Rambling Rhoads

Prior to writing up the Indigo Girls last November, I went back and listened to the dozen (!) studio albums of theirs that I own, as well as the double-disc live album 1200 Curfews. This mid-career effort emerged as my particular favorite. I’ve always loved “Fill It Up Again”, but I came to realize that the whole thing actually works from beginning to end.

Favorite tracks:

Fill It Up Again

Rise Up

All That We Let In

Perfect World

Dairy Queen

Heartache For Everyone

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Lyric Of The Day #4 (March 22, 2020)

Walk on, walk on

With hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV5_LQArLa0

Although it got very little notice on this side of the Atlantic, this past Friday morning, at the suggestion of a Dutch radio host, stations in over 20 European countries simultaneously (7:45 a.m. U.K. time/8:45 C.E.T.) interrupted their usual programming to play this song to boost morale during the coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/03/20/youll-never-walk-alone-europes-radio-stations-create-heartwarming-show-of-solidarity-amid-coronavirus-lockdowns/#6449f81c530b

Saturday, March 14, 2020

LP #29 Iain Matthews – Stealin’ Home (1978)

Since I actually discussed this album in an earlier post, I thought I’d use this entry to include some later thoughts on it from Iain himself, borrowed from an interview he did in conjunction with the 2014 re-release of the CD:

This album was very much a conscious attempt at something a little more AOR, without deserting my roots. … For me, it served a purpose. … In hindsight, I like the album. It has some very special moments, and it did precisely what it was supposed to do. It raised my profile, without lowering my credibility.

Favorite Tracks:

Don’t Hang Up Your Dancing Shoes

Stealin’ Home

Shake It

Gimme An Inch

Man In The Station

Thursday, February 27, 2020

LP #28 The Dells – There Is (1968)

Although Chicago R&B group the Dells had a million-seller in 1956 with “Oh What A Nite”, additional chart appearances proved elusive until this album came out 12 years later, kick-starting a run of commercial success that would last into the mid-1970s. In his liner notes for the CD version of There Is, Robert Pruter of Goldmine Magazine suggests that “had Chess Records been prescient enough they could have put out a single hit on every one of the 12 cuts”; that may have been a slight exaggeration, but each of the album’s four singles did reach the top 30 on Billboard’s R&B chart. More importantly, there’s really not a weak song in the bunch, with a fine mix of ballads (one of which ranks as my all-time favorite) and more up-tempo tracks.

Favorite Tracks:

Stay In My Corner

There Is

Please Don’t Change Me Now

Wear It On Our Face

Run For Cover

The Change You Go Thru (For Love)

Friday, February 21, 2020

LP #27 Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)

I have to admit that, when it comes to Steely Dan, I basically punted when it came time to put together my original list of favorite albums. There were two or three that could have found their way onto my list, but I was never able to choose among them. (I consoled myself with the fact that Donald Fagen’s first solo effort, Nightfly, did finish in the runner-up spot.)

I own each of the 7 albums that the duo released before going their separate ways on vinyl. Instead of repurchasing them individually on CD, I sprang for the Citizen Steely Dan boxed set, which spreads those albums, along with a handful of odds and ends, over 4 discs. As it happened, everything from Countdown To Ecstasy except for the final two tracks was on Disc 1, while one of my all-time favorite Steely Dan songs was pushed onto the second CD. Had I not forgotten that “King Of The World” was on this album, it may well have made it into my initial set of faves.

Favorite tracks:

My Old School

King Of The World

Show Biz Kids

Bodhisattva

Razor Boy