THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Zappa. Roxy and Elsewhere.
I may well have said this before but...where to start with Zappa?

This was the first album of his I ever heard. 1974. Of course he's so diverse you may love this and hate his other stuff or vice versa but WTF....

The first track (and possibly the second) is about Nixon so I don't get the gorilla bit. Bit of a slow burn this track. This actually isn't the one on the original album. "Interesting nuanced differences" as FZ himself might have said....

For the geeks among you, like me, notice also on 'More Trouble" the drum fill on the 'chorus' appears years later on a Genesis track 'Afterglow' - since it is the same drummer, Chester Thompson who just 'lifted' it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa1JR-T ... 9qK6A6jUqy

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Led Zep III - Led Zeppelin

As with AC/DC, why on earth do I like them!

The Current Mrs Gers put me on to this. We were up the city years ago, most probably in Our Price or Virgin, me looking at the latest Bad Seeds release. “You should listen to this” she opined, and I did.

Everyone knows what Led Zep are about, so there’s little point in me telling you how brilliant they are. The first side is what you’d expect from them. The opening track, Immigrant Song, could be best described as them in microcosm. It’s everything you’d expect, but the second side of this album is the side of them I really like. You could hardly say it’s an album of acoustic ballads, but it’s as close as they get.

Best track, That’s The Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kif1gDxG3o

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

These.

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P46_ _W _D _L PTS
07/08 29 10 _7 97 PI 1st
14/15 27 10 _9 91 KR 2nd
21/22 26 11 _9 89 LM 3rd
05/06 12 14 20 50 DW 22nd R
22/23 11 12 23 45 lm/MJ 21st R
17/18 11 12 23 45 rn/DM 23rd R
15/16 _9 12 25 39 KR 23rd R
LS: A rocky start, that's all it is.

It's Alive by Ramones (1979)

For me, simply the best live album. Ever.

"Hey, we're the Ramones, this one's called Rockaway Beach...
One, two, three, four..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRyjPf3t9l0

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P46_ _W _D _L PTS
07/08 29 10 _7 97 PI 1st
14/15 27 10 _9 91 KR 2nd
21/22 26 11 _9 89 LM 3rd
05/06 12 14 20 50 DW 22nd R
22/23 11 12 23 45 lm/MJ 21st R
17/18 11 12 23 45 rn/DM 23rd R
15/16 _9 12 25 39 KR 23rd R
LS: A rocky start, that's all it is.

Ill Communication - Beastie Boys

This is probably going to be my last regular post on this thread. Coming to the end of albums that I listen to regularly. Therefore…

This is their best work by some considerable distance. As usual it’s packed with the most exquisitely picked samples, but there’s more live instruments, which are equally exquisite. They were clever, clever guys, and the interplay between the three of them was never more finely honed as it was on this. I’ve always loved the way they swap vocals between the three of them in one line, Bea… Stie… Boys. They were brilliant at it. Listen to Sure Shot if any further evidence is required of their genius.

Sabotage is on this, so it’s going to be difficult to get past that, but the aforementioned Sure Shot and Root Down come pretty close. It’s just a brilliant record, and is one I’ve been listening to regularly since it was released, which to my horror I’ve just discovered was 29 years ago. Fuck I’m old.

Best track, Sabotage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WHFTRArC44

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

I'd echo that Gers

Worth adding a note to put in a word for the Led Zeppelin - BBC sessions album, which is well worth a listen - https://hmv.com/store/music/cd/the-complete-bbc-sessions

My copy is about twenty years old and has two discs, where interestingly the version currently in HMV (per the link above) was a third

The first comprises recordings made during spring and summer 1969, forward almost a couple of years and the second disc is a recording made in April 1971 as part of John Peel's Rock Hour - with a few words from the man himself before the disk starts with The Immigrant Song - and has a version of That's the Way amongst other goodies

Compared with the more involved sounds laid down in albums like Houses of the Holy this feels stripped back, pure almost, the sort of rock and roll you think of being played in smoky pubs or tiny venues - certainly the 1969 recordings

I haven't listened to it for a good while - but certainly will over the next few days!

It IS rather jolly!
'Loco Live' isn't actually all that 'live' (lots of shenanigans mixing it out of all recognition as to what the gig sounded like I have read/researched)
'We're Outa Here' - suspicions of same (but still good). CJ subsequently said that although it was 'awesome to play alongside Lemmy' or some such - and who could say otherwise? - he felt the whole gig should not have featured so many 'special guests'. (Dee Dee excepted I would imagine. "It's me, this is the way I am" when he forgets the vocals to 'Love Kills')
Greatest Hits Live - rather overproduced? Decent but....a bit too polished.

Yeah, I'd def agree with you. All the sophisticated devices for changing stuff weren't really around when IA came out (obvs overdubs were but really what would be the point of it in this instance?) but I think it's a fair record of the gig. And a bl**dy good one. All the early stuff which Johnny rated so highly in his autobiography is there.
I'll be honest. I'd like to say 'I was there!!'
But I wasn't.
(I was when they played The Bowl though!!)
(I also have a vinyl copy of Tommy's last gig; May 4th '78 -or I think I have as it's in a sealed wrapper!! Wonder what that's worth...?)

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

My all time favourite live album has to be The Velvet’s 1969: The Velvet Underground Live.
It features radical reworking of their most popular tracks, and equally radical versions of some that were still to be recorded for the Loaded album. I’m Waiting For The Man for example is almost country rock, and the What Goes On stretches to almost 9 mins’, and is by far and away the better version.
It’s also quite revealing hearing Lou interacting with the audience, something he never did when I saw him live. The playing is quite extraordinary. They’d been on the road for months when this was recorded (straight from the desk on a four track recorder) and were at the top of their game. It’s often said that they never played a song the same way twice, and this album is testament to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kym3xgrEISA

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When you make your music, do you think about the man in the street? No, I've met the man in the street. He's a Ladybit.

Yep, that's pretty fuckin' awesome.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

James Brown - Live at the Apollo

No, not the latest woke comedy act on the venerable TV show, but a seminal work of art capturing James Brown (and the uncredited Famous Flames) at a point in time, from "Please, Please, Please" to "Night Train", two or three years before "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)". This was recorded in one night in late 1962 (paid for by JB himself I seem to recall) in the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It's one of several high watermarks in a quite exceptional career.

As I was growing up, there was a battered copy in the house, obviously bought by an older sibling (though I never knew, or asked, which one). It's cover, an Impressionist watercolour of the front on the theatre, with the awning declaring "Presents - In Person! The James Brown Show" still takes me back to that small council house, even now. The record was also a little battered but the sound captured on in was wild and that includes the audience! The women were going crazy! James and co. run through a medley of hits, following the standards of the Chitlin' Circuit (a string of entertainment venues featuring comedy and music by, and for, African Americans). And that meant keep it short, keep it moving, keep 'em engaged and give 'em a show they won't forget. Oh boy, does this show deliver! God, I wish I could have been there.

Best track? Well, individual tracks isn't the point. The record is only around 30 minutes long and is basically one long medley. And that's perfect. So why not just listen to the whole damn thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3hnm4Shybg&list=OLAK5uy_ncWqay8kj4z85sSpuMzIQSLCgOjkpoeEc


Updated to add:
While you're at it, watch this. James Brown & The Famous Flames, live on the T.A.M.I show 1964. Fuck me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-E0X2JxCs4

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.