12 X 5 Review

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12 X 5 ReviewThis is the remastered super audio CDs (SACD) of the Stones ABCKO catalog (which includes all the early Decca/London material. ABCKO acquired the Stones' catalog after Allen Klein became their manager in 1965. The legal battles during the 70s produced releases that the Stones opposed (they took out full page adds asking fans not to buy them), including the controversial Metamorphosis releases (which are now available on CD for the 1st time ever). But the sad fact is that the Stones lost control of their great early material. With these remastered SACD releases, we at last have some idea of what they really sounded like in the studio. I guess if we had these 40 years ago they would have ended up Greatest Rock And Roll Band in the Universe instead of just our tiny little World.
This is the Stones 2nd US album, released Oct 23, 1964. It cemented the early blues band legend with tracks from their famous Chess Studios session in Chicago during the 1st American tour (Muddy Waters helped carry their gear into the studio) and tracks recorded at Regent Sound in London. Essentially, this is the album that finalized their status as champions of Chicago blues.
The album starts with Check Berry's Around And Around, which the Stones had been doing as a show stopper in the UK, the big hits Time Is On My Side and It's All Over Now, and the great slow blues numbers Confessin' The Blues & Good Times Bad Times. Although they used to do a lot of instrumentals, 2120 S. Michigan seems to have survived as the only memory of this part of the early Stones familiar to most fans. Personally I always liked Congratulations, but never cared for their version of Susie Q, although it was very popular at the time.
The tracks recorded June 10-11, 1964 at Chess Studios in Chicago were:
.....Around And Around
.....Confessin' The Blues
.....Empty Heart
.....Good Times Bad Times
.....It's All Over Now
.....2120 S. Michigan version 2
.....If You Need Me)
Tracks recorded at Regent Sound in London were done on Feb 25, 1964
.....Susie Q
June 24-26, 1964
.....Time Is On My Side version 1
.....Congratulations
Sep 28-29, 1964
.....Under The Boardwalk
.....Grown Up Wrong
This album was never released in the UK, however the tracks on it were released in the UK as follows:
6-26-64 It's All Over Now, Good Times Bad Times
8-14-64 Five by Five EP - If You Need Me, Empty Heart, 2120 S. Michigan version 1, Confessin' the Blues, Around and Around
1-16-65 The Rolling Stones No. 2 - Time Is On My Side version 1, Grown Up Wrong, Under The Boardwalk, Susie Q
Congratulations was not released in the UK until 10-5-73 on the album No Stone Unturned
This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection.12 X 5 Overview12 X 5 includes material recorded by the Stones at Chicago's Chess Studios (home to the band's idols Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf) on their first US tour. Though this document of the group's early R&B period kicks off with a couple of covers from unsurprising sources (Chuck Berry's "Around and Around,") Mick and Keith waste little time in displaying their own compositional acumen. The acoustic-based, bluesy "Good Times, Bad Times" harkens back to even earlier, more seminal Stones influences than Berry, as does the instrumental "2120 South Michigan Avenue," where the blues-obsessed Jagger's harp is featured a la his hero Little Walter.The downbeat, Arthur Alexanderish "Congratulations" is an effective expression of romantic melancholy, complete with acoustic guitar solo. The slide guitar chords on "Grown Up Wrong" echo another early blues influence, Elmore James. The milestones on this album are two R&B covers to which the Stones take more than a rote approach, "It's All Over Now" and the majestic "Time Is On My Side," which they make completely their own.

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The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac Review

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The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac ReviewPretty much the only unfortunate side-effect of the massive artistic and commercial success the Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac was the obscuring shadow it cast upon the earlier eras of the band. No one has even attempted to compile the greatest moments from the early Seventies version of the band, and while blues lovers have revived interest in the original Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac, it has still been impossible for the non-obsessive completist to find a convenient single-disc introduction into this wonderful, formative era of the band. A large part of that was due to label-hopping and rights issues: the Peter Green era spreads over three different record labels, and while the "strictly blues ma'am" Blue Horizon material was the often tossed onto cheapie compilations, the more pivotal Immediate and Reprise cuts remained out in the cold.
Finally - FINALLY - this set rights all those wrongs, and presents the novice with an almost flawless, complete view of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. EVERY important recording, every important aspect, of the early Fleetwood Mac is included here.
What does that actually mean? Well, this set includes the best cuts from their first self-titled album (giving equal time to both Green and the Elmore James-obsessed Jeremy Spencer with "My Heart Beat Like A Hammer," "Shake Your Moneymaker," and "Looking For Somebody"), as well as highlights from the disappointing follow-up Mr. Wonderful ("Stop Messin' Round," "Rollin' Man"). Almost all of the band's Blue Horizon singles are here: "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" is missing, but "Need Your Love So Bad," "Black Magic Woman," and the #1 UK instrumental hit "Albatross" are all present and accounted for.
However, what makes this collection unique is that finally we have a CD that goes on from that point and collects the groundbreaking post-Blue Horizon work: "Man Of The World," "Oh Well" (both parts), and "The Green Manalishi" are finally put together with the early Green-era blues stuff to give you complete view of what this band was doing in 1969. Even better, the compilers of this album decided to bite the bullet and pay Reprise records for the rights to use "Rattlesnake Shake," the key track off the band's one obligatory Green-era album Then Play On. (My only criticism is that I would have preferred more from Then Play On, e.g. "Show-Biz Blues," "Before The Beginning," or "Underway," but I'm in a forgiving mood.)
Finally, a huge bonus that hardcore fans will appreciate is the inclusion of the obscure 1971 single "Dragonfly." Technically it postdates Green's departure from the band, but he's always had high praise for it and it has heretofore been utterly unavailable on CD. All praise to the compilers for hunting it down and including it.
Anyway, for all the reasons mentioned above, THIS is where you start to learn about early Fleetwood Mac. Some Green-era fans may quibble about the absence of a particular favorite - "Love That Burns" is one that many devotees will miss, and as I said above I would have liked "Show-Biz Blues" to be included - but the all the critical high points are here. After years of frustratingly incomplete "greatest hits," somebody took the time to get it right.The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac Overview

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The Little Black Egg Review

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The Little Black Egg ReviewAlong with "Louie Louie," this Florida band's 1965 single "The Little Black Egg" is one of the most enigmatic (and catchy) tunes in pop history. Primitively recorded, the single had to be released three times before it caught on at the bottom of the Billboard charts. Still, regional play made it a garage band staple in the mid-60s, and its catchy guitar riff and childlike lyrics still fare well today. In typical "That Thing You Do" fashion, the original NightCrawlers lineup had broken up by the time the single began to catch, and a reforumulated group filled out an LP and recorded a few more singles before evaporating. The band's sole LP release, included here in its entirety, adds several more Beau Brummel-esque folk-rock originals, highly influenced by the British Invasion, all rendered in superbly basic garage-rock style.
For all the tracks that were gathered to flesh out this one-hit-wonder band, this collection is oddly unsatisfying as the ultimate statement on the band's recorded history. In particular, the tracks are sequenced oddly, neither following the order of singles releases, nor duplicating the band's Kapp LP. The latter can be reproduced as 1, 12, 5, 6, 7, 2, 10, 11, 4, 13, though even there you'll find that the version of "If You Want My Love" removes the dubbing Kapp added for the LP (which, like it or not, is how it was issued). The title tune has a nasty squeak (one of the drummer's pedals?) not evident on the original LP, and the tape used for "Me for Me" is surprisingly hissy. The album tracks are all mono (which makes sense, since the stereo LP - which sounds surprisingly good - was electronically produced), except for "Little Black Egg," which was recorded in true stereo. Several of the bonus tracks (8, 14-15, 17-22, 24) are true stereo. Also surprising is that the latter-day single "My Butterfly" is missing. Overall, this simply doesn't sound as good as the original vinyl; perhaps the tapes had deteriorated by the time they got around to making a digital transfer.
Alec Palao's liner notes put the band in context, and extensive remembrances from the band make for good reading (and provide the songwriters' explanation of the origin of "The Little Black Egg."). This is absolutely worth picking up, whether or not you have the original vinyl. If you don't have the vinyl, it's a quick and fairly thorough introduction to the band. If you do have the vinyl, the extra tracks (including a fine acoustic demo of "Washboard" and the previously unreleased Brummelesque "He Shouldn't Hurt You") are worth the price of this CD; just hang on to your original records, as this CD is not an equal substitute.
4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings.The Little Black Egg Overview

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Best of Review

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Best of ReviewThis collection of songs features the musical talents of L'Angelo Mysterioso as a Beatle, and doing his early, solo years (pre-Dark Horse).
George was active in the early 70's, either recording his own material or producing the works of others (most notably Badfinger's "Straight Up").
The songs on this CD are all very good. Unfortunately, it falls short of the mark. For openers, half the CD is full of Beatles recorded music. This material has already been packaged in various formats. The songs covering George's early solo years are terribly incomplete. Where is "All Things Must Pass?" Did they forget about the B-side to Bangladesh, "Deep Blue?" Why didn't "Beware the Darkness" Make the Cut?
To really make this CD more competitive, Capitol/EMI should have repackaged it -- you know, add some bonus tracks like the one's mentioned above.
If Capitol/EMI feels that they should mix some of George's Beatle contributions into this CD, then it should include "The Inner Light." However, I believe that George Harrison recorded enough good material as a solo artist to full any CD. There is ample material available from his "Apple Days."
I rated this CD three stars because (1) The Beatle material has been offered in other packages; thereby making half this CD nothing more than a knock-off of previously recorded material; (2) Representatives from EMI/Capitol could have selected much better material to include in this Collection of greatest hits, and (3) The CD should have been repackaged to include more selections; thereby making it more complete.
As it stands right now, this CD represents nothing more than a record company holding an artist to the terms of his contract -- by way of cashing in on a name (The Beatles).Best of Overview
George Harrison Photos More from George Harrison

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East-West Review

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East-West ReviewThere are many albums which have introduced a new combined style of music to the masses (e.g. "Are You Experienced", "Sargent Peppers", "Johnny Winter" and "Texas Flood" are some). This set was way ahead of its time. The Butterfield Blues Band had made a name for itself on their first, self-titled, LP as great exponents of the revived Blues Power. The edge this band had was, say unlike Canned Heat, they had two Black musicians from Howlin Wolf's band. Sam Lay, the drummer, is still considered to be one the best Chicago Blues drummers ever and bassist Jerome Arnold. This lineup was impressive. Unlike John Mayall, whose album fired interest in the Blues from the far side of the Atlantic with its pre-Hendrix like overdriven sound and up front guitar. However, the PBBB had people from Chicago, the home of urban blues, who had grown up and played with all the greats. Butterfield, originally a flutist, is probably, along with Charlie Musselwhite, the greatest ever white harp player-his style of single note playing (listen to the record) is very unique and gives it a true horn sound. He had met Elvin Bishop at the University of Chicago and started jamming. Bishop, a native Oklahoman, was a Blues fanatic from the start. He played traditional blues styles on his Gibson 335 in the Freddie King, Eddie Taylor, Luther Tucker and Otis Rush tradition.
Mike Bloomfield, whose father owned a club in Chicago, had only been playing about 10 years when he made this record. He played jazz, blues and fingerpicking styles well. Mike took up slide on a Fender Telecaster and became known around town for his fabluous technqiue-similar to Elmore James. He was hired to play slide in the initial album on "Shake Your Moneymaker" and joined the band. (However, he was in and out the whole time-I saw the PBBB several times growing up in NY and Bloomfield was never in the line up). On East-West Bloomfield switched to the Gibson Les Paul (Like Clapton) and history was made. His lines are clear and many of his runs are virtually seamless. And amazing effort-one he himself never duplicated- like Eric Clapton on the Bluesbreakers first LP. Mark Naftalin does a great job on the keyboards. And Jerome Arnold plays bass with soul (especially notice his work on "The Work Song" similar to Duck Dunn of the MGs).
This band was interracial, a great thing for the Blues Revival that they helped start (Like SRV in the 1980s). They were the Blues Booker T and the MGs. This set combines all genres of music but basically shows the world what Willie Dixon always said "The Blues is the Roots, Everything else is the Fruits!". They do impressive and updated (at the time) versions of many types of tunes. "Walking Blues" is of course a Robert Johnson tune and was probably done because Clapton had done "Ramblin On My Mind" on the Mayall LP. "Mary, Mary" was a tune by the Monkees!!!!!!Can you believe it!
"I Got A Mind To Give Up Living" was a B.B. King tune (redone many times with many different titles). Which to me always has been the highlight of the record. It's a blues, but a new wave type of feel and arrangement. Butterfield sings, but plays no harp! Bloomfield produced his best ever blues solos- slightly understated and perfect, especially the intro. "Two Trains Running" has a funky feel and is nothing like Muddy Waters original or the Danny Kalb and the Blues Project's slow version on "Projections". This one rocks and the intro to the guitar solo is fantastic with its tension and build up.
The title track is no less interesting. It featured ragas from India with a basic jazz background. Bloomfield and Butterfield's playing is fantastic and highly original. This was the start of the Grateful Dead style psychedelic rock that came in the late 60s. (I can remember playing in bands in 1967 where we did "Gloria" and "Light My Fire" for a half hour each!!!) This track was 13 minutes long and a milestone for the time- the Door's The End was 11 minutes!
The Work Song is a powerful jazz-fusion number that has Bloomfield's best solos ever. This was someone at the height of their creative powers. The whole tune is solid and explores the jazz potential of the basic blues pentatonic scale. I feel this was Butterfield's instrumental masterpiece.
It is unfortunate that the Blues gave way to soul and country in the 1970s. Butterfield's subsequent work (although some was excellent) never sold well (either did John Mayall's as well). Butterfield and Bloomfield had drug addictions which ultimately killed them both. Bishop continues to play and had chart success in the seventies. Naftalin played with Otis Rush and others and Sam Lay is still a Chicago institution (see him on the Howlin Wolf DVD and The Godfathers and Sons DVD in the Blues series, 2003).
This is an essential recording in the history of American Music and should be in everyone's collection.East-West OverviewOne of the greatest guitar albums of all time and a real '60s classic, with Elvin Bishop and Mike Bloomfield trading licks on the mind-bending title cut in particular.

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