Posts

Bob Weir - "Heaven Help The Fool" (1978) and "Bobby & The Midnites" (1981)

Bob Weir, the guitarist and vocalist who co-founded the Grateful Dead in 1965, has died at age 78. Weir reportedly overcame cancer, but then died from underlying lung issues. Weir had certainly kept himself busy for 60 years, doing plenty of touring from the time he was a teenager until his final years. Even after the demise of the Dead in 1995, Weir had toured and recorded with numerous bands, some of whom featured other former members of the Dead. And when the Grateful Dead went on hiatus during their existence, Weir would then also find time to work with other bands, or record solo albums. Weir's second solo recording, Heaven Help The Fool from 1978, is currently unavailable. Heaven Help The Fool was produced by Keith Olsen, who had recently worked with the Dead on their 1977 Terrapin Station album. Six of the eight songs on Heaven Help The Fool were co-written by Weir and sometime Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow. Weir was supported by such musicians as Waddy Wachtel, To...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Wilco, Jeff Tweedy, Daniel Johnston "dBpm 15" (2025 Record Store Day Black Friday LP)

Image
For Record Store Day Black Friday 2025, the dBpm music label -- founded by the band Wilco in 2011 -- issued an LP titled dBpm 15 , to mark the 15th year of the label's operation. The LP was limited to 3,400 copies, and was pressed in red vinyl. The LP contained 12 tracks, mostly rarities from the label's history, some of them previously unreleased. Seven of the tracks were recorded by Wilco, while four were Jeff Tweedy solo recordings. Also, it included a track which Tweedy recorded with the late Daniel Johnston. This compilation is not likely to make a household name of the dBpm label, but it certainly does Wilco proud. Their seven tracks are good ones, including a newfangled Neil Young-like ballad recorded in 2010 ("Art of Almost"), a dreamy retro-'60's folk-rocker ("Tell Your Friends"), a gentle country-rock Beatles cover ("Don't Let Me Down"), a quirky Sleater-Kinney cover ("Modern Girl"), and a live alt-country track re...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Keith & Donna (Godchaux) - 1975 album

Image
Donna Jean Godchaux, who was best known for singing with the Grateful Dead from 1972 until 1979, recently passed away at age 78 after battling cancer. Donna joined the Grateful Dead as a backup singer shortly after her late husband Keith Godchaux became the band's keyboardist in 1971. Keith's keyboard playing shifted the Dead in a different musical direction than before, as his influences were based on jazz and classical styles, in contrast to his predecessor Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, whose style was more blues-based. Donna certainly added something different to the Dead as well, having been their only official female member ever. Donna had previously worked as a studio session vocalist, notably having sung on Elvis' "Suspicious Minds" and Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman". Despite her impressive credentials, Donna was not a great fit for the Grateful Dead, especially during their live shows, where her vocal pitch (and occasional waili...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Mariah Carey's "secret grunge album": Chick - "Someones Ugly Daughter" (1995)

Image
While promoting her new studio album Here For It All , pop legend Mariah Carey has been answering questions about a "secret grunge album" that she recorded way back in 1995, under the pseudonym Chick. This is not the first time Carey has mentioned this long-lost recording, but she largely avoided talking about it publicly for 25 years after the fact. In her 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey , the singer finally began to share details about the alternative rock recording. More recently, Carey spoke with fellow r&b artist SZA on the debut episode of Apple Music's Flowers , during which SZA played snippets of two songs from the unreleased album and begged Carey to release it, saying, "We need it!". On The Tonight Show , Carey told Jimmy Fallon that she has "always regretted not putting it out", and Fallon played a snippet of the song "Prom Queen". Questlove went as far as to call it Carey's best record! Carey has teased a possibl...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Smashing Pumpkins "Machina II / The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music" (2000)

Image
An expanded edition of the Smashing Pumpkins album Machina / The Machines of God from the year 2000 is being sold exclusively through Billy Corgan's Madame ZuZu's website , in a limited-edition pressing of 3,500 units. The shipping date was set for today, September 5, 2025. As of this writing, the set is not yet available digitally, or in any other format through any other distributors. Subtitled as the Aranea Alba Edition , the 8-LP box set contains a staggering 80 tracks, 48 of them making up the full Machina album in the form which Corgan had originally envisioned, along with 32 bonus tracks. Where did all of those tracks come from? The original Machina CD issued in 2000 consisted of just 15 tracks. Corgan's original plan was to release Machina as a 2-CD set, like the earlier Pumpkins classic Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness . But the folks at Virgin Records did not think this idea was feasible, after the band's 1998 album Adore was considered a commerci...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Billy Joel "Cold Spring Harbor" - original 1971 album mix

Image
Before Billy Joel was signed to Columbia Records and recorded his well-known 1973 Piano Man album, he issued his debut solo recording titled Cold Spring Harbor on the Family Productions label in late 1971. This album did not sell well, falling just short of making it to the Billboard Top 200 album chart. The album's failure was blamed on the Family label owner Artie Ripp, who produced the album and mixed it at the wrong speed, giving Joel's now-famous voice an unnaturally high-pitched effect. Joel disowned the album, and tried (for a long time unsuccessfully) to get out of his recording contract with Ripp. Ten years later, Joel recorded live versions of two of the album's songs for his 1981 live release Songs In The Attic , namely "She's Got A Way" and "Everybody Loves You Now", and the former became a Top 40 hit. The Cold Spring Harbor album was then remixed by Ripp and Larry Elliot, and the remixed version of the album was issued by Columbia in...
1 comment
Keep reading

Terry Reid "Seed Of Memory" (1976)

Terry Reid passed away earlier this month at the age of 75, after being treated for cancer. Ironically, the late British singer and guitarist was best known for what he did not do: he turned down an invitation by Jimmy Page to be the lead singer for Led Zeppelin -- and, in fact, Reid was the one who recommended Robert Plant for the job. Reid also was invited by Ritchie Blackmore to front Deep Purple in 1969, but also turned that offer down, before Ian Gillan got the job as that band's second -- and most famous -- frontman. Reid began his career as a late-period member of Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers. The Yardbirds were one of several high-profile British bands whom the Jaywalkers toured with. If you listen to the 2-CD U.K. Reid compilation Super Lungs from 2004 (not to be confused with the less satisfying 1-CD U.S. compilation Superlungs from 2005), you will understand why Page wanted Reid to join the New Yardbirds. On those early recordings, Reid's high tenor vocals show...
Post a Comment
Keep reading

Hackensack: "Moving On" (1972 single) and later releases

Image
The recent passing of Mick Ralphs, the founding guitarist of Bad Company and Mott The Hoople, has brought my attention to a 1972 single by a band called Hackensack. This band was from England, not from New Jersey, and their sound was an early form of heavy metal. Their '72 single was "Moving On", the Ralphs composition which would later be recorded by Bad Company as "Movin' On". The lead guitarist for Hackensack was Ray Smith, later known as Ray Major, who would later become a member of a post-Ralphs, post-Ian Hunter lineup of Mott. Hackensack's lead vocalist was Nicky Moore, who would go on to replace Bruce Dickinson in Samson a decade later. Hackensack had toured with Mott The Hoople during that band's 1972 Rock 'n' Roll Circus tour, which is presumably how they came to record "Moving On" before Bad Company was formed. Ralphs had written the song -- about the pressures of touring -- for Mott, and that band did record the song in...
Post a Comment
Keep reading