitar creeps into the next bridge, instruments fall away for a sublime vocal refrain; here’s a little organ, a two word snap of Steven Stills’ […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 5
5. NEIL YOUNG — After The Gold Rush How did Neil’s nasal voice and the sparse country-ish feel of much of this album so capture the young man I was? Slumped under uncomfortable headphones in the Record Lounge of the Student Union Building day after day; lost, but listening. Neil’s voice is mixed way forward […]
THE VINYL CONNECTION ANNUAL REPORT
It’s a little over a year since Vinyl Connection started adding alphabet clumps to the swirling word-clouds of the blogsphere. Fifty-three weekly posts of 1,000 words (give or take), roughly the same again of Cover Art specimens, plus a few odds and sods along the way. In these past twelve months, VC has attracted ten dozen […]
SING A SONG IN A SHAKEY VOICE
In the late 70s, I loaned a girl a record. It was never returned. And that, I confess with equal parts shame and defiance, was the last LP I ever loaned. Books? No problem. CDs? If you have references and are of good character. Vinyl? Forget it. In psychology it is called ‘one trial learning’. […]
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