Sunday Funnies - "Benediction" (1972)

This is an album I just found the other week, in one of Uppsalas stores for used records. A find that made me very happy! The price of 7$ made me even happier. I bought it without a doubt. Some faithful readers might remember one of this blog's first posts that was on Sunday Funnies debut album from 1971. Benediction was their second, and last, LP. I knew about this record through the internet but I had never seen it IRL, so it was a big event to find it.

Sunday Funnies originated from Detroit and was Richard Fidge (song), Ronald Aiken (guitar), Richard Kosinski (keyboard) and Richard Mitchell (drums). Wow, three Richards and a Ron! My first impression is that their first album is better then the second one, but I haven't owned Benediction for a long time and records sometimes have a tendency to grow on you. The label is Rare Earth which was a sub label of Motown, and focused on all-white bands.

Side A is a pretty funky creation where the band and the singer hits it hard in every song. The singer has a really raspy voice which makes me want to clear my throat. I guess it's Richard Fidge who sings on these songs, on the backside of the album cover it says that Aiken and Kosinski also do some singing, so I won't make any promises on who sings on what song. On some songs you clearly hear that someone else than the raspy-voice man is singing, the singing is done much more softly on these and often in harmonies. I like these better.
Compared with their first album side A of Benediction is more up-tempo and funky. I was somewhat disappointed in this since I like the first album's more calm and beautiful songs.

Side B gives the listener a new experience since the songs are totally different from side A. The soul/funk is almost gone and it sounds more like their first album. That's good. The songs a more beautiful, a little more complex and more interesting to listen to compared to the "simpler" funk on side A. The opening track Reach Out I'll Be There is the only song on the album that's not written by Kosinski-Aiken, instead Holland-Dozier-Holland are named as writers. It's less feeling of gospel on Benediction compared with their first album, even though a Christianity might be hinted here and there. The record's last words, and therefore Sunday Funnies last words to the world, are: 'Oh, dear God'. What do you say about that?

A difference compared to their first album is that strings are used on some songs on Benediction. Tom Baird is given the credit for arranging these and also some horns. This gives a certain feeling to these songs since string arrangements affects the sound quite a lot. Suddenly it sounds more produced, more professionell and the smell of th 70s becomes stronger. This can be good or bad depending on taste. Personally, my dominating feeling was surprise since it sounds different from the Sunday Funnies I've gotten used to earlier.
But overall you still recognize the Sunday Funnies sound. The electric organ is a important part in this since it's there in almost all the songs and plays an important role. The raspy voice and the bass playing are also parts that makes you recognize Sunday Funnies. No doubt it's them on Benediction.

It can be mentioned that Andrew Loog Oldham is the producer of the album, yes, the same man who was the manager of Rolling Stones in the 60s. Another, less amusing, curiosity is that the drummer Richard Mitchell ended up as a homeless and died in a halfway house in Detroit in the 90s. Richard Kosinski on the other hand contributed to albums with Aretha Frankling, Bonnie Riatt and The Temptations. He also created music for Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw and the Hanna-Barbera series Gravedale High.

In summary, Benediction is no doubt worth buying, at least for the make-me-happy price of 7$. In my world the B-side is the highlight of the album. Finally I want to mention the cover of the album. An angel with black wings, sitting on a motorcycle wearing two bandoleers in front of a mountain is alone worth 7$. On top of that she wears boots that goes all the way up to her thighs. Unbeatable.

Tracklist
Side A
1. Get Funky 3:52
2. Double Grace 3:36
3. Two Halves of a Whole 4:40
4. Keep on Truckin' 4:48
5. Rock Me Lord, Friends Indeed 6:04

Side B
1. Reach Out I'll Be There 3:28
2. We're All On The Same Side Of the Fence 4:44
3. Power & the Glory 2:44
4. Brother John 4:38
5. The Pillow 5:38

I only found this short clip, someone else might be luckier...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
A beautiful christmas song with Kate Bush is my gift to you (yes, I've got it on vinyl, a 45).

Kate Bush - "50 Words for Snow" (2011)

A new album release by Kate Bush is something of a world event, that she releases two albums in the same year is almost unique (it happened in 1978, too). Earlier this year she released Director's Cut, which contained a number of re-recordings of earlier songs. 50 Words For Snow is the first album since Aerial (2005) with new material from Kate, a release rate that we have become accustomed to in the past 20 years from our lady. A new album is therefore a special moment for a Kate fan.

I had pre-ordered the album and received it a few weeks ago. You've got to admit that Amazon packages their vinyl albums well, the size of the box was a number of sizes larger than the album itself, to say the least. It's a special feeling to hold a new vinyl record in your hands, something that perhaps is most comparable to holding a newborn baby in your arms for the first time. You are compassionate careful, afraid to drop the precious cargo to the floor. Your eyes may fill with tears and pride fills the body. One can hardly believe how beautiful the item is laying in your hands. The moment has a magic about it and you understand that this is a moment you will remember as an old man.
The cover of 50 Words ... glimmered so beautiful, untouched as it was. That special scent of "new" reached the nose and the brain, I opened the gate-fold cover, and thought that this must be among the most beautiful albums in my collection. Just as we usually think about our newborn children, how ugly as they may be.

The album is released on Kate's own label Fish People. It is her second album on this label and her tenth studio album overall. When it got a fifth place in England's charts, she became the first female artist ever to have had an album at a top five position in each of the last five decades (1970s to 2010s). This could make you believe that Kate is a very old woman, but she is actually only 53.

On vinyl, the record is a double album. It's around 65 minutes long and consists of seven songs. As the title suggests the theme for most of the music is snow, in some way. When I first heard the opening song Snowflake I spontaneously thought Kate's voice sounded strange. Had she become ill? But when I quickly looked in the album information, I realized that it was not Kate singing. That surprised me as I have no memory of any other Kate song where someone else than herself does the singing. It also made ​​me surprised that the woman who was singing was called Albert, but I thought perhaps this could happen in England. Then the truth came to me, this was Kate's son Albert who still has a relatively high voice. It's easier to accept that Kate lets her son sing a song than if she would have invited a singer from outside. Kate sings the chorus in this song which is about a snowflake's descend through the air to finally land on a human.

The three songs on the first record (side A and B) is all very calm with a quiet atmosphere, here and there small notions of jazz can be heard. Kate's piano is the instrument responsible for most of the background. Steve Gadd on drums also makes a fine job and complements the soundscape in a perfectly balanced way. The songs are long but don't become boring, it all takes place at a comfortable pace. It's as if Kate takes her time and is not in any hurry, she lets the songs take the time they need. In long songs like these, it's often a vocal part and then some longer instrumental part and then maybe a song part again. On this album the songs have no such distinction, but the singing is there all the way, it's just that often there are a few extra beats non-singing between the lines of text. Often I found myself to believe that the next verse would start but instead there were four more beats of quiet piano. Then the singing started.

This provides a calmness to the first record that might be much needed in our more fast-paced world. You can't call the first record a party album, far from it, but it's definitely not depressing. It is difficult to compare Kate with other artists. Kate is Kate, and usually others are compared with her.

The other record (side C and D) opens up with the more fast-paced track Wild Man. Thereafter we actually hear Kate sing a duet with Elton John on the track Snowed in at Wheeler Street, also a little more fast-paced song. Kate singing a duet in this way is unusual, the only such earlier song I can think of is Don't Give Up, which she did with Peter Gabriel on his album So (1986). To invite another star to sing on a record sometimes feels like a cheap trick to boost sales, especially if one's own stardom may be waning. Knowing that Kate doesn't need to resort to such methods makes it work well here. I've never really liked Elton John, but in this song, I think he complements Kate in a very good way. The song is about a loving couple who have followed each other throughout history, but never gotten hand on each other.
The title track on the last side is the album's oddest song, in which a man lists 50 different words for snow eagerly cheered on by Kate ("C'mon man, you've got 44 to go"). A gentle ballad with Kate and her piano finishes the album. Although it's a bit higher tempo on sides C and D, it's still a relatively calm experience.

Overall, I think it's a very good album, actually one of Kate's best records. She has the strange ability to create albums where you no doubt recognize Kate from album to album, but as she always takes a step forward in her creations each album has its own unique character and are not similar with any other record she's made. In 50 Words for Snow she calmly paints a beautiful musical landscape helped by fine musicians, her voice which has matured with age and a perfect production. Listening to this album gives you a peaceful and harmonious moment. She undoubtedly takes new steps in her creativity and provides the listener with some new approaches, such as the earlier mentioned duets (with her son and Elton John), and overall the album is quite different from what she has done before. And yet, it sounds just as we expect Kate Bush to sound like. Album of the year 2011?

Tracklist
Side A
1. Snowflake
2. Lake Tahoe

Side B
1. Misty

Side C
1. Wild man
2. Snowed In At Wheeler Street

Side D
1. 50 Words For Snow
2. Among Angels

Cirrus Winery (2008)

This summer I visited Uppsala Progressive Festival which took place at the scene Parksnäckan (Uppsala). It was a pleasant afternoon and evening with a bunch of interesting bands. Another thing that was pleasant was that a lot of vinyl records was being sold there, of course most of them on the theme progressive music. Even more pleasant was that some of these records were the kind that you can’t find in stores (physical ones nor internet based), instead it was the kind of records that the band itself distributed and sold at different occasions, such as concerts or their own homepage.

For a number of reasons it’s fun to buy these kinds of records; you get an album in your collection that not many other people have, this makes you feel special. It’s fun to own an album that doesn’t exist in a lot of copies, it becomes somewhat a rarity. And I always have the hope that some day the band, or one member in the band, will become world famous, then a record like this will increase its economical value like a maniac and become hot stuff. A thoroughly cynical and economical investment, in other words.

This album has a of the above mentioned ingredients.

Cirrus Winery has a link to my hometown Uppsala since the band was created at Wiks Folkhögskola (Folkhögskola = a place where you usually live and participate in different courses / educations, often with a creative focus, a year or two) which is situated just outside Uppsala. A lot of young men and women have stayed there throughout the years and have taken part in more or less structured courses and lived more or less structured lives. Something tells me that alcohol and alternative drugs is sometimes an ingredient in the life at the Folkhögskola. Something tells me that the members of Cirrus Winery liked the life at the Folkhögskola. After the time at Wiks Folkhögskola the band members somewhat spread over the country but the band still remained, and if I understood it all correct the band members also became members in other bands without threatening the existence of CW.

The members of CW are Andreas Lindmark (keyboard), Mikael Lennholm (guitar, song, flute), David Svedmyr (bass, song, flute) and Thomas Johansson (drums, percussion, song).

I like this album. It’s progressive music that’s not very difficult, just more interesting and funnier then more mainstream music. The too complicated and technical musical creations are not there which is positive. In other words, CW has managed to find a good balance between the difficult and the easy-going. The songs are overall of good quality and I think they have had a lot of fun creating the album. And sure, it smells a lot of the 70s which I mean as a complement.

The weak side of the album are the passages with song. Usually I don’t have a problem with Swedish bands singing in English, but listening to this album I found myself wondering why they don’t sing in Swedish. I don’t think that the band members at the time at the recording were seeing themselves on the international scene, and the possibilities for the album to find its way outside the Swedish borders were probably quite small. Why not then sing in Swedish? One problem with them singing in Swedish is that the Swedish accent is heard quite clearly which bothers me, it makes it harder to take the music serious.

Another problem with the song is that I find the lyrics quite immature and kind of naively pretentious. There’s a potential to make them better and maybe if they would write them in Swedish they would find the words easier?

A third problem is that I don’t really like the singer’s voice and the position of the voice in the soundscape. The singer doesn’t really sing badly, it has more to do with me (as one usually says). Some of this can be blamed at the production and if one would remaster the album this could be done better. Today the recording, and especially the singing, sounds a little bit home made. The passages without singing are on the other hand really good and funny to listen to, and here I really enjoy the album. The passages without song are also a major part of the album.

In the text above the negative part of the records gets more room than the positive part. Therefore I’d like to make clear that this is an album I really like and recommend, especially for all the progressive fans out there. I think it’s possible to order it from there homepage:
http://cirruswinery.argh.se/

I’m happy that I bought this album, both concerning the music and the feeling the album gives me; to own something quite hard-to-find and what a special person I must be to do just that.

Tracklist

SideA

1. Swing it!
2. Junior High
3. I'm in Love
4. Octopus
5. The Rose and the Grave

Side B

1. Jag Äter en Apelsin Utan att Skala Den
2. Al Capone
3. Jimmys Jordgubbe
4. Hymn for the living

Kate Bush - "Never For Ever" (1980)

This was Miss Bush's third album and first full length album she produced herself (along with Jon Kelly). I purchased this album in my late teens and have always experienced it as belonging to the middle region of Kate's creations. Overall it’s a good album, there are some really beautiful songs, at the same time there are albums with Kate which are even better. And some which are worse. Kind of like a football team in the second division.

This is (so far) the only Kate Bush album without a title track (ie, there is no song on the album called Never For Ever) and it’s the first album where Kate used drum machines and synthesizers.

Personally I think the album in many ways is a step forward from the previous Lionheart, this goes for the quality of the songs, the sound and the production. In other words, the entire album. It also contains some tracks that are not songs of the more traditional verse-chorus structure but leans more towards mood creators, such as Delius and Night Scented Stock. Even if Kate in many ways had always been an innovative and progressive artists songs had on the previous two albums still been more traditionally structured. On Never For Ever she seems to visit some new ground, maybe it's because of her newfound freedom as a producer.

It was the first album by a female solo artist in England which debuted as number one in the charts, and the first album ever by a female solo artist to become number one in England. This may sound strange, it was already 1980, but before acts like Diana Ross & The Supremes had been number one, but strictly speaking this was a band. Furthermore, it was a compilation, like a Greatest Hits. Similarly, Barbara Streisand had been number one with a Greatest Hits. But Kate was the first woman who became number one with an original album. This album is historical in this way.

Just as I always felt this is an average Kate album, I’ve listened to it on an average intensity. But I should clarify that I like, more or less, all of Kate's albums and she is one of my favourite artists. So an average album by Kate Bush is still a very good album. And the song Army Dreamers has always been one of my absolute Kate Bush favourites. Breathing is another favourite song from the album which is about the cheerful subject of nuclear fallout experienced by a baby inside the mother's womb.

The album got different cover in Japan as the European one was a little too daring. You can’t have a woman on the cover from whom it flies out a lot of birds from beneath her ​​skirt. Instead they magnified one part of the picture (not the skirt). It can also be mentioned that Roy Harper does some backing vocals on the album. Babooshka was the best-selling single and peaked at number five on the charts, personally, I have never really liked that song.

Favorite Songs

Army Dreamers

Breathing

Tracklist

Side A

1. Babooshka 3:20

2. Delius (Song Of Summer) 2:51

3. Blow Away (For Bill) 3:33

4. All We Ever Look For 3:47

5. Egypt 4:10

Side B

1. The Wedding List 4:15

2. Violin 3:15

3. The Infant Kiss 2:50

4. Night Scented Stock 00:51

5. Army Dreamers 2:55

6. Breathing 5:29

Rolling Stones - "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967)

If you make life simple you can say that this record divides Stones fans into two categories - hate or love. Sure, there are certainly those who also are left relatively untouched, but in texts such as this one it's important to polarize! I think the Rolling Stones are an OK band, but I can't identify myself as a fan, maybe that's why I think this is a really good album. Love? Maybe not, but still a strong affection.

This was Stone's detour into the psychedelic landscape and they temporarily left their usual blues-based, more dirty, rockn'roll. A lot of people dismiss the album as a poor attempt to respond to the Beatles' Sgt Pepper that was released earlier that year. Some of the songs are not very good and doesn't feel "genuinly psychedelic", with that I mean that the psychedelic touch feels kind of glued on, "just because". In these songs I feel that the band tries to do something they're not really in to. At the same time there are some really beautiful and classic tracks on the album, such as She's a Rainbow and 2000 Light Years From Home. In my world the good songs absolutely outweigh the bad ones. Another song worth mentioning is the 2000 Man, a good song that KISS made a cover of 1979.

The album's titel is a play on the words in British passports, "Her Britannic Majesty requests and Requires ...."

The recording of the album was rather chaotic. It lasted from February to October, and was interrupted periodically by the trials of some band members because of drug possession. The band members (when they felt like showing up) brought lots of friends to the studio and you never knew who would show up. It went so far that the producer and manager Andrew Loog Oldham finally gave up and left the recording. The consequence of this was that Their Satanic ... is the only self-produced Stones album.

The band experimented with synthesizers, strange sounds and new instruments. John Paul Jones made the string arrangements and Paul McCartney and John Lennon sang backing vocals on Sing This All Together (but it's not a good song, anyway).

Mick Jagger says: "There's a lot of rubbish on Satanic Majesties. Just too much time on our hands, too many drugs, no producer to tell us, 'Enough already, thank you very much, now can we get just get on with this song?' Anyone let loose in the studio will produce stuff like that. There was simply too much hanging around .”

 The original release had a 3D image on the cover which was later transformed into an ordinary image due to high costs. According to people I talked to in stores for used records one must be prepared to pay over $150 for a record with the original cover, and according to one man there's supposed to be an edition with a silk ribbon on. For this you must pay at least $1500, according to the same man. Original release looked like this (you must imagine the 3D effect):

I have an album with a different cover, it's a French re-release made ​​at a later date, I am however not sure what year. The name of this series of re-releases is "L'age d'or des Rolling Stones" which translates to "the Rolling Stones golden years." Their Satanic ... is vol. 8 in this series. Decca made this re-release (who also released the original album).

I let Mick Jagger conclude:
“There's two good songs on it: She's A Rainbow, and 2000 Light Years from Home. The rest of them are nonsense... I think we were just taking too much acid. We were just getting carried away, just thinking anything you did was fun and everyone should listen to it. ”

Anyway, I think it's a good album.


Favorite Songs
Citadel
She's a Rainbow
2000 Light years From Home


Tracklist
Side A
1. Sing This All Together 3:46
2. Citadel 2:50
3. In Another Country 3:13
4. 2000 Man 3:05
5. Sing This All Together (See What Happens) 7:58

Side B
1. She's a Rainbow 4:35
2. The Lantern 4:24
3. Gompa 5:12
4. 2000 Light years From Home 4:45
5. On With the Show 3:40

Tim Buckley - "Goodbye and Hello" (1967)

This is a relatively old record but a newcomer in my collection. The question I ask myself these days when I buy a new record is if I should buy it on vinyl or CD. I must honestly admit I think it's much more comfortable with a CD. Throw it into the player, jump around between songs as you want, pause, if necessary, by pressing a button, etc. To top it all is a new CD also often cheaper than a new vinyl. Yes, new vinyls are actually disturbingly and provocative expensive. The record companies seem to want to use the vinyl neo-Renaissance to the utmost and use us connoisseurs shamelessly. But sure, it feels like a vinyl should actually be a bit more expensive to produce, and they are probably pressed in much smaller quantities.

But these negative thoughts seem not to exert any power over me, because I always buy a vinyl if there’s a choice. I say as many others, it's a completely different feeling with a vinyl. It’s a, if not religious, at least a very nice experience to hold a vinyl cover in your hand – it’s large, it is (often) beautiful and there’s somewhat of a ceremony to pull out a record from its cover and put it down on the turntable. It’s not just something you do on the fly, you have to slow down, take a break from everyday life and suddenly arises that inner peace that exists somewhere deep in the soul. In addition, you can have vinyl covers as works of art on your wall too. How many CD covers are sitting on people's walls?

Many also argue that the sound is better on vinyls than on CDs, however, I leave that unsaid. Both sound good, let us be happy with that.

So I bought this album new and it’s a re-release made ​​by Four men with Beards who specialize in 180 gram audiophile re-releases on vinyl (standard weight of a vinyl is around 120 grams and it’s said that the sound quality becomes better if the record is heavier. Moreover, it will keep its shape better and not be skewed so easily. Fact or myths created by the companies? Who knows. Most re-releases occurs today on 180-gram discs, anyway.). Elektra released the original 1967.

Tim Buckley was an American singer who moved between many different genres - folk, jazz, psychedelic, funk, etc. Goodbye and Hello was his second album and is considered by many to be his best, Tim was 20 years old when it was released. I discovered the album through the book 1001 albums you must hear before you die. I have discovered an alarming number of albums through this book, and I have not even read a fifth of it yet...

The owner of Elektra, Jac Holzman, had a lot of faith in Tim and rented advertising space on the Sunset Strip at the time of the release. This was highly unusual for a solo artist who had not seriously broken through yet. Goodbye and Hello was not a smash hit but reached a 171st spot on the Billboard Charts, Tim's best position with a record. Tim had most of his career a certain cult status and the number of fans varied over the years.

I think it's a good album. The music can be said to lean toward the singer-songwriter tradition with a spice of folk and some half psychedelic elements. That’s a very nice mix and the album has a clear aroma of the 60's, which I mean in a positive sense. Tim has a very distinctive and beautiful voice that leaves its mark on the songs, and throughout his career he often used his voice as an instrument. Even his singing in falsetto sounds great. He has written most of the songs himself, some with the poet Larry Beckett.

Tim Buckley met Death in 1975 in the form of an overdose of heroin, 28 years old. He had used drugs from time to time, but during the last tour he didn’t (and therefore his tolerance was probably lowered). When the tour was completed, he partied a weekend with the band and went on Saturday night with his friend Richard Keeling to his home, hoping to score some heroin. Tim walked into the bedroom while Richard was having sex and a minor quarrel arose. It all ended with Richard in frustration, throwing a quantity of heroin to Tim with the invitation / challenge "Take it all, then". And that’s what Tim did. He was transported, still alive, to his wife Judy who bedded him down in a bed. When she a little later checked on him, he had died. According to reports Richard Keeling, during the fateful evening, had heard Tim's last words that were supposed to have been "Bye, bye, baby" which was probably directed towards his wife.

Tim Buckley had a son who was named Jeff Buckley. He also had a musical career and met Death prematurely by drowning, 30 years old.

Favorite Song
Carnival Song
Pleasant Street
Goodbye and Hello

Side A
1. No Man Can Find the War 2:58
2. Carnival Song 3:10
3. Pleasant Street 5:15
4. Hallucinations 4:55
5. I never asked to be your mountain 6:02

Side B
1. Once I was 3:22
2. Phantasmagoria in Two 3:29
3. Knight-Errant 2:00
4. Goodbye and hello 8:38
5. Morning Glory 2:52

Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973)

The world is at the moment washed by a wave of Dark Side of the Moon created by Pink Floyd and their release of the new goodlooking and expensive CD / DVD box. Of course I don't want to be left outside, how much fun it is to stand outside and look from a distance at the party? In the cold and dark, and hear how much fun everyone has? Nah, I've done that enough, so I'm going to join the party but of course focus on the vinyl. Finally, I'm inside with the rest of you.

In the late '80s, I lived a year as an exchange student in Ohio, US. One thing that had made ​​me a little disappointed was the fact it was only sold CDs at the supermarkets. I had not yet entered into the new digital age and I missed the vinyls. On a trip to New York I discovered that it was still sold vinyls there so full of abstinence I bought a couple of albums of which Darkside ... was one. I was 16 years old and life was still an adventure. Pink Floyd was a new band in my life.

Themes that are repeated in the songs' lyrics are things that Roger Waters described as "making people crazy" - money, greed, death, mental ilness etc. and the record must be described as a concept album. Many miles has been written about this album and I will not be too tedious in repeting facts that you might already have read (or will read) on the Internet or magazines. But I can contribute with some mixed curiosities in a relatively unstructured form.

Dark Side ... was recorded during two recording sessions in 1972 and 1973 at Abbey Road Studios. The fact is that the music was created during a tour and was presented already in February 1972 for a bunch of journalists (which were delighted with what they heard).
PF discovered that another band, Medicine Head, already hade used the album title and then changed the working title to Eclipse. However, the Medicine Head album was a flop and PF went back to the name Dark Side of the Moon.

Alan Parsons was the engineer during the recordings. Relatively sophisticated equipment was used in the studio - a 16-channel tape recorder, synthesizers, etc. According to some the recordings were regularly interrupted since Roger Waters wanted to see his favorite team Arsenal play and the whole band wanted to see the TV show Monte Phytons Flying Circus. David Gilmour, however, later denied that this is true and claimed that they focused on the recording.

On the song The Great Gig In the Sky, Clare Torry sings a wordless melody improvised in the studio. For this she received £30 (equivalent to £300 today). However, she sued Pink Floyd and EMI in 2004 and claimed that she was a co-writer to this song and demanded royalties. The court said she was right and a secret agreement was signed. All the Dark Side ... records released after this date therefore has Clare Torry as a songwriter together with Richard Wright concerning this song.

On the record voices can be heard regularly saying different things, some of these voices belong to a few roadies. These were recorded in the studio where they had to answer various questions about violence, death and similar themes. Paul and Linda McCartney also answered such questions but their answers were not allowed to be on the album (they tried too much to be funny, according to those involved).

The classic cover was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie and was created after Richard Wright's wish to come up with something "smarter, neater, more classy" compared with the covers of the albums before. Wright had also asked for something "simple and bold."

Dark Side ... is one of the best selling albums ever, and the band members became wealthy. Waters and Wright bought large estates and Mason began his collection of sports cars. Some of the money was invested in the movie Monte Phyton And The Holy Grail.
It is estimated that the album has sold about 45 million copies and on a slow week it sells 8000-9000 ex. In 2002, for example, it sold around 400 000 ex, which made ​​it that year's 200th best selling album, nearly 30 years after its release.

So what I do I think of this historic album that always gets top rankings on lists such as "best album", "most important album" etc? Well, you can't dislike it and yes, it's very good. But I think PF has done even better albums so it's not my favorite of their creations. It's a fantastic production and the sound is crystal clear, it's hard to believe that this was recorded almost 40 years ago. The songs flow very nicely into each other and most are of very high quality. However, I have always been ambivalent to the previously mentioned The Great Gig ... which I find a little noisy with the crazy woman singing/screaming. In addition, I think Money is so-so and Us and Them can sometimes feel a bit boring. But this perhaps I write this mostly to balance all the great positive stuff that has been written about this album through out history.

As a final reflection, I might mention that this album for some reason has always given me summer vibes. The songs evoke images from my childhood's and youth's summers that meant an endless sea of liberty. Maybe it's because I listened to the album a lot during summers, or maybe it's the melancholy in the songs that comes through and raises the memories of a time that has passed. A time when you were free, didn't have any responsibility and could enjoy the day there and then. At least, that's how I remember it...

Of course I recommend a purchase of this album if you don't already have it. For me personally it's a little extra fun with this album in my collection as it was purchased in the Big Apple on one of my few visits there. But the content itself goes a long way too.

Favorite Songs
Time
Brain Damage

Track List
Side A
1. Speak To Me 1:30
2. Breathe 2:43
3. On the Run 3:36
4. Time 7:01
5. The Great Gig In the Sky 4:36

Side B
1. Money 6:22
2. Us and Them 7:46
3. Any Colour You Like 3:25
4. Brain Damage 3:28
5. Eclipse 2:03

Rare Earth - "Ma" (1973)

Rare Earth was formed in the early 60s, initially under the name The Sunliners. In the following years came and went a number of members and in 1968 they recorded their first album. The next year the band signed a contract with Motown under its new name, Rare Earth, and became one of the label's first all-white bands. Rare Earth was to belong to one of Motown subsidiary labels which had not yet a name, and the focus of this subsidiary label was exactly all-white bands. The people of Motown asked the band if they had any suggestions concerning a name for the label and they answered jokingly Rare Earth. To the band's surprise, Motown thought that this was a good idea and the label Rare Earth was born.

The band Rare Earth had a number of hits during the first years but the postitions in the charts over time became lower and lower. Motown then decided to take a stronger artistic control over the band's production and called in the legendary songwriter / producer Norman Whitfield for their sixth album at Motown - Ma. Norman wrote and produced all the songs, a couple of them together with Barrett Strong.

I found this album earlier this year in one of Quebec's shops for used vinyl records. The main thing that made ​​me curious about the group was the fact that I own a record with Sunday Funnies (see a previous post) which was released at the label Rare Earth. Since I like that album I thought the chance was pretty high that another band at that label also would be good, especially the band that gave the label its name! In addition, I liked the cover that almost can be called minimalist. Since I didn't have a record player in Quebec, this album had to wait quite a long time to be played by me, but he who waits for something good ... Right?

Side A consists of the song Ma and clocks in at just over 17 minutes. This is the album's peak, according to me. The song had previously been done by the Temptations and Undisputed Truth. A hypnotic groove takes the listener on a funky soul journey on the theme "mother". The groove is steady and doesn't change during the 17 minutes, but things are always happening in the song which help to keep up the interest. One time I found myself getting strong Hawkwind-vibes from an unusually spacy-psychedelic part in the song. Imagine that! The drummer Peter Hoorelbeke is the main singer of the band and has a classic raspy soul / funk voice with a lot of power.

The B-side is also good and offers more funky soul / rockn'roll. The album ends with the softcore song Come With Me in which a woman's voice is heard moaning in a way that can't be heard otherwise than very sexual. I would say that both Donna Summer (Love To Love You) and Jane Birkin / Serge Gainsbourg (Je t'aime ... moi non plus) are problably beaten here.

The album Ma is considered by many to be the band Rare Earth's best album. The band has continued to exist over the years with (as always) a large number of member changes. They still tour and released an album as recently as 2008.

Favorittrack
Ma


Tracklist
Side A
1. Ma 17:21


Side B
1. Big John Is My Name 4:06
2. Smiling Faces Sometimes 6:20
3. Hum Along And Dance 5:15
4. Come With Me 4:30