As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Thursday, January 22, 2015

LP #25 Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – Closer To It! (1973)


I honestly can’t remember when or why I bought this album. It came out while I was in college, but I can’t remember any friends who were familiar with the band, or hearing any of their stuff on the radio. Possibly I just liked the cover art.   ;-)
 
Organist Brian Auger started out doing straight jazz in the 1960s, moved over to rock/R&B (hiring Rod Stewart for one of his bands), and finally managed to sucessfully fuse the two. According to the liner notes for the 2006 CD reissue, the band basically invented “acid jazz”; I would characterize it as “rock-influenced jazz with incidental vocals”, but what the heck. The sound is heavy on percussion, often with a Latin flavor, and Auger’s Hammond organ, with the vocals (also by Auger) mixed to be much less prominent.
 
By the way, the booklet for the CD has a great poster from a 1973 concert. The following is in large type at the top, surrounding a photo of the band:
 
TRENTON STATE
COLLEGE UNION BOARD
PRESENTS …
BRIAN AUGER’S
OBLIVION EXPRESS
 
Followed by (in smaller type, with a much smaller photo):
 
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
 
Favorite tracks:
Voices Of Other Times
Inner City Blues

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