Second Helping (Reis) Review

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Second Helping (Reis) ReviewOne of the great hard rock bands of the 1970s, Lynyrd Skynyrd, have been mistakenly reviled by some as a buncha' racist rednecks, with too many guitars to boot. As head hombre Ronnie Van Zandt would have proclaimed: "the FOOLS!". Which appears to have been his favored insult through out Skynyrd's recording career. They were more raw, raunchy, stylistically varied, and a lot smarter and funnier than a majority of their contemporaries. "Second Helping", arguably their finest studio album, begins with the classic "Sweet Home Alabama". How anyone can not love this song is beyond my comprehension (Understandably tired of it from dreaded "Classic Rock" radio overkill, perhaps...). Even target of derision, Neil Young (because of his song "Southern Man"), loved it, and after all as Neil Young fan, Van Zandt, quipped, "I just felt he was taking down the whole flock just to nail a few bad ducks". On "Working For MCA", Van Zandt lets out one of the greatest frustrated snarls ever recorded to accompany the beginning landslide of guitar noise. In the album's "slow" number, "The Ballad Of Curtis Loew", a young boy is awestruck by the dobro blues of one Curtis Loew, and he bites back on his anger at the local FOOLS who consider the old man useless. "Swamp Music" is a tightly coiled number (three chords, three guitars!) that sings of the joy of leaving the big city for a while, with your hound at your side. While "Needle And The Spoon" sends out a stark caveat to all the needle freaks. Apparently after a double bill in Missouri, the band wound up getting drunk with The New York Dolls (?!?) (according to a recent Doll's bio) who probably would have profited from paying closer attention to this song. "Call Me The Breeze" is a J.J. Cale tune turned into a hard rock boogie with dueling guitars and horns, barrelhouse piano, and much whoopin', hollerin', and hand claps by, according to the liner notes, and I quote: "Wicker, Toby, Cockroach, Moochie, Punnel, Wolfman, Kooder, Mr. Feedback, and Gooshie". The CD has the added bonus of including Van Zandt's masterful adolescent tearjerker (that's a tearjerker about adolescence), "Was I Right Or Wrong?", as often pointed out, written and recorded before the band got a major label deal and hit the big time. Note: this album is a wonderful companion to their excellent collection, "Gold And Platinum"; "Sweet Home Alabama", is the only repeated cut. The band's career ended tragically with a plane crash in 1977, killing Van Zandt and several other key members. I've heard of albums released after this under the name Lynyrd Skynyrd, but this is name only. I mean c'mon, without Shorty? He was their heart.Second Helping (Reis) OverviewSkynyrd's sophomore album remains their most popular, and now it's been expanded and remastered for this special-edition CD. It's got all the original tracks- Sweet Home Alabama; Workin' for MCA; Swamp Music; They Call Me the Breeze , and the rest-plus three bonus tracks, including a demo of Take Your Time , a previously unreleased version of Was I Right or Wrong and the first reissue of the single version of Don't Ask Me No Questions !

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Argus (Exp) Review

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Argus (Exp) ReviewIn the early to mid 70's guitar rock was blues based and if there were two good guitarists in a band chances are that band sounded like The Allman Brothers or some variation.
Wishbone Ash started in blues based songs but had a penchant for English folk and jazz. By this third album they had a loyal following that appreciated their ability to boogie but to be able to play pretty songs. To Wishbone Ash's credit much of this had to do with their stellar playing which was more based in minor key work than traditional blues. Django Reinhart was more of an influence than say Eric Clapton.
On Argus the boys made their progressive album. Several songs were in the six minute plus range and featured multi sectioned arrangements. In particular Time Was, Sometime World, Throw Down The Sword and Warrior brought a mixture of progressive rock and some complex and engaging harmonized guitar work. Besides this guitarists Andy Powell and Ted Turner had unique qualities that made them easy to identify but were capable of working together in a way that made it hard to figure out who was playing what.
That might seem a guitar geek's kind of compliment but really it had more to do with both guitarists desire to keep their work musicial and within the framework of the song which was not always typical of 70's guitar based music. Not to say there aren't some great solos, there are. They were so compelling that as a young guitar player I spent a great deal of time figuring out what they did because it was so unusual.
A lot of other players must have done the same as the harmonies, phrasing and solo styles in many hard rock bands seem to have adopted this sophisticated style of playing.
Beyond the skill of the guitarists bassist Martin Turner played what can be described as lead bass, often letting the guitar duo hold the rhythm together with drummer Steve Upton (who had a flair for understated jazz oriented playing). The singing is excellent with Martin Turner doing most of the lead vocals along with Powell and Ted Turner on harmonies.
To a minor degree there are moments where the songs may seem dated in spots. This is more to the overplay of many of the ideas heard on this record expoited by bands of lesser quality. Critics were often divided about Wishbone Ash probably because they varied styles on each album. From a historical standpoint this band was making music that influenced other bands but never got the kind of reception their followers had.
Worth checking out if you like classic rock, melodic guitar playing or for historical interest. Almost a five star effort, I wish we could give out half stars. This is album is a solid 4.5Argus (Exp) Overview

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