L.A. Woman (1971)

Between a bubblegum knock derived from "Light My Fire" (or more likely "Hello I Love You") and the alleged presentation by Jim Morrison of his dick to a Miami audience, it's easy to forget that the two best Doors album were their last, when they had already officially failed and humiliated themselves and slunk away to lick wounds. This one, the very last, was released only a few months before Morrison died. It's as loose and freewheeling as anything they ever did, with plenty of small and happy discoveries along the way, and it sounds good loud too. Sure, we all got as tired of "Riders on the Storm" as we did of "Stairway to Heaven" and "Maggie May." That's a no-brainer. But who could have guessed how well "The WASP" would stand up over the years against the Gun Club and various assorted psychobillies?

Brian Auger's Oblivion Express (1971)

Another big fave from high school era this somehow ended up being the one and only Brian Auger album I ever cared for. Not even sure it's really his debut, though maybe so for the band. The artist he reminds me most of nowadays is Todd Rundgren playing with Utopia, post-Bitches Brew fusion with a decidedly pop flavor and little of the steaming atmospherics of Miles or the Soft Machine, instead erring on the side of martial and tidy. Kept his tempos nimble and quick. Played a reedy Hammond that nicely provided a variety of moods and layers of sound and dimension. Went to the right elements: Weird time signature, check. Cover of John McLaughlin, check. Majority stake in future members of Average White Band, check. What do you do? Rock it.

Devotion (1970)

John McLaughlin, a guitarist apart as he proved once and for all in sessions with Miles Davis, spent much of the '60s as an in-demand sideman for the likes of Graham Bond, Georgie Fame, and Jack Bruce, even Bowie, Hendrix, and the Stones. Approximately here is where he started out on his own, though it was the Miles dates and then the Mahavishnu Orchestra where he broke as a star, at least as much of a star as a fusion artist can be. For me, never a fan of notes-per-second, strange time signature noodling, which is how the Mahavishnu stuff sounds to me, this is the album that counts (well, this and those Miles sides) -- all moody layers and washes of smoky, doomy sound, as sure-footed as a muscular feline padding about the place. And, oh yeah, works on some level as a spiritual exercise too. Profoundly moving. Food for the soul. One of a kind, this. One for the ages.

Old Skool

Visit Old Skool
(updated 10/18/07: now invitation-only)

A treasure chest of glittering prizes you can haul away by the armful, discographies, almost discographies, and piles of master funk, soul, proto-hiphop albums and artists: Eddie Hazel, Commodores, Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield, Brick, Buddy Miles, Hot Chocolate, Jones Girls. You get the idea. This is where I finally found the solo Bernard Edwards album I had been looking for literally for decades. Full albums available indefinitely. Archives worth browsing.

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The Progressive Blues Experiment (1969)

Johnny Winter, another white guy from the '60s playing the blues -- this one so white he is albino. I guess the important thing is he's from Texas and drank that water deep because as he demonstrates on this slightly unofficial debut (as the liner notes pretentiously point out), once he starts to play he becomes the guitar. There's nothing at all wannabe about this, black white or gray. Brother Edgar may have been the rock star of the family, but Johnny was the one with the blues down deep into his soul. He caked that over good with heroin, barbiturates, and alcohol and spiraled out of sight in the mid-'70s. Made it back, produced one of Muddy Waters's best albums, and has spent his life on the road like most any self-respecting bluesman. But I'm not convinced any album of his is superior to this.

Hallelujah (1969)

As a band, not to mention as a phenomenon of the '60s and spawn equally of the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock, Canned Heat actually had a lot going for it. If you didn't like Bob "The Bear" Hite trying to do Muddy Waters, you could go for Al "Blind Owl" Wilson doing ... well, where did that eerie, thing of beauty falsetto come from anyway? "Boogie" anyway remained the byword, even past its rightful use-by date, and it can't be much of a surprise that John Lee Hooker's first and perhaps most successful collaboration with a Rock band came with these guys. Long story short: a consistently fine, high-spirited band. And really, most of their albums are worth the time (at least through late 1970's Hooker 'N' Heat, after which I can't vouch). This one's as good a place as any to start. You might be surprised.

Diddy Wah

Visit Diddy Wah
This blog, whose name I like to think comes from Captain Beefheart, has been around a few years, stewing up a reg'lar brew of roots, garage, soul, rockabilly, and more. Posting occasionally becomes infrequent and even at top speed updates are weekly at best. But it's worth checking frequently. Single tracks available for a limited time.

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Ten Years After (1967)

I suppose I should start with the easy joke about how now they should be called Forty Years After, something like that. Moving along, I am always surprised by the confidence and poise of this debut, lost in the roaring acclaim of the follow-up live Undead and what became their signature song, "I'm Going Home," on which Alvin Lee demonstrated how quickly he could move his fingers and with such coordination and precision, and which act he took to Woodstock. And so they became rock stars and released some baker's dozen LPs over the years until now. The only one of them that I care about, the fallback position throughout this one is a kind of smoky roadhouse jazz -- a Hammond organ taking lead on many of the tracks, the vocals surprisingly understated, and a really tidy, efficient rhythm section. Everything moves forward constantly, and it all ends too soon.

James Bond

007 James Bond
I have the honest to God hardest time pinning down what exactly is so unmistakable about James Bond music. There's the chick factor, of course, and what a line-up: Shirley Bassey (the Bond girl), Nancy Sinatra, Tina Turner, Lulu, Gladys Knight, Carly Simon, Sheena Easton, Rita Coolidge (don't that make your brown eyes blue?), Sheryl Crow, Shirley Manson (do I have to say Garbage?), Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, a-ha, Duran Duran. Wait a minute. But that's just the glam factor; essential, though not musical. What is it? Horns come and go. Strings come and go. Twangy guitar comes and goes. Synth keybs and beatboxes come and go. Well, that swooping, soaring, swelling, impossibly sweet and drunken kind of thing is usually there, most often opening big on the chorus. Maybe that's it. But I have a feeling there's something technical in the songwriting too -- certain chord changes, or something about minor keys. I just don't have the vocabulary. P.S. BTW FYI Caveat and something you should know: I can't stand the movies, the few that I've seen. Sorry about that, chief.

Carly Simon, "Nobody Does It Better" (1977, #2) (3:29)
Garbage, "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) (3:56)
Gladys Knight, "Licence to Kill" (1989) Floats in like a big boat. (5:15)
John Barry Orchestra, "James Bond Theme" (1962) The shit. From Dr. No. (1:47)
John Barry Orchestra, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) Mental. Only theme that's an instrumental. (2:35)
Louis Armstrong, "We Have All the Time in the World" (1969) This one sneaks up on you. (3:15)
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, "Sex on Wheelz" (1992) I'm including this because somehow it sounds like a James Bond theme to me (admittedly distorted and perverted). Maybe it uses the same mysterious musical thing? Maybe I'm just wrong? (4:59)
Nancy Sinatra, "You Only Live Twice" (1967) (2:46)

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Chocoreve

Visit Chocoreve
Chocoreve: One of the first (that I encountered anyway) and certainly one of the best for obscure late '60s/early '70s product and bootleg, the era of psychedelia bleeding into classic rock. One of the greats. Full albums available indefinitely. The password, btw, is posted_first_at_chocoreve.

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