Greatest Hits Of The World (1974)

Let us instantly focus on the important question, how is the girl on the cover connected to the music? You could almost find the photo in a soft porn magazine, but a girl on an album cover, standing on a beach wearing a swimsuit, of which the upper part is some sort of net bra, has of course some sort of meaning. Some sort of symbolism. The only question is which one.

Maybe a clue is the album's opening track? It is Sylvia's mother we see. Unconcerned about her motherly duties and responsibilities, totally unaffected by parenthood's heavy and destructive influence, although she is a little dark around the eyes (this made me a moment think that she is a heroin addict, isn't heroin addicts often dark around their eyes?). But where is Sylvia!? Is she swimming? Can she swim? Does she have a life jacket!!!??? Or is the woman's beaming face a confirmation that You made me so very happy? Then I stumbled upon an idea that made me both scared, worried and intrigued - what if she is The Witch Queen of New Orleans!? A beautiful witch, who with her seductive appearance enchants us and makes us do things we never thought possible - reveal our deepest secrets, betray our friends and buy Greatest Hits albums. Things we in hindsight don't understand how we could do.

Other side of the album cover

For it can't be that the record company places a beautiful, scantily clad woman on the cover, with no connection to the music, just to sell a few extra copies? With the idea that heterosexual men possibly get up their wallets easier and consume, instead of ashamed visit a shady magazine store, wearing a cap, hood and sun glasses, to buy the latest issue of Hustler (this was before the Internet, you know)? Can a record be that greedy and cunning, almost evil?

But look at many of Roxy Music's album covers. Why am I not thinking the same way about them? Maybe I define them like art, with some sort of deep thought behind them. But really, aren't they roughly the same?

Well, enough about the somewhat cheap cover. The music? Well, honestly it's some pretty good songs. It's still a Greatest Hits album, so if the title is not lying, the content is such that the general public has apparently appreciated it. Amongst other we have Janis Joplin with Me and Bobby McGee, The Byrds with Mr. Tambourine Man and Fleetwood Mac's Albatross. Good songs all of them. Of course we have some more dull numbers also, like OC Smith's Little Green Apples.

On side A, I knew more or less all the tracks, on the B-side it was the opposite. It made me a little suspicious, either it just chance or the record company did it on purpose. If the latter, probably on the basis that at the time you actually test listened the albums in the store before you bought them (yes, it's true). But often you just listened to the first side, especially if people were waiting for the record player. In the shops there were usually a limited number of turntables, sometimes just one. There was an unspoken, sometimes explicit, rule that one should not occupy a turntable for too long. Well, knowing this the record company could of course place a bunch more unknown songs on the B-side which they creatively would call "hits". But perhaps I am too suspicious. Personally, I was too young to listen to the radio and remember songs at this time, so if the songs didn't become true classics and get a continued existence in various contexts, they have probably passed me by.

On the B-side, I made a new acquaintance in the song Son Of My Father with Chicory Tip. It turned out that Giorgio Moroder was involved in the song which perhaps explains the funny moog synth that makes the song pretty cool. It's from 1972, the same year I was born, so I hope I'm forgiven I hadn't heard it before.

The subtitle of the album is The Original Versions! Here I just want to put in some sort of protest as the Beatles' Obladi Oblada is performed by The Marmelade, and the earliermentioned Mr. Tambourine Man with the Byrds is of course also a cover (there are possibly more). OK, I understand that the songs were hits in the form of these covers, but I still think a protest is justified. It's not the original, original version. Is the subtitle therefore a lie? Thinking about this too long just gets you confused and makes you start questioning reality itself, so I leave this issue here.

Apparently, the cover was a succée, for the other Greatest Hits Of The World are variations on the same theme:

Overall an OK album with some pretty good songs. Sure, the soft porn cover gives it a bit cheapish shimmer, and you can always a bit snobbish look down on Greatest Hits records, but many of the individual songs are good. I've either got the album sometime as a gift along with lots of other LPs, or it has entered my collection when I have bought a bag of records with relatively unknown content. Or it was the cover that attracted me, the shady magazine shop was too far away, and it was less embarrassing to buy an LP. I honestly don't remember.

Tracklist

Side A
1. Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show - Sylvia's Mother 3:55
2. The Marmelade - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 2:56
3. Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee 4:30
4. The Byrds - Me Tambourine Man 2:17
5. Bobby Vinton - Sealed With A Kiss 2:48
6. Blood, Sweat & Tears -You've Made Me So Very Happy 3:26
7. Fleetwood Mac - Albatross 3:07

Side B
1. Redbone - The Witch Queen Of New Orleans 2:45
2. Chicken Shack -I'd Rather Go Blind 3:13
3. Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father 2:51
4. Santana - Ji-Go-Lo-Ba 4:18
5. The Tremeloes - Silence Is Golden 2:57
6. OC Smith - Little Green Apples 3:48
7. Georgie Fame - The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde 3:07

The Artie Kornfeld Tree - "A Time To Remember" (1970)

Sometimes I think life around 1970 was much more fun - people were relaxed and friendly, they loved each other, the sun was shining every day and you had fun almost all the time. In the parks people danced under the trees holding each other's hands, sometimes with clothes on, sometimes naked, but always with a wreath of flowers around the neck. And hey, why does the smoke from your hand rolled cigarette smell so strange!? In any case, I think so when I hear Artie Kornfeld Tree. The oil crisis, the Vietnam War and famine, can't we forget those things for a while?

This is a groovy album created by one of the men behind the Woodstock Festival. Although he has written numerous songs for other artists, participated on different records, produced albums and been vice president of Capitol Records, this is the only album, to my knowledge, Artie has recorded under his own name.

And just as I sometimes have the idea life was more straightforward in 1970, this is a fairly straightforward record. There are a number of good songs, a running time of 27-28 minutes, and a collection of musicians who have fun together. The opening song Country Morning on 56th Street is one of the highlights, in competition with the album's bombastic and fantastic finishing number Rockn'roll Is Here To Stay. One can not but agree. Amongst other things the listener is also offered a Neil Young cover in form of Helpless. I can't help thinking it sounds a lot like Knocking On Heaven's Door. But a nice song anyway.

The album is released on Dunhill Records, which in itself makes the album extra fun to own. And of course we have the cool cover, a true work of art that confirms my theories about life around 1970. It was the cover that in the end made me buy the album. You see, I still in the naive belief that the cover art says something about the music on the album, although I on countless occasions have had this idea crushed. But when it comes to A Time To Remember the picture pretty well matches the music. It must be really fun to be an album cover designer. The other side of the cover is more moody, though.

Summary: An enjoyable uncomplicated album from the time when the sun was always shining. It's a nice forward moving pace on the record, kind of a psychedelic touch and you get in a good mood by listening to it. I rather take a 27 minute album which is fun (almost) all the way through, than a 72 minute CD, half of which is featureless fill-outs (I have a number of CDs like that from the time when the CD was fairly new and artists went into the trap of using the entire playing time). Some songs, however, I would gladly see being a bit longer at A Time To Remember. Some barely start before they suddenly stop, and you are left wondering where this song could have gone and maybe, just maybe, what a great creation it could have been. Anyway, if you find this album in a store, I think you can buy it with a good conscience.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Country Morning on 56th Street 3:10
2. First Anniversary Cut 3:10
3. McCracken's Cut 12:50
4. Helpless 2:56
5. Sweet Sweet Music Refrain 1:46

Side B
1. Time To Remember 2:30
2. Rockn'roll Babies 2:42
3. Thanks for the Sunshine 2:16
4. Tears Of Yesterday (Chapels Of Our Minds) 3:16
5. Des Moines, Iowa Variety Show 2:44
6. Rockn'roll Is Here To Stay 2:06

I have only found one song from the album on Youtube, the cover Helpless. After a while in the song, you hear a humming noise in the video for a few seconds. It's not supposed to sound like that.

Universal Energy (1977)

You often get the question which is one's favorite album or artist. Usually you're be able to answer quite reasonably, even if the answer can vary depending on the day or be kind of vague and indistinct. A more difficult question to answer is which one is the worst album in the collection.

It was the mid 90s and I was a student in Lund, Sweden. A good friend was visiting, we chilled, talked and listened to good music. When it was time for a new record, my friend suddenly asked me to play the worst album I had. What an unexpected twist. I was forced to think in completely new ways and to really go outside the box, as one say. The result of this intensive thinking was that I put Universal Energy on the turntable.

A somewhat unfair judgement, I would say today.

Universal Energy is a French album which on some places online is described as cosmic disco. Now, that sounds really cool. The men behind the record are Bernard Estardy (aka Le Baron) and Jean-Pierre Bourtayre. Both are described in the French version of Wikipedia, for those who like language exercises. I honestly don't know how famous they are outside France. It's synthesizer based, mostly instrumental music, created almost 40 years ago. That means of course the sound is different than today, for better or worse. The nice thing is that in its best moments, electronic music of the 70s sounds really cool, a sound many artists today are trying to recreate. In its worst moments, though, it sounds cheap and really lousy.

Bernard Estardy

Jean-Pierre Bourtayre

I guess Universal Energy offers both. Even if the album is often described as disco, not everything is danceable. Some more fast paced numbers are quite cool and groovy, with exactly the sound many wish for today, for example the opening titletrack. Then we have a song like Christmas for Space, which is quieter and where the sound is not really working. In this song you get the only vocal element in form of a robotic voice wishing us a Merry Christmas, and some children's voices that create an somewhat psychedelic atmosphere.

I have seen the album sold for sums up to $100 online, which means I made a nice investment. I paid $1 for it in the late 80's (the price tag is still there). The reason I bought it was that I interpreted the title as cosmic energy, and thus the album would contain cosmic, druggy music. And that was what made me so disappointed and got me to label it as the worst record in my collection - it was not the floaty, cosmic music I had hoped for. And in the late 80s, and in the vision of the teenage Markus, the music the album offered was not very hot.

This is not the worst record I have in my collection, far from it. Today, I think it's kind of a cool album and quite groovy, with its stylish electronic 70s sound. Playing it on the stereo, I find myself suddenly at Studio 54.

I can add that I've always thought that the person on the cover is riding a motorcycle. The helmet on the head and the left hand's position suggest it. But when I now for the first time in 25 years take a closer look at the cover, I see that he doesn't. I don't know what he's doing or who he is, but he doesn't drive a motorcycle. I must say it's probably on of the ugliest covers in the collection.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Universal Energy 5:52
2. Space Energy 10:08

Side B
1. Disco Energy (I) 6:53
2. Christmas for Space 6:34
3. Disco Energy (II) 2:57

Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin' (1974)

I've always liked Simon & Garfunkel, who doesn't? I've also liked Paul Simon's solo stuff. Yet, I have never bought any record with these artists. Don't ask me why. Fortunately I still have some of these LPs in the collection, records I have taken /saved from relatives. Good deeds, that is.

This album has belonged to one of my uncles, before this summer's move to Montreal, he offered me to go through his collection and select those records I wanted. Because he never listened to them, I'm not sure if he even had a record player. Offers like these are like Christmas, and filled with bubbling joy I took a look at what he had. This was one of the albums that fowllowed me westbound.

This was Paul Simon's first live album, not sure exactly where it was recorded as nothing is specified on the cover. On internet London and New York are mentioned as a couple locations. The first songs only offer Paul along with an acoustic guitar, then the Brazilian band Urubamba comes into the picture and expands the sound. Of course Pauls sings El Condor Pasa (If I Could) backed by the South American band. On side B the gospel group The Jessy Dixon Singers appears on stage and makes it a bit hotter. They even get to sing a song all by themselves, Jesus Is The Answer, which also happens to be the song on the album you can do without.

What is there to say about this album, really? It's of course of high quality, Paul Simon offers a few doses of melancholy, some beautiful quiet songs and a few more fast paced, gospel-soaked numbers. One can always discuss the necessity of owning the album if you have the songs in their original form, I don't believe the live versions are better than the studio recordings. But if one has no other album with Paul Simon (with or without Garfunkel), it can probably be recommended since it offers a fairly wide range of Paul Simon's creations. It's only one disc, so it's not the whole concert from this tour, only selected songs.

Personal favorites are the beautiful version of the classic Sounds of Silence, Duncan with its beautiful flutes and The Boxer, that to me breathes childhood memories of my grandparents.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard 2:47
2. Homeward Bound 2:45
3. American Tune 3:58
4. El Condor Pasa (If I Could) 4:08
5. Duncan 5:11
6. The Boxer 6:11

Side B
1. Mother and Child Reunion 4:00
2. The Sound Of Silence 4:27
3. Jesus Is The Answer 3:28
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water 7:10
5. Loves Me Like A Rock 3:16
6. America 4:35

Rhapsody - "Rain of a Thousand Flames" (2001)

It's bombastic, pretentious and loud. Drums at supersonic speed, orchestral elements and a few brief interruptions of more tranquil sounds. Also, add a fantasy story as the theme sung by a real heavy metal voice. It's everything music should contain!

No?

Rhapsody was / is an Italian metal band that was created in 1993. The first time I heard the album, I wanted to call the music metal opera. Then I read on Wikipedia that music should be defined as symphonic power metal. Oh, how wrong I was, but I still think metal opera fits quite well.

The band began as Thundercross, before it got the name Rhapsody. Due to legal reasons, they were forced to change its name in 2006 and thus became Rhapsody of Fire. 2011, the founder of the band, Luca Turilli, left the band and created Luca Turilli's Rhapsody. The farewell and the creation of the new band was apparently done on friendly basis, and both bands continue to coexist.

Rain of a Thousand Flames is the only record I have with the band, this kind of music is not what I usually listen to. But I have read that Rhapsody had a red thread through their albums in form of a fantasy story, The Emerald Sword Saga. Later during the record making the tale continued as The Dark Secret Saga. The struggle between evil and good with demons, monsters and magic. Classic fantasy!

Rain of a Thousand Flames, their fourth album, is considered to be a bridge between the records Dawn of Victory and Power of the Dragonflame, the final chapter of The Emerald Sword Saga. The LP contains a parallel story to the main theme and is apparently not essential to the main story. It's about how the evil Akron destroy city and country with the help of the Emerald sword which he had gotten hold of.

The reason I bought this album? I found it a few years ago in Uppsala, Sweden, where it felt quite out of place in the store which otherwise mostly sold chart-topping music on CD. This alone made me curious. The price was less than 15$ and I was currently in a brief period where I hold an extra interest for picture discs. Last but not least, what pushed me over the edge was the sticker on the cover - Limited edition, 3000 copies worldwide. Obviously you have to have a record like that, it can be worth money some day. In addition, it came with a poster inside the cover.

Although it is not my kind of music, the album is quite enjoyable to listen to. I'm a bit weak for powerful and bombastic elements in music, and here you get a lot of it. If you like metal, perhaps especially metal à la Iron Maiden, spiced with a handful of symphonic elements, it is certainly a good buy. But for my part, I will probably not buy more albums with Rhapsody, or any other band of the genre, it's enough with this one.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Rain of a Thousand Flames 3:43
2. Deadly Omen 1:49
3. Queen Of The Dark Horizons 13:42

Side B
Rhymes Of A Tragic Poem - The Gothic Tale
1. Tears Of A Dying Angel 6:23
2. Elnor's Magic Valley 1:40
3. The Poem's Evil Page 4:04
4. The Wizard's Last Rhymes 10:38