album reviews
Jethro Tull
Thick as a Brick
Although not in the shops yet, I was able to acquire a 'white label' pressing of the current Jethro winner Thick As A Brick from their London agents, Chrysalis Artists.... The group consists of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Evan, Jeffery Hammond-Hammond and Barriemore Barlow. Written around a poem by St. Cleve child prodigy Gerald Bostock, their music spins a delicate web of sensitive sounds: sometimes lilting, sometimes soaring to form a brilliant backdrop for the meaningful lyr... | More »
Fleetwood Mac
Bare Trees Reprise
Fleetwood Mac's last two records, Kiln House and Future Games, have between them provided me with perhaps a hundred hours of enjoyment. And that's the ultimate test of a record's worth. Personally, I was never interested in early Fleetwood Mac, the British blues band; but this Fleetwood Mac has little in common with that group except for the name and the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The closest thing I can think of to the kind of music the new Mac plays is t... | More »
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Comin' Thru
Dino Valenti had a pretty good niche in history carved out for a while: he wrote (or at least claimed to have written) "Hey Joe," the pube classic that's been done by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to the Leaves to the Shadows of Knight. Also to Dino's songwriting credit was "Get Together," one of the best things to come out of the whole Summer Of Love (as done by those wizards of tight AM rock, the early Youngbloods). Then Dino went and ruined it all by joining Quicksilver, and pretty... | More »
Dr. John
Dr. John's Gumbo
Wipe your mind clean of all you've ever heard and read about Dr. John the Night Tripper. If you knew that once he was a New Orleans session musician and songwriter called Mac Rebennack, forget that too. And although Gumbo (Atco 7006) comes with maybe the best set of liner notes you are ever going to find, don't look at them. Instead, hand this record to a friend and ask her to find the place in "Tipitina" (side two, band three) where the first vocal ends and the instrumental break b... | More »
Janis Joplin
In Concert
Janis Joplin is gone, by now just one more we've seen succumb in the public arena of the pop marketplace. It's not just that this kind of early death has become a fact of life that is disturbing, but that it's been accepted as a given so quickly. We're getting to the point where we merely anticipate between exits, idly wondering which will be the next among our "heroes" to go. And caring less all the time. I don't know which is worse, the cannibalistic impulse of the... | More »
Jeff Beck
The Jeff Beck Group Epic/CBS
Should you ever find yourself in the mood to be bored comatose, simply hop on the next jet to Hollywood, where this writer will gladly spend an afternoon with you explaining why — on the basis of the soon-to-be-mentioned's irrepressible musical eccentricity, exquisite taste for the hilariously incongruous, and expertise at producing some of the lewdest noises ever enjoyed by teenage ears — he considers Jeff Beck a peerless rock and roll guitarist, as good in his own way as ar... | More »
Deep Purple
Machine Head
I just don't understand, as Ann-Margret once sang, why an exciting band like Deep Purple, who consistently hit the top of the charts in Merrie Olde and have taken Europe by storm, remain a comparatively unknown quantity to American audiences. Especially when said audiences have wholeheartedly embraced bands with similar musical aims and not one more ampere of excitement. It's a shame, but Deep Purple themselves are at least partially to blame. Their first two American albums on Tet... | More »
The Kinks
The Kink Kronikles Reprise
In the very first paragraph of his liner notes to The Kink Kronikles (Reprise 2XS-6454), John Mendelsohn emphasizes the Kinks' position as an underdog band. Perhaps even more than the exceptional individuality of their musical catalogue, this is one of the main factors that has made them so unique. Indeed, it is a factor that the group has at times seemed to welcome. More about that later. The Kinks started out by being raunchier than any group in history. "You Really Got Me," "All Day ... | More »
The Rolling Stones
Exile on Main Street Rolling Stones Records
There are songs that are better, there are songs that are worse, there are songs that'll become your favorites and others you'll probably lift the needle for when their time is due. But in the end, Exile on Main Street spends its four sides shading the same song in as many variations as there are Rolling Stone readymades to fill them, and if on the one hand they prove the group's eternal constancy and appeal, it's on the other that you can leave the album and still feel va... | More »
Muddy Waters
Live (At Mr. Kelly's) Geffen
Good news — the old Muddy Waters sound is back! Muddy was one of the founders of the Chicago Blues sound, and his original line-up of guitars, piano, bass and drums is present on this album in full force. It was cut in Chicago last year using Muddy's working band, and though the genius of late pianist Otis Spann and harpman Little Walter are still missed, the present band stomps right along. Vocally, Muddy hasn't sounded this good in years — he's singing like he me... | More »
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