I enjoyed Frampton's involvement with The Herd, and remember being pissed off when Stevie Mariott left The Small Faces to form Humble Pie with Frampton..... but then I sort of liked Humble Pie too, eventually.

Never enjoyed Peter Frampton's stuff when he went solo, basically thought he'd become a pop star which, as a musical snob at the time, was unacceptable to me.

But Kraftwerk soon! They became pop stars, yet I loved them! 

So to surmise, I was jealous of Frampton's looks, Kraftwerk posed no threat when trying to impress the ladies.

DAY 371.
Billy Joel..........................................................The Stranger   (1977)












Whilst he had already achieved headline status with 1974s Streetlife Serenade, The Stranger was Joel's first album to hit number one in the charts and remained Columbia Records biggest selling album until 1985

DAY 372.
Bob Marley & The Wailers....................................................Exodus   (1977)

















Bob Marley was a man of many faces..........a third world visionary and first world pop star, a prophet of national revolution and messenger of global peace, a Rastafarian mystic and lascivious lover. Exodus, released in 1977, best captured these diverse identities.



I can tell you now this will be going into my collection, awesome album.

DAY 370.
Kraftwerk.................................Trans-Europe Express   (1977)










An enjoyable 40 odd minutes, one of those albums were you don't have to listen too intently, and you can just get on with things and not really miss anything. Standard Kraftwerk fare, well constructed tracks, each one polished and honed to perfection, my personal favourites were, "The Hall of Mirrors," "Showroom Dummies" and the superb "Franz Schubert"



Anyways, even though I rated this album, I already have "Autobahn" which I rate higher, so this album wont be going into my collection.





Bits & Bobs;



Already written about Kraftwerk in a previous post (if interested)



The original inspiration for Trans-Europe Express arrived during lunch. Knowing that Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider loved transport hubs, friend and Kraftwerk associate Paul Alessandrini took them to Le Train Bleu in Paris’s Gare de Lyon, from where the diners could gaze out at trains leaving for southern France, Italy, Switzerland and the Middle East. “With the kind of music you do”, Alessandrini told Hütter and Schneider as they ate, “which is kind of like an electronic blues, railway stations and trains are very important in your universe – you should do a song about the Trans-Europe Express.” Germinating from the seed of a paean to pan-European travel, the resulting album came to be dominated by one of Kraftwerk’s great themes: communication.


 Roads, train lines, telephone and computer exchanges: the collapsing of distance by way of radio waves, satellite-beamed images and ever-faster modes of transportation; Janus-faced technology's enabling and alienating effects: Kraftwerk harnessed cutting-edge technology to create celebrations of and warnings against cutting-edge technology itself. During a French radio interview in 1991 Hütter spoke of how “movement fascinates us, instead of a static or motionless situation. All the dynamism of industrial life, of modern life. We really speak about our experiences, of life as it appears to us. Even the artistic world does not exist outside of daily life, it is not another planet; it is here on the Earth that things are happening.”



 And what was happening on Earth in 1977? Well, in terms of the music industry it was getting gobbed over by punk: a back-to-basics return to the primal essence of rock’n’roll that was the antithesis of Kraftwerk’s mission to propel their sound forward via the most up-to-date equipment available. Valuable as it was in inculcating the DIY ethic that would go on to generate more interesting music in the post-punk era, from a purely sonic perspective punk itself was, as Simon Reynolds argues in Rip It Up and Start Again, a Luddite return to riffs Chuck Berry had originated 20 years earlier.


 Kraftwerk, by contrast, celebrated the year punk rock broke with an album that would at length give birth to New York electro, New Wave and New Romantic synthpop, Detroit techno and, by extension, the musical world we live in today. If you’re into any kind of contemporary popular music other than jazz and folk standards or indie retreads of The Kinks or The Yardbirds, then you’re listening in some way, shape or form to a musical language originally articulated by Trans-Europe Express.


 Kraftwerk’s originality proved irresistible to David Bowie, whose move from LA to Berlin in 1976 was at least partly inspired by his love for their art. His relocation resulted in the most extraordinary year of Bowie’s career: in 1977 he released the peerless Low and ‘Heroes’, and for good measure produced and co-wrote Iggy Pop’s The Idiot and Lust for Life. Prior to this Kraftwerk had declined to support him on his Station to Station tour (in lieu of having them there he just played their records before taking the stage), but they name-check him on ‘Trance-Europe Express’: “From station to station/back to Dusseldorf City/Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie”. Bowie returned the wave on ‘Heroes’, naming one of his songs, ‘V2 Schneider’, after Florian.


 ‘Trans-Europe Express', which runs unbroken into the variations on a theme of ‘Metal on Metal’ and ‘Abzug’, spreads itself across most of the second half of the album. Along with The Man-Machine, the title track from Kraftwerk’s next album, it has the ring of an imaginary corporate anthem. From a musical perspective the track, beginning with a scudding, train-mimicking beat, was Kraftwerk’s funkiest moment to date. That the very rigidity of the beat imparts a kind of groove to the rhythm is neatly captured by Detroit techno innovator Carl Craig’s appraisal: “They were so stiff, they were funky.”



 Riding above the rattling beat of ‘Trans-Europe Express’ is a rising sequence of synthesiser notes and occasional Doppler shift surges of sound panning across the stereo image. At some point along its length the track achieves, as several of Kraftwerk's best pieces do, a trance-like weightlessness. Some people think that pop is meant to be ephemeral, but here it feels more like a frictionless glide into eternity.


 Beginning with a euphoric sequence of arpeggiated chords - one of the most bracing album openings of all time - ‘Europe Endless’ is a utopian hymn to a Europe without borders that has its source in another of Kraftwerk’s apparent daydreams: a 20th century without the scar of Nazi Germany scored into Europe’s heart. The song, and the album as a whole, is a musical evocation of the clean lines and carefully calibrated marriage of form and function practiced by the Bauhaus school of pre-war German modernism. ‘Europe Endless’ – and its partial reprise at the end of the album, ‘Endless Endless’ – is a perpetual motion machine in song: as it fades away it gives the impression that it’s not ending at all but continuing its transmission in some other place out of range of your speakers, as boundless as its title suggests.


 ‘Showroom Dummies’, the title of which was inspired by a journalist’s review of the band’s static live performances, and ‘Hall of Mirrors’, Kraftwerk’s eeriest moment on record, branch off from the album’s main theme and play on concepts of fame, alienation and automation that the band would soon return to. While the relentlessly percolating synth tones of ‘Hall of Mirrors’ convey a sense of paranoia and fear, ‘Showroom Dummies’ offers a slyly humorous take on celebrity ("We are standing here/Exposing ourselves"). Even its measured Teutonic lead-in of "Eins, zwei, drei, vier" is a joke, meant as a deconstructionist homage to the Ramones, whom the band admired.


 In 1982 Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force’s 'Planet Rock', built from the melody of 'Trans-Europe Express' and the rhythm of Kraftwerk's 1981 track 'Numbers', became a worldwide club hit. Ground zero for electro, techno and, in turn, pretty much every subsequent dance music variant you could care to name, it proves that ‘Trans-Europe Express’ was, at the very least, five years ahead of its time.


 Listen to it, though, and it becomes apparent what an insufficient judgement that is. With a ceaselessly mutable quicksilver shimmer, Trans-Europe Express is all at once antique, timeless, retro and contemporary. Its status as modern electronic music's birth certificate is well-earned, but its hallowed reputation should never be allowed to disguise its true value and power as a work of art. Nor should it obscure a longevity that, 32 years on, we might as well start calling by its real name: immortality.




"Trans-Europe Express"

 
The title track of Kraftwerk's 1977 album of the same name, this contributed to the ongoing mutual appreciation society formed by David Bowie and the German electronic band in the late 1970s. The bond started when Bowie borrowed some of Kraftwerk's ideas on their 22-minute epic "Autobahn" for his Station to Station album. They included the title track beginning with an electronically generated impression of a chugging train.




After Bowie decamped to Berlin with his pal Iggy Pop and started hanging out with Kraftwerk, the German band paid tribute to the pair in this song's lyric, "From station to station and to Dusseldorf city. Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie."


 
The song was an underground favorite in New York's more adventurous dance clubs and was an influence on the beat-box electro scene, Detroit house music, techno and trance. It was also a minor pop hit peaking at #67 on the Hot 100.


 
The song's popularity in New York's underground scene inspired rapper Afrika Bambaataa and producer Arthur Baker to use a sample as the basis for their seminal hip-hop single "Planet Rock."


 
The song is about the Trans Europe Express rail system, technology and transport both being common themes in Kraftwerk's music.



The Trans-Europe Express (TEE), is a former international railway network of fast and comfortable international trains (all trains were first-class-only) that covered much of Europe. At its 1974 peak, the TEE network comprised 45 trains, connecting 130 different cities. However the introduction of the TGV service in France in 1981, and its subsequent expansion, along with expansion of high-speed rail lines in other European countries led to the TEE being replaced by domestic high-speed trains.




"Showroom Dummies"



This song was inspired by a review of one of their performances, in which the band was compared to “showroom dummies”, based on their famously detached and unemotional performance style. (Later on, during performances of the song “The Robots”, the members of the band actually would be replaced by dummies.)

Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter told Uncut about this tale of shop window mannequins who come to life and go clubbing. "The lyrics in 'Showroom Dummies' are our day to day reality, going to club," he said. "In Germany, the clubs are opened very late, we don't have that curfew like in England, the last drink at 9.30 something, Ha!"


 
A French version of the song titled "Les Mannequins," was also recorded. This led Kraftwerk to later record several their other tracks in French.




 
 

DAY 371.
Billy Joel..........................................................The Stranger   (1977)











Never really liked Billy Joel back in the day, but I've gotta report I did enjoy this album, maybe my tastes have mellowed out over the years, or maybe this book has so much shite in it I appreciate the half decent ones more than I should, I don't know?


This album had a good opening with "Moving Out" to set you on your way, "The Stranger" for me at least, was a weak link, I never was fond of it.The rest of the album flows quite well, with "Just The Way You Are" (used to think Barry White's cover was the best...... but these days ????) "Scenes From An Italian Restaurants" (although over 7 minutes, I divided it into 3 songs) and way out in front in my humbles "She's Always A Woman" Joel shows what a great singer/songwriter he was, and of course anyone who has the distinction of giving Christine Brinkley a "meat injection" on a regular basis back in the day, earns my respect.



Anyways this album won't be going into my collection as I couldn't see me playing it often enough, and I'm sure my other half has a greatest hit CD if, by the odd chance I felt the need, unfortunately that could mean "Uptown Girl"  




Bits & Bobs;



When he was 21, after his band broke up and his girlfriend left him, he tried to kill himself by drinking furniture polish (he "took the Pledge"). He learned that furniture polish doesn't kill you, it just gets you really sick. After the incident, he checked himself into a hospital for depression, which he later said was a great experience, since he saw people who had far worse problems and learned to stop feeling sorry for himself.


 
In 1970, he released an album with Attila, a really bad Heavy Metal duo that promised to "destroy the world through amplification." (It actually said that in the liner notes of their album.)



 
In 2001, he sold his house in The Hamptons to Jerry Seinfeld for $32 million. Joel forgot to tell Seinfeld that it overlooked a nude beach.


 
His first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, was recorded at the wrong speed. The vocals were too fast and made Joel's voice sound unnatural.


 
Joel's father was a pianist and met his mother when she was singing at the City College of New York in a Gilbert and Sullivan company.


 
In the mid-'90s, Joel was part of a series of protests on Long Island in New York. The state was going to ban haul-seining (the traditional method of catching striped bass). This would have put a lot of fisherman out of work. Joel said his interest was because it was an old tradition in his community. That's why he frequently risked arrest in support of the fishermen.


 
Joel married supermodel Christine Brinkley in 1985 and divorced her in 1994, supposedly because of Joel's busy road schedule. They met in 1982 when Joel was playing a hotel bar in the Caribbean.


 
Growing up in Hicksville, New York (on Long Island), Joel was a boxer for three years. He broke his nose, but was crowned Local Welterweight Champ of Hicksville in 1964.




Joel's father left when Billy was 7 years old; he says he boxed to "settle my male identity crisis."


 
He toured several times with fellow pianist Elton John. They played together at the Concert for New York City, a benefit concert for the policemen and firefighters involved in the World Trade Center attacks in late 2001.


 
Many critics trashed him in the '70s. Joel used to tear up their reviews onstage.


 
In 1992, Joel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999, he made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


 
Yankee Stadium's first Rock concert featured Billy Joel on his 1989 Storm Front tour.


 
Joel has seen many legal battles over the years. He sued his ex-manager and ex-brother-in-law Frank Weber for fraud and misappropriation of funds. He also sued ex-lawyer Allen Grubman for fraud, malpractice, and breach of contract.


 
Joel has stated he is an atheist, although he believes he has reached some spiritual planes through music.


 
Joel was raised as a non-practicing Jew. As a boy, he would go with his Catholic friends to Sunday Mass. He said he was "busted" when he started giggling in a confessional booth.


 
He was the last artist to play Shea Stadium, which is where the New York Mets play. Joel will be the first artist in history to play all 4 of New York City's major sports venues: Shea, Yankee Stadium, Giants Stadium and Madison Square Garden.


 
In 2003, he won a Tony Award for the orchestration of his Broadway musical Movin' Out.


 
Joel was a Rock critic in the early '70s for the magazines Changes and Go!. After giving Al Kooper's Super Session a bad review, he felt horrible and quit the gig. Many years later, he was asked to be a judge on American Idol, and turned down the gig because he didn't like to judge musicians. Steven Tyler took the gig.


 
As far as piano players go, Steve Winwood is his favorite. Joel says that Winwood plays all the right piano notes the same way Clapton does on guitar.


 
Billy Joel's first wife was his business manager, Elizabeth Weber Small, the former wife of his music partner, Jon Small (in the short-lived duo Attila). With his second wife, model and actress Christie Brinkley, he has a daughter, singer Alexa Ray Joel, whose middle name is after Ray Charles, one of Joel's musical idols.




Joel married his third wife, 23-year-old Katie Lee, on October 2, 2004. At the time of the wedding, Joel was 55. The pair split after five years of marriage.



Joel tied the knot with his fourth wife, Alexis Roderick, an equestrian and former Morgan Stanley executive, on July 4, 2015 during an unanticipated ceremony at his estate on Long Island. The couple, who had been together since 2009, surprised guests by getting married during their annual July 4th party.


 
Joel told The New York Times Magazine in 2013 that when he was in a financial crunch a few years previously, he sold a house he was building in the Hamptons to Jerry Seinfeld, and his New York City home to Sting . "I was praying for a rock star," Joel said of the latter property. "They don't care what their accountant says. If they want something, they buy it."



 
Joel hates seeing himself on album covers, but his label liked his image there since it was good for marketing. For the photo shoot for his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, Billy showed up with an actual curtain that he used to obscure himself in the pictures. Rather than use the Billy-under-a-curtain images, they commissioned an illustration instead. Joel's compromise was a photo of himself reading a paper on the back cover.


 
Drummer Liberty DeVitto logged the most years in Joel's band, joining in 1976 and staying on until about 2003. He explained that when they would make an album, Joel would have just a few songs hashed out, but came with lots of ideas. "On the first day, we'd run over the songs that he had - the two or three songs," he said. "And then he would play ideas, and the band would play along with the ideas, and if the ideas started to feel good, he would go home and complete the song. Finish writing it. And then the next day, he would come in and we would record it."


 
Billy Joel told Long Island's BEACH magazine that pasta is his favorite food and that if it was his last meal, he'd eat a "pile" of it.




“Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”



The first of the many characters we meet on The Stranger is Anthony, a Long Island grocery-store worker with dreams of making it big. “At the time I just pictured some lady yelling out of a house, ‘Anthony! Anthony!'” Joel said. “I was thinking about a kid who’s been living at home and getting a lot of pressure from his family to go his own way. He isn’t buying into the whole upward mobility thing.” That sort of resistance to societal pressures was a theme that Joel would hit again and again. The single reached Number 17 on the Hot 100 and has remained a key part of his live show for the past four decades. Its fame only grew when it became the title of his 2002 Broadway show. 

The lyrics refer to the New York working-class immigrant masculine ethos, in which wage-earners take pride at working long hours to afford the outwards signs of having "made it" in America. The character "Anthony" questions if owning a house in Hackensack (a suburb of New York city) is worth the effort, while "Sergeant O'Leary" works two jobs in hopes of one day owning a Cadillac.

In 2014, Joel told Howard Stern: "I've seen friends of mine who were pressured into taking a job to take care of the family, and then they never fulfill themselves - they're doing it because that's where you're supposed to go. Everybody's got something they love to do or they should be doing - a talent. I see people wasting their lives, not putting their talent to that purpose so they could have stuff: you get a Cadillac and then you're fine."

 

Joel first wrote this song to a soft ballad mystery tune he had in his head. When he performed it for his band in the studio, they informed him WHERE he got the tune - it was identical to Neil Sadaka's "Laughter In The Rain." Embarrassed, Joel changed it to a more rocking tune.



 
In 2002, The stage production Movin' Out opened on Broadway. The show was based on Joel's songs, and he won a Tony Award for the orchestration. The Broadway production closed in 2005, but lived on as a touring production from 2004-2007.


 
Billy Joel told USA Today July 9, 2008: "In the song, there's the sound of a car peeling out. That was (bassist) Doug Stegmeyer's car, who at the time had a '60s-era Corvette. He took his little tape machine in the car and hung the microphone out the rear end, and started burning rubber, screeching away from his house.

At the end, we went on and on and on and they faded it out. We were just having too much fun playing, we couldn't stop! We'd look at Phil (Ramone, the album's producer) and he'd just go, 'Ah, just keep going, who knows how much of this we're going to use, just go with it.' The education of self-editing is a good process to learn."




“Just the Way You Are”



Billy Joel originally didn’t want “Just the Way You Are” on The Stranger. He felt it was a “gloppy ballad” destined to be played at weddings. It didn’t sound like the rest of the album and he thought it would bring it to a crashing halt. Phil Ramone, however, thought it was essential. To convince Joel that he was right, he brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow into the studio. “They heard the song, and Linda Ronstadt goes, ‘Are you crazy? That’s a great song!'”. “And Phoebe says, ‘You gotta put that on the album!’ I was like, ‘Really?’ I hadn’t really had a woman’s input. And Linda Ronstadt was pretty cute. I said, ‘Oh, Linda Ronstadt likes it? OK!'”


Joel wrote this song about his first wife, Elizabeth. A pure expression of unconditional love, he gave it to her as a birthday present.

Sadly, after nine years of marriage, Joel and Elizabeth divorced in 1982. Joel's next two marriages didn't work out either: he was married to Christie Brinkley from 1985-1994, and to Katie Lee from 2004-2010.

"Every time I wrote a song for a person I was in a relationship with, it didn't last," Joel said. "It was kind of like the curse. Here's your song - we might as well say goodbye now."


 
This won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the 1979 ceremony. It was a breakthrough for Joel, whose biggest hit to this point was "Piano man," which reached #25 in the US.

Joel told USA Today July 9, 2008: "I was absolutely surprised it won a Grammy. It wasn't even rock 'n' roll, it was like a standard with a little bit of R&B in it. It reminded me of an old Stevie Wonder recording."


 
After Joel recorded this, he didn't think much of it, considering it a "gloppy ballad" that would only get played at weddings. He credits his producer, Phil Ramone, with convincing him that it was a great song. Ramone brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow into the recording studio to hear the song, and of course they loved it, which was good enough for Billy. On Australian TV in 2006, Joel confirmed: "We almost didn't put it on an album. We were sitting around listening to it going naaah, that's a chick song."


 

Barry White's cover version hit #12 in the UK in 1978. The song was also covered by Frank Sinatra and Isaac Hayes, whose version is in 6/8 time with a long introductory rap.

Joel was particularly amused by the Sinatra cover. "When we have a soundcheck we always send up my own material and we do 'Just The Way You Are' with this cheesy Las Vegas swing and make a whole joke of the thing and Sinatra did it exactly the same way," he told Q in 1987. "I screamed when I heard it! You sure this isn't me singing this, Frankie, or is it a joke or whaaat?"


 

This was the first single off The Stranger, which was Billy Joel's sixth album.


 
On a July 16, 2006 blog for the Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, Joel said that he dreamt the melody and chord progression and wrote the lyrics over a few days after the dream recurred. He added that the drum pattern was suggested by his producer at the time, Phil Ramone.


 
Joel expanded to USA Today: "I dreamt the melody, not the words. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going, 'This is a great idea for a song.' A couple of weeks later, I'm in a business meeting, and the dream reoccurs to me right at that moment because my mind had drifted off from hearing numbers and legal jargon. And I said, 'I have to go!' I got home and I ended up writing it all in one sitting, pretty much. It took me maybe two or three hours to write the lyrics."


 
This was Joel's first chart entry in the UK.


 
In his 2014 appearance on a Howard Stern town hall special, Joel explained that the original sheet music printed for this song was wrong, with an extra chord in the intro. He says that he often hears people playing it the wrong way, and has even corrected some of them when he hears it.


  
Paul McCartney delivered high praise for this song, stating in his Club Sandwich newsletter that it's one of the few songs he wished he had written ("Stardust" was his first selection).




 
Joel performed this on Saturday Night Live in 1977, three months before it was released.


 Phil Woods, who is a prominent jazz player, played the alto saxophone for this song.



“Scenes From an Italian Restaurant”



This is Billy Joel’s “Jungleland,” his multi-part epic that gets crowds singing along at the top of their lungs and even tearing up a little near the end. The actual Italian restaurant that inspired it was Fontana di Trevi, which used to be across the street from Carnegie Hall. Billy Joel had dinner there with Phil Ramone a lot in the early days of conceiving The Stranger, and this song was actually three different tunes they sewed together: “The Italian Restaurant Song,” “Things Are Okay in Oyster Bay” and “The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie.” Taken as a whole, they chart the doomed marriage of quintessential Long Islanders Brenda and Eddie. It was never a proper single, but it’s become perhaps Joel’s single most beloved tune. 
This song is about people who peaked too early: the popular jocks in class who went nowhere in life. Like most of Joel's songs, he composed the music first, which in this case was inspired by The Beatles, specifically the suite of songs on their Abbey Road album where a few unfinished tunes were put together to create one coherent piece.


 
On an A&E special, Joel said he came up with the "Bottle of white bottle of red" line while he was dining at a restaurant and a waiter actually came up to him and said, "Bottle of white... bottle of red... perhaps a bottle of rosé instead?"

The "Things are okay with me these days..." part was an old piece of music he had written a long time before The Stranger album - he just changed the words around to update them. The third part of the song is an old song he had written called "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie."


 
Many towns on Joel's stomping grounds of Long Island have a spot or field surrounded by trees called "The village green," similar to the one he sings about here. Joel was in a gang (not a very rough one) in Levittown, Long Island called "The Parkway Green Gang."


 
The restaurant which inspired this song, since closed, was the Fontana di Trevi at 151 West 57th Street in New York City, right across from Carnegie Hall. Joel recalled in USA Today July 9, 2008: "It was for the opera crowd, but the Italian food was really good. They didn't really know who I was, which was fine with me, but sometimes you would have a hard time getting a table. Well, I went there when the tickets had gone on sale for (my dates at) Carnegie Hall, and the owner looks at me and he goes (in an Italian accent), 'Heyyy, youra that guy!' And from then on, I was always able to get a good spot."


 
Joel outlined to USA Today how the Beatles inspired this song: "I had always admired the B-side of Abbey Road, which was essentially a bunch of songs strung together by (producer) George Martin. What happened was The Beatles didn't have completely finished songs or wholly fleshed-out ideas, and George said, 'What have you got?' John said, 'Well I got this,' and Paul said, 'I got that.' They all sat around and went, 'Hmm, we can put this together and that'll fit in there.' And that's pretty much what I did."


  
After adding Mike DelGuidice to his touring band in 2013, Joel began leading into this song in concerts with DelGuidice singing Puccini's "Nessun Dorma." DelGuidice formed a popular Billy Joel tribute band called Big Shot, which get the attention of the real deal, who offered him a gig.




“She’s Always a Woman”



“She’s Always a Woman” is one of many songs Joel wrote in the 1970s about his wife Elizabeth Weber. She was his manager for a period of time, which upset a lot of old-school music business folks who didn’t like seeing a woman in a position of power. “I wrote it as a commentary on women in business being persecuted and insulted,” Joel said, “talked about as if they were somehow not feminine because of their business acumen.” They divorced in 1982, but that hasn’t stopped him from singing the song in concert. 


Billy Joel wrote this song about his first wife, Elizabeth, whom he was married to from 1973-1982. When they first got together, she was still married to Joel's drummer Jon Small. Billy was so tormented by his affair that he made a halfhearted attempt to kill himself by drinking furniture polish. Ironically, the rocker was saved by the very man he was betraying when Jon Small rushed him to hospital.


 

Joel's then-wife Elizabeth was also his manager and worked in the music industry at a time when very few women did. Billy saw her take a lot of gruff in the working world and get called a lot of names, which led to him writing this song to defend her, in a way. He explained: "If you look at the structure of the song, it says, 'she can do this to you, she can do that to you, but she's always a woman to me.' That was the point of the song: they're bitching about her, and I'm saying, you can bitch all you want, she's great at business and she comes home and she's a woman with me."


 
This was a staple of Billy Joel's concerts in the late '70s, but when his marriage fell apart, he dropped it from the setlist, playing it only sporadically from 1980-2005. On one of his college tour shows, Billy said that it was about his first wife, who he didn't really want to be singing about in the first place. He explained that while he was singing it, he would start thinking about what meal he would eat after the show. No passion whatsoever, so he dropped it.

In 2006, Joel returned the song to his live repertoire, often deadpanning at the end: "and then we got divorced."


 
Joel told USA Today July 9, 2008: "Some people said, 'Oh, he's a misogynist, look what he says about this woman. He wrote this song called She's Only a Woman.' Which always cracks me up every time I read that. To me, it's a very simple understandable lyric. 'She may be that to you, but she's this to me.'"


 
Fyfe Dangerfield, the frontman of the British band Guillemots, recorded a version of this song in 2010 which was used in an advertisement for the British department store John Lewis.




This version was released as a single in the UK, reaching the Top 10. It was the third Billy Joel song to become a Top 40 hit for another act in Britain, following Barry White's version of "Just The Way You Are," which hit #12 in January 1979 and Westlife's rendition of "Uptown Girl" went all the way to #1 in March 2001.



 
Joel's version also returned to the UK singles charts in 2010, this time peaking at #29 (it previously reached #53). Joel told The Sun June 11, 2010: "It was totally unexpected, this was the first time I've ever licensed any commercial use for my music but it turned out to be a blessing as it's given me a new audience. I grew up seeing the negative side of commercials, so I thought, 'Am I selling out and ruining this song?' But it was a pleasant surprise and I've been in touch with Fyfe Dangerfield about it. I've been tuning into his music recently and he's good. And he stays pretty true to the original recording- on fact I think it's a better version than mine."


 
When the American singer-songwriter Pink married motocross racer Carey Hart in Costa Rica, she walked down the aisle barefoot accompanied by this song.

She was always a huge Billy Joel fan, and she got the chance to perform this song with her idol in 2014 at a Billy Joel town hall event hosted by Howard Stern. "I got to see my dad become happy when your songs came on, and we sang them together," she told him. "It's changed my life. When I sit down to write a song, my first thought is, 'this is going to suck, and I'm never going to be Billy Joel.'"

Regarding this song, Pink said, "I wanted it to be about me."
 




 

Tran-Europe Express: great songs, even although folk criticise Kraftwerk as being emotionless and simplistic.

I like everything on it, especially Showroom Dummies and the previous track Hall of Mirrors.

And to emphasise how underrated as songwriters the Kraftwerk boys were, here's a fantastic version of Hall of Mirrors by Siouxsie & The Banshees, recorded 10 years after the original.




Just don't listen to Melt Banana's version of Showroom Dummies.......

Day 375.
Muddy Waters............................................................Hard Again   (1977)











It is ironic that the guitarist responsible for electrifying the blues would never strum a note on his trusty red Fender Telecaster nicknamed "Hoss," on what is arguably his greatest record.


"Hard Again" received uniformly positive reviews, earning Waters his fourth Grammy and most importantly, perfectly illustrated that nobody gets the blues quite like Muddy Waters.


Will try and catch up this afternoon!

DAY 373.
Electric Light Orchestra..........................Out Of The Blue   (1977)











Well that seemed a lot longer than 70 minutes, and I think I ken the reason why............I got fuckin' bored wi' it. You know when you were at school there was always the boy who was the "Peter Perfect," who never got in trouble, never had a hair out of place, never played pitchy toss, never plunked, never went plundering and was always dressed immaculately in full school uniform, well that's Jeff Lynne that is...........a self-satisfying Cunt.


He and his ELO music have always come over as too fussy, too contrived, too overthought, you don't have to keep adding more layers, more choral, more orchestral, f'k'n leave it be, step away from the mixing deck and let it flow naturally without making every track convoluted. I didn't mind his stuff with The Move,and I really liked The Traveling Wilburys, but the again he wasn't "Le Grand Fromage" with either of them.



Anyways not really my cup of tea, the hits on the album were passable but 70 minutes worth of ELO,  rendered me nauseous and cranky in equal measures, this album will most definitely not be coming into my house, even if it's free with the Sunday papers.



Bits & Bobs;


The best thing about being an anachronism, of course, is that your music never sounds dated. Just ask Jeff Lynne. On its release in November 1977, ELO’s seventh album was met with indifference by critics mesmerised by the sonic revolution of Never Mind The Bollocks, released a fortnight earlier. A prog-pop double album boasting 30-piece choirs, a 40-piece string section and a song dedicated to Lynne’s beloved Birmingham City (“Birmingham Blues”), in 1977 Out Of The Blue was the musical equivalent of flares.




Today, and millions of sales later, things look slightly different. The symphonic pretensions and Star Wars-via-Sergio Leone imagery have impacted on everyone from Air to Muse (Black Holes & Revelations and Out Of The Blue even share a song title –“Starlight”). The Feeling, meanwhile, are busy exposing a new generation to the joys of airbrushed, Macca-esque power pop. Which is a roundabout way of saying that Out Of The Blue – spruced up and with three additional tracks – has that rare quality of sounding better today than it did on release.




Recorded over a month in Munich following a songwriting sabbatical in Switzerland, it comes blessed with an alpine clarity and a production as rich as Black Forest gateaux. If predecessor A New World Record fine-tuned Lynne’s admiration of The Beatles’ “Day In The Life”, songs like “Turn To Stone”, “Standin’ In The Rain” and of course “Mr Blue Sky” re-invented it with a Wagnerian grandeur. John Lennon was reputedly a fan, and hearing splendid ‘lost’ track “Latitude 88 North”, it’s easy to imagine this is how Lennon’s former band might have ended up, drugged by their riches into making a lavish pop fantasia.




Listening to all 17 tracks in one sitting may induce nausea in all but the most hardened Guilty Pleasures addict. However, Lynne himself has said of Out Of The Blue that, “The words rhyme but they’re not very deep,” and that’s the core of its appeal to fans as diverse as Dave Grohl and The Flaming Lips. Forget the furrowed brow of modern rock for a moment – wallow in this pop Prozac.



 The Electric Light Orchestra was formed by members of an English group called The Move. They wanted to create a new band with a string section along with traditional instruments.

 
At the time, an ad for their album Out Of The Blue was the most expensive billboard ever erected on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.


 
On their 1978 tour, they opened their shows by emerging from a giant spaceship. A lot of people thought it looked like a hamburger.


 
Most of the production was done by Lynne, with various musicians brought in to form the "orchestra."


 
In order to reproduce their sound live, some backing tracks were on tape at their concerts. They were one of the first bands accused of lip-synching.


 
Lynne has produced albums for Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and George Harrison. He joined them, along with Bob Dylan, in 1988 to form The Traveling Wilburys.


 
They broke up in 1986. After a long legal battle over the name, Bevan made an album and toured as ELO Part 2 in 1991. Lynne started recording again as ELO in 2000.


 
They took their name because they combined electric rock instruments with orchestral instruments. "Light Orchestras" were small orchestras popular in England in the '60s.


 
Their first manager was Don Arden. When he lost interest in the group, he gave them to his daughter Sharon who ran Jet Records. Sharon married Ozzy Osbourne a few years later.


 
They are one of the few English bands that are much more popular in America than their home country.


 
Their first tour was canceled because their rehearsals sounded so bad. It took them a while to get their live sound right.

 

There is no Behind The Music on ELO because they were not scandalous. They had plenty of access to drugs and groupies, but didn't want either, (told you he was a wanker.) They gave these indulgences to their roadies when they came along.


 
Jeff Lynne planned a tour with the new version of the group in 2001, but canceled it when they could not sell enough tickets to justify the expense.


 
Their first live TV appearance was an episode of VH1 Storytellers in 2001.


 
Their first American LP release received its name when a United Artists executive miscalculated the time difference between LA and London. When he called the office of EMI records, no one was there to pick up the phone, so the UA executive wrote down on his pad "No answer."


 
CBS Sports used their instrumental composition "Fire on High" in their promotions in the mid-to-late '70s.


 
Kelly Groucutt sued the group for membership status as he was paid as a session musician for most of the group's latter LP's. He prevailed and won a share of the performance royalties.


 
Roy Wood, Bev Bevan, and Jeff Lynne formed the last lineup of the Move and kept it going "to pay the bills" as they (with the assistance of later-ELOer Richard Tandy) recorded the first "Electric Light Orchestra" LP. It was this lineup that produced the last Move single, "California Man," backed with the original version of "Do Ya," which later became a hit for ELO (and a minor one for Todd Rundgren).


 
Groucutt died from a heart attack on February 19, 2009, at age 63.


 
The group did the soundtrack for the notorious 1980 flop Xanadu. They were offered work on the far more successful films Midnight Express and Fame, but Jeff Lynne didn't have time to do those, so he ended up on Xanadu.



"Turn To Stone"


"Turn To Stone" is the first track on ELO's landmark Out of the Blue album. ELO front-man Jeff Lynne wrote it during his marathon two-week song-crafting retreat in Switzerland. He can also be heard playing the moog baseline here.


 
This song has so much complex layering that ELO had to rely on tapes to reproduce the same sound in concert.


 
This song garnered Jeff Lynne a BMI (Broadcast Music Inc) Million-Air certificate for having one million airplays.


 
Doctor Who fan alert! "Turn To Stone" was one of the ELO songs featured in the 2006 episode "Love & Monsters," being performed by characters. The song also makes up part of the soundtrack for the 1999 film Detroit Rock City.




"Sweet Talkin' Woman"


This was a hit single from British pop rock band Electric Light Orchestra's double album, Out of the Blue. It was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany during the summer of 1977.


 
The song was originally called "Dead End Street" before Jeff Lynne decided he wasn't happy, so he erased the vocal track and re-wrote the lyrics. Some words that survived from that version can be heard in the opening of the third verse, "I've been livin' on a dead end street." Lynne recalled in an interview with Uncle Joe Benson on Off the Record: "It was a song called Dead End Street. I'd done all the words and everything, finished it. And I came down the next day in the studio and I went, 'I hate that. Let's rub all the vocals off.' And so, he goes, 'Really?' Y'know, me engineer. And I said, 'Yup. Get rid off everything off there. Whatever to do with the vocals.' And he did. He rubbed 'em all off. And I'd been sitting up in the hotel, which is above the studio, working at night just trying to think of a new tune and new words, which I did. And tried it the next day and there they worked. So, it was a good job I did, but it also meant changing the arrangement slightly. So a lot of pairs of scissors were used that day."


 The USA single release was ten seconds shorter than its British counterpart due to a slightly faster mix. It is not known whether it was purposely edited to help the song to get more airplay or a simple error due to the tape machine being run at the wrong speed.


 
Like several songs on Out of the Blue, this song made use of the Vocoder 2000. ELO were one of the first music acts to make extensive use of the vocoder.


  
This song closed the side of the album known as "Concerto For A Rainy Day." The lyrics are uplifting, and follow the concept of a rainy day that comes to an end.


 
On a BBC Radio interview, Jeff Lynne talked about how he came up with this after he locked himself away in a Swiss chalet attempting to write ELO's follow-up to A New World Record. "It was dark and misty for two weeks, and I didn't come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, 'Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.' I wrote Mr. Blue Sky and 13 other songs in the next two weeks."


 
ELO leader Jeff Lynne puts "Blue" in a lot of his songs... "Mr. Blue Sky," "Out of the Blue," "Midnight Blue," etc. Lynne is from the Birmingham area in England, where the Birmingham Football Club (or as Americans know it, soccer team) is called the Birmingham Blues. The "blues" in these songs are a tribute to his team.



 
The synthesized voice at the end of the song sings, "Please turn me over" because in the old days when we used to listen to our music on vinyl, we had to turn the record over to hear the other side.


 
In 2003, this was featured in commercials for the Volkswagen convertible Bug. The spot showed a man slogging through his work day until he stops to look out a window and sees what's out there. The song was also used in commercials for Sears.


 
This is played before the start of every football (soccer) match played by Birmingham City Football Club (nickname: "The Blues"). Many fans of the club associate the song with a former player (and later Manager), Trevor Francis, who - through his association with the club in the '70s - was believed to be friends with Jeff Lynne (a supporter).



 
This was used as the theme song to the short-lived series on NBC called LAX. It starred Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood as the runway and terminal managers, respectively.


 
This song was used in the Jim Carrey movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and is also featured in the movie Martian Child with John Cusack.






  
This plays during the opening credits of the 2017 movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in what director James Gunn called "the most hugely insane shot I've ever done." Like the first film, the soundtrack is made up of '70s hits that Chris Pratt's character plays throughout on a Walkman.


 

DAY 374.
Weather Report............................................Heavy Weather   (1977)











Eech meech jazz is keech,

Weather Report are crap.


Gave it the courtesy of listening to it from start to finish, "Birdland" is familiar but tedious and "Rumba Mamá" coming in at 2:11 mins is the only track that I would  to listen to again on the album, at a push, seemed to be very much elevator/"hold the line music" to this listener.


This album wont be getting added to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;
 For many of us music is the balm that soothes our frazzled souls. While some rely on hot coffee, fresh orange juice or a handful of vitamins, I depend on a blast of sonic tonic to kick off my mornings. Nothing propels me out of bed like the righteous groove of Booker T. & the MG’s “Green Onions” or perhaps “Right Off” from Miles Davis’ badass Tribute to Jack Johnson. If you’re really deep in slumberland, the cowbell-driven backbeat of Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ “Compared to What” will rouse you to consciousness quicker than a whiff of smelling salts.

 And then there’s “Birdland.”

 No matter what kind of day, week, month or year you’ve been having, it’s impossible to stay in a bad mood when you get an earful of the opening track from Weather Report’s 1977 album Heavy Weather, released 40 years ago this month.


 The song’s composer, the Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul had an uncanny gift for fashioning first-rate soul jazz hits, since writing “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” for alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderly in 1966.


 From Jaco Pastorius’ opening bass figure, “Birdland” bursts with the rare brand of effervescent joy known only to the likes of Stevie Wonder. I don’t care if you “don’t like jazz.” The infectious groove of this music percolates with undeniable happiness as Wayne Shorter’s saxophone yearns for the sky. No matter what challenges you face, this music is guaranteed to help keep your soul aloft.


 “It’s harder to make a beautiful sound, than an ugly one,” trombonist/conch master Steve Turre once told me. Looking back, 40 years ago, it’s striking how Heavy Weather stood in stark contrast to the pervading aggressive esthetic of the time—punk rock.


 Speaking of punks, upon meeting Joe Zawinul in Miami, the young, impetuous Jaco Pastorius boasted that he was “the greatest bass player in the world.” After checking out his demo tape, the skeptical Zawinul found more than a little truth to Pastrorius’ claim and soon invited him to join his band, replacing Alphonso Johnson. While Pastorius can be heard on two tracks on Weather Report’s lush 1976 recording Black Market (including his own composition “Barbary Coast”) it was tracks like “Birdland” and “Teen Town” from Heavy Weather that first hipped the world to his innovative playing.


 =18pxRay Peterson, former bass man with the brilliant and funky jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris and author =18pxHal Leonard, recalled his relationship with the brash, groundbreaking bassist.


“One time I called him up for a lesson, and he insisted I come over to his house right away so he could play me the new Weather Report album, which hadn’t been released yet. I jumped in the car and drove over, and he immediately put the record on the turntable. Out of the speakers jumped ‘Birdland,’ with those pinched harmonics which he created by plucking the string with his index finger and stopping the string with his thumb,” Peterson explained.


 “I sat there with my mouth open, stunned by what I heard. I had been a fan of Weather Report from the Miroslav Vitous days, but the direction Jaco had taken the band in was just astonishing. It all sounded so sophisticated and fresh, with so much vital energy. After Heavy Weather was released, the band exploded and just went to another level, both artistically and in terms of widening their audience.”


 “Jaco’s career also really took off then, with all the positive and negative events that followed. Jaco seemed to be tapping some cosmic energy source, and it affected everyone around him. He was a very strong-willed and energetic guy. You knew when you met him that you were meeting a unique individual, and that came out in his music.”


 Although he made great contributions to a jazz fusion, Pastorius’ singular approach to his instrument went far beyond the limitations the genre implies.


 “I think he thought of himself as a jazz musician and then some,” Peterson mused.


 “He liked to play a combination of jazz and R&B. He was very knowledgeable, skilled and comfortable in both idioms. He seemed to be fishing for a description at the time and described Weather Report’s music as ‘improvised classical music.’ I never once heard him use the term ‘fusion.’ I think it’s safe to say he would have hated that term. Jaco was inspired by everyone,” Peterson pointed out.




“He was really into studying Hindemith, Stravinsky and Casals, as well as Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Jimmy Smith, Bill Evans, Coltrane, James Brown, Otis Redding, the Beatles, Sinatra, Hendrix, Edgar Winter…all kinds of stuff. Salsa and Afro/Cuban music as well. He tended to like music that was soulful and beautiful.”


 For those familiar with Wayne Shorter’s music before Weather Report (check out his classic mid-’60s Blue Note recordings), with its various forays into electronic fusion and world music, the band seemed at times like an odd fit for the prolific saxophonist. Alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, who, like Shorter, also performed live and recorded with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis, and McCoy Tyner’s bands, provided some insight into Shorter’s legacy:
 “Back in the early ’60s [trumpeter] Lee Morgan wanted me to hear this saxophonist who was playing a gig with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in Newark. It turned out to be Wayne Shorter,” Bartz recalled with a chuckle.


 “They were playing ‘A Night in Tunisia.’ How many times have you heard that song? But Wayne played it like I never heard it before. With one break, he changed my whole outlook. Most people would fill up their solos with a lot of notes, like Bird [Charlie Parker]. But Wayne really knew how to use time and space. I love his musical intellect and sense of composition. Every solo he plays is well thought out. I always take my horn with me wherever I go. And I’d brought it along with me that night, thinking I might sit in, but after I heard Wayne, I kept it out of sight,” Bartz said with a laugh.

 “Wayne wasn’t really improvising,” Bartz pointed out. “When you improvise, you’re making stuff up out of the blue, where he was spontaneously composing. You could hear his thoughts. Wayne always had a clear conception. His solos were more like variations on a theme. With the Messengers, Art made you build your solos. You had to always play with a certain kind of fire. I think Wayne eventually grew tired of that, having to burn on every song. He played more from his intellect.”


 “Weather Report was such a great, pivotal band. For so many they opened up a whole different way to go. Some bands were meant to be.”



In his brightly colored woven skull caps, surrounded by a fortress of keyboards, Shorter’s prime partner in Weather Report, Joe Zawinul always seemed like a bit of an odd duck. Yet despite all of his Olympian riffing, he had a gift for crafting simple melodies that stuck in your head, as on Heavy Weather’s heartfelt valentine, “A Remark You Made.”


 “This song stretches you emotionally. It’s both devastatingly sad while at the same time pulls you out of your boots,” said exploratory keyboardist Thollem McDonas. “About five minutes into the song there is suddenly all this activity in this otherwise languid piece. Zawinul’s arpeggios are wonderful without being disturbing or distracting. People might not notice it because it fits so well.”


 Zawinul’s songs were not only perfect vehicles for his sonic extrapolations—they seemed custom-fit for Shorter’s yearning tenor and Pastorius’ snappy, elastic bass lines as well. Zawinul’s composition “The Juggler” features shimmering synth riffs intertwined with Shorter’s pied piper soprano sax lines to create a modern renaissance music.

 “I love the subtlety of his synth playing,” McDonas enthused. “Joe was always experimenting sonically in such easy nuanced ways. The timbres evolve out and about from otherwise conventional sounds shifting over fragments of time. And before you know it he’s in a completely different field, but it always works, always feels natural, allowing you to just let these sounds roll over you like a cloud massage. Zawinul had such big ears!”


 “Rumba Mamá,” one of the album’s standout cuts that often goes unmentioned, featured the band’s Peruvian drummer Alex Acuña jamming on congas along with Puerto Rican percussionist Manolo Badrena on tambourine, timbales and vocals. Recorded live in 1976 at the Montreux festival, the track crackles with a freshness that is often lost amongst some of the album’s slicker production.


 Of course, we’d be remiss to not mention one of Heavy Weather‘s most striking features: its Grammy-nominated album cover. Artist Lou Beach recalls creating the iconic image:
 “I was just starting out and hadn’t done a lot of album covers when my girlfriend at the time, an art director at Columbia Records got me the gig,” Beach said.


 “Collage comes from disparate sources. I found the blowing leaves in an old issue of Arizona Highways and the big hat was from an ad in Life magazine. I had scattered dots that I’d made with a hole-puncher across the piece, which added to the rainy image but Joe didn’t like it and told me to take them out. Originally I thought ‘I’m not gonna change this! This is my art!’ But I needed the dough and besides it wasn’t ‘Lou Beach with music by Weather Report!’ ” Beach said with a laugh. “It would’ve been better but…”


 Beach would continue working for Weather Report, creating the cover for their next album Mr Gone, as well as a few of Zawinul’s solo projects. “Joe wasn’t the easiest guy to work with,” Beach confessed, “but he knew what he wanted.”


 The same could be said of Heavy Weather: Singular, life-altering, and truly a work of art.

 

Wasn't really a fan of Bob Marley way back in the 'seventies, but Exodus is a classic to hear again nowadays: it was difficult to get a listen to the original, there are so many different versions available. But finally got the sub 40 minutes copy to hear again.

Of course, so many of the songs are very well known, from the cool funky 'Jamming' to the latter day football anthem 'Three Little Birds', with the smootchy 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' providing more contrast. And lots of politics and reassurance. 

As good an album (to me) as the ELO double is unattractive (to me). Or Billy Joel's.

Day 375.
Muddy Waters............................................................Hard Again   (1977)











After "Weather Report" this is your hippieflip, the antidote to wanky jazz-fusion, your escape route down the mainline. Why does the blues make me happy? surely an oxymoron in my humbles, I do like the blues, but didn't know how much until this book introduced me to the album "Muddy Waters At Newport" a finer blues album you'd be hard pushed to find.


This album runs "Newport " very close, some may prefer this to "Newport" but after listening and watching the films of him live at Newport, I think that shades it by a ba' hair. but don't think i'm runnin' this one down, I love it, even "winters" moronic whooping, didn't spoil the wonders of Waters, this album just rolled at an even pace from statr to finish, if you haven't listened to Muddy Waters, please give this a listen, and if the first track "Mannish Boy " doesn't "float your boat" I reckon you must be in the dry dock, in need of repair.



Anyways, this is going on the subbies bench, as I already have the "Live At Newport" album and will wait and see how much pesos I have left at the end of this shitshow, then make a decision add to my collection or not.









Bits & Bobs;

already wrote about Muddy Waters previously (if interested)

 MUDDY WATERS Hard Again

  The name Muddy Waters immediately bends the ear of anyone with even a casual interest in the Blues. When people list the architects, the legends that make up the true Mount Rushmore of the Blues, Muddy Water’s name is always guaranteed to be on that list. Most of his influential recordings were waxed in the 1950’s and 60’s. These are the classic tunes that define who Muddy Waters really was.


 But in 1977, Muddy released an album that grabbed the listener by the collar and stated “HEY! I’m alive and well- and so is the Blues!”


 Recorded in October of 1976, Hard Again features some of the most driving, well-played Blues ever recorded. Waters was 62 when he recorded Hard Again, but sounds every bit as lively as he did 20 years prior.


 The legendary Johnny Winter had built a huge following playing the Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll to the young crowds of the late 60’s and early 70’s. He always bragged about various Bluesmen, and which artist recorded what. Johnny loved the Blues and wanted to repay the masters who taught him in any way he could. Muddy had been loyal to Chicago’s Chess label, but as the late 70’s dawned and Chess was sold, he now found himself free to record with whomever he pleased. Winter absolutely worshipped Muddy Waters, and came up with an idea to record the historic Bluesman for the Blue Sky label. Blue Sky was owned by Winter’s manager at the time, Steve Paul.


 Johnny Winter had seen Muddy Waters perform in the 70’s. He knew what he and his road band were capable of at their live shows. He just didn’t feel that the energy of those shows was coming through on anything Muddy had recorded in quite some time. Wanting to capture that great, warm sound of the old Blue Label Chess 78’s, Winter set out to make a Muddy Waters record with one goal in mind: Show the World that Muddy was still the man, and had plenty left to offer!


 The scene for recording would be The School House in Connecticut. Muddy and Johnny immediately agreed that they would set up and record “Live” for the entire LP. Just like it was done in the old days! The recording would basically capture a live band in the studio with Winter handling production and joining in on playing. If the band was composed of competent musicians, then they could make the Blues come across alive and fresh. And make no mistake; the band backing up Muddy Waters for this recording was far beyond competent. They lived their lives for this man and his music!


 Muddy is featured front and center on Vocals, along with this stellar lineup:  James Cotton – Harp, Pinetop Perkins – Piano, Bob Margolin – Guitar, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith – Drums, Charles Calmese – Bass. Johnny Winter also played Guitar on the recordings. Cotton played on many of Muddy’s classic recordings from the mid 1950’s to the mid 1960’s. James Cotton was a Harmonica master who had a legendary reputation for his own work as well. Cotton is still going strong today – check him out if you get the chance! Pinetop Perkins plays Piano on Hard Again. Pinetop needs no introduction! Listen to every track for a textbook example of what Blues Piano playing is. He was in Muddy’s band for many years as well. Bob Margolin was a part of Muddy’s touring band at the time of this recording, and he has been a carrier of the Blues Torch for many years now. Charles Calmese brought a young man’s touch to these 1976 sessions, and the great Willie “Big Eyes” Smith is hands down one of the greatest Blues Drummers to have ever lived – a master indeed.


 All of the tracks on Hard Again were penned by Muddy, or by Muddy with someone, except for the Willie Dixon track, “I Want To Be Loved.” The LP wastes no time in getting started with the classic “Mannish Boy.” This exact version has been used in so many commercials; it’s almost become a household name! Play “Mannish Boy” for anyone that isn’t even fairly familiar with the Blues, and they’re sure to recognize it. “Bus Driver” and “Jealous Hearted Man” keep the listeners attention, and then ease into Muddy’s classic “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” Blues lovers surely know this one, but for even the casual listener, maybe only familiar with Rock/Pop, this track begs to be turned up! Blues Power all the way! Muddy coined the saying “The Blues Had A Baby, And They Named It Rock And Roll”, so next he rightfully updates it with “The Blues Had A Baby, And They Named It Rock And Roll #2.” The constant cheering, talking and general carrying on give this album such a great feel! The listener feels as though they’re literally sitting right there in the studio, leaning their back against a wall and taking in the whole process! This gives Hard Again that “Live” feel that Muddy and Johnny were going for. “Deep Down In Florida” and “Crosseyed Cat” take us to the finale of Muddy’s own “Little Girl.”


 In 2004 an expanded edition was reissued and features another track from the same great sessions: “Walking Through The Park.”


 Listening to this album in 2013, the listener still feels the power and punch of Muddy and those great musicians knocking out the Blues. It has a timeless feel, because it IS timeless. Hard Again is classic Blues at it’s finest, played by some of the men who knew it best. This album, due in large part to Johnny Winter, brought Muddy back into the spotlight, where he rightfully belonged. Many new, younger fans of Winter, now sought out more recordings from this man that Johnny called “The Master.”


 Muddy recorded two more studio LP’s, and a Live album, all on the Blue Sky label. This took him into the early 1980’s. When he passed away in 1983, his legacy was immediately carried into the decade with the Blues revival of artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray.


 Hard Again is one of the best Blues albums of all time. It stands up, decade after decade as not only something Blues Lovers can surely enjoy, but new, younger artists are still attracted to. Muddy Waters secured his legacy by the time the 1960’s had dawned. But in 1977, he showed the World that he was, indeed, Hard Again.




"Mannish Boy"

 
This classic Blues song is an affirmation of masculinity. It's a reworking of the Bo Diddley song "I'm A Man."


 
Muddy Waters originally recorded this in 1955, then re-recorded it in 1977 for his Hard Again album in a version produced by Johnny Winter.


 
The repetitive guitar line is easy to play, but very memorable. Waters used the same basic riff on his song "Hoochie Coochie Man." This riff appears on many other Blues songs in both the 5 note and a shortened 4 note version. George Thorogood used it for his song "Bad To The Bone."


 
The Rolling Stones often played this in their early days and released it on their 1977 Love You Live album. Muddy Waters was a huge influence on The Stones, and their name comes from his song "Rollin' Stone Blues."


 
This was used in the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Geena Davis. It also appears in Better Off Dead, Risky Business and Goodfellas (as part of the "Sunday, May 11th, 1980" montage)

Last edited by arabchanter (21/8/2018 11:33 pm)

Tek wrote:

P.s. harsh write-up about ELO imo. Not a fan as such but Jeff Lynn is a fine songwriter/melody maker.

"Different strokes, for different folk" and all that