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Speaking of the Association, here's a great recording from their last LP Waterbeds in Trinidad (1972), well after the hits dried up and they kept pursuing their own unique musical vision. Singing lead is Brian Cole, the bass player who did the "Association machine" Monterey Pop intro shpiel. He died tragically young (29) not long after this recording, heroin overdose, leaving three young sons without a father. Listen to his vocal and nice fat bass sound and it seems an even bigger waste.
 
I don't actually like this song, but it's got an incredible bass and percussion groove in it. The first eight seconds before the singing starts is especially funky.
 


Heard this song on the radio the other day. Not familiar with the artist or his backlog, but I like this.
 
While digging into the Jimmy Miller era,
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I came upon this alternate version of "Brown Sugar" with Eric Clapton and Al Kooper, which I'd never heard before:
 
The film Bad Times at the El Royale uses this Mamas and Papas song quite well in reference to a Manson-like hippie cult.

The song, like the best of the Mamas and Papas, has a haunting quality that belies the surface optimism. The dark history of the group always seems to be bubbling there beneath the surface.

 
The film Bad Times at the El Royale uses this Mamas and Papas song quite well in reference to a Manson-like hippie cult.

The song, like the best of the Mamas and Papas, has a haunting quality that belies the surface optimism. The dark history of the group always seems to be bubbling there beneath the surface.


John Phillips and haunting darkness go hand in glove. If you haven't already done so, you should seek out:
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John, the Wolfking of L.A., the solo debut of John Phillips recorded in 1969-1970 with the Wrecking Crew. It got just about zero promotion by the label due to lawsuits and pretty well disappeared until it was reissued in 2006.


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Jack of Diamonds is an assortment of recordings that coulda woulda shoulda been his 2nd solo LP had his career not been derailed. Still has a lot to recommend it. Tell me "Mister Blue" doesn't sound like a song Lou Reed wishes he'd written.


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Pussycat was recorded for Rolling Stones Records in the mid-'70s with Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, and Ron Wood. Michelle Phillips sings on it as well. It got shelved and forgotten about, tapes stolen, lost, rediscovered, etc. An overdubbed mishmash version was released as Pay, Pack and Follow, but the master tapes were found in 2003 and the original 1978 version was finally released as Pussycat in 2008. (It went through several different titles.)
 
I found the first solo album on LP a long time ago and it is a gem but I didn't know about the two later LPs, I can feel the cocaine comedown just from those two tracks, thanks I'll track them down.
 
It's too bad this didn't end up on Goats Head Soup. Makes you wonder what tracks these guys have lying around if this one sat on a shelf for 8 or 9 years they bothered to finish and release it. Interesting that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are credited as the producers given it was mostly done when Jimmy Miller was their producer...but it's not like Mick and Keith have a history of taking credit for other people's work...right, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, and Brian Jones?...:wink:...well, I always liked it a lot either way.
 
I'm going to have to get a copy of Black and Blue one of these days. "Hot Stuff" is incredible.
 
I'm on a TES kick lately so:

Skywind Official Soundtrack: Nerevar Rising
 

'BFG Division' - medieval hardcore party edition // DOOM (Youtube remix)
 
Found this interesting instrumental group called Dance with the Dead after finding out they're opening for Dragonforce in October here in Portland. Pretty cool stuff. Some of their stuff is free on Prime Music, but their Youtube channel has "videos" with full albums in it. Here's a sample of some of their stuff:




 
Discovered Pattern Seeking Animals, a project featuring peeps from Spocks' Beard. Not a band I normally like but this is pretty good. Nice keyboard work and a nice mildly psychedelic vibe.

And Zero Gravity from Lucas Turilli and Fabio Lione. A project under the Rhapsody name they've been using for centuries. Neoclassical opera prog metal. Their earlier work is at beast fucking ridiculous! They even had Christopher Lee narrating on their concept albums. This one is a bit more scientifically minded (when not sung in their native Italian).

Anubis Gate are a band people tell me are really good but I've never really gotten into. Good musicians. However Covered In Black, their latest, is really good. It sounds like a concept work with a terrorism/spycaft vibe. Hard to tell.

Picked up the "5 classic album" package for Dio. He's always been a bit hit and miss, but 5 albums for the price of one is a good mix of his first 5 albums. Much of his later stuff was not great anyway.

Ed Wynne of the Ozric Tentacles did a sole album called Shimmer Into Nature. Though given that he seems to write almost everything the ozrics do, right down to the programming (much of their stuff is electronic now anyway), calling it a solo work seems egregious :grin:
 
And Zero Gravity from Lucas Turilli and Fabio Lione. A project under the Rhapsody name they've been using for centuries. Neoclassical opera prog metal. Their earlier work is at beast fucking ridiculous! They even had Christopher Lee narrating on their concept albums. This one is a bit more scientifically minded (when not sung in their native Italian).

Prime has a 5 pack of the first 5 Rhapsody albums. I have it on Prime Music for streaming. Still awesome almost 2 decades later
 
This Valli cover of The Walker Brother classic plays over the end credits of the horror film Midsommar.

 
The incomparable Manassas (Stephen Hills, Chris Hillman, et al.) in concert, 1973:
 
This Valli cover of The Walker Brother classic plays over the end credits of the horror film Midsommar.


Frankie Valli recorded the original of this in 1965 and the Walker Bros. covered it in '66...it was tailor-written for him by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, the same guys who wrote a lot of hits for the Four Seasons.

Edit: here ya go: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-walker-brothers/the-sun-aint-gonna-shine-anymore

Bob Gaudio interview: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/bob-gaudio-of-the-four-seasons
 
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A great LP that has fallen out of print and into obscurity:
 
I'm on a post-Beatles pre-punk early 1970s rock'n'roll kick as a result of reading the Stephen Stills biography. Reassessing Layla and other assorted love songs, which I haven't played in almost a decade. It's really good and raw. Whole thing recorded in 14 days in Miami in the summer of 1970. Production values are exactly my cup of tea. Great band behind Eric Clapton: the unfortunate (check his biography) Jim Gordon on drums (AND MAN WHAT DRUMS!), percussion, and piano; Carl Radle on bass and percussion; Bobby Whitlock on guitar, piano, organ, and singing; and Duane Allman on guitar. Rita Coolidge says she and Jim Gordon came up with what became the piano coda to "Layla" while working on one of her records and I haven't seen anybody deny it, so maybe it's true despite them denying her the credit as a co-composer. Great LP. I don't think Clapton ever topped it.


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Frankie Valli recorded the original of this in 1965 and the Walker Bros. covered it in '66...it was tailor-written for him by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, the same guys who wrote a lot of hits for the Four Seasons.

Edit: here ya go: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-walker-brothers/the-sun-aint-gonna-shine-anymore

Bob Gaudio interview: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/bob-gaudio-of-the-four-seasons

Cool, didn't know that, his performance is excellent on it.
 
I'm on a post-Beatles pre-punk early 1970s rock'n'roll kick as a result of reading the Stephen Stills biography. Reassessing Layla and other assorted love songs, which I haven't played in almost a decade. It's really good and raw. Whole thing recorded in 14 days in Miami in the summer of 1970. Production values are exactly my cup of tea. Great band behind Eric Clapton: the unfortunate (check his biography) Jim Gordon on drums (AND MAN WHAT DRUMS!), percussion, and piano; Carl Radle on bass and percussion; Bobby Whitlock on guitar, piano, organ, and singing; and Duane Allman on guitar. Rita Coolidge says she and Jim Gordon came up with what became the piano coda to "Layla" while working on one of her records and I haven't seen anybody deny it, so maybe it's true despite them denying her the credit as a co-composer. Great LP. I don't think Clapton ever topped it.


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Agree, easily his best record.
 
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I've never dug into the non-Lennon post-Beatles solo work but I'm enjoying how rough-hewn the self-titled McCartney LP is.


McCartney is fantastic. All recorded at home for his own amusement as sort of demos, thus playing everything himself and not worrying about imperfections. A lot of interesting instrumentals resulting in a critical shellacking by reviewers demanding he produce a polished pop album, which, ironically, they later would give him shellackings for doing.

My copy of Pieces arrived today: it's 15 unreleased tracks recorded by Stephen Stills and Manassas circa 1971-1972. Stills is at his peak, it's inexplicable why this stuff was left on the shelf. I was playing Manassas and the underrated Down the Road earlier and this material is just as good. Speaking of McCartney, Stephen Stills is another guy consistently underrated because he's not viewed as being as "cool" as his sometime-partner, in this case Neil Young. The greatest irony is neither John Lennon nor Neil Young ever underrated their respective partners/rivals.
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