What makes an impressive debut album? A million copies sold? Hit singles? Your face on the cover of Rolling Stone? Having fans and critics stand up and take notice. Lasting impact. The start of something greater. These are ones that are familiar to me. This list is certainly not inclusive and is obviously just my … More Impressive Debut Albums
The job of the drummer is to drive the train. The exceptional drummers do so taking you on a journey you’ve never traveled. The best grooves get your attention, but aren’t showy. Yes, drummers can be self-indulgent with exaggerated playing, tiresome soloing and drum kits that need their own zip code. It’s very difficult for … More Best Drum Grooves
Sometimes music grows on you. That was never how I operated. If it did not hit me pretty quickly, I moved on. Over the decades, I have passed on a number of decent, and sometimes very popular albums because something did not click. On occasion, these albums became hugely popular, always on the radio, which … More Give It Another Listen
What a great mix of musical styles. Pop, rock, heavy metal, R&B, blues. This was the singer-songwriter era too, the laidback Southern California sound. Carole King would have the largest selling album with Tapestry, the touchstone for the singer-songwriter generation. Other landmark albums were: Led Zeppelin IV, Fragile, Who’s Next, Sticky Fingers, Aqualung, What’s Going … More 1971: Music From 50 Years Ago
I got this idea from fellow blogger Larry Graves, who regularly gives his YouTube followers a choice between two stacks of CDs. So, I thought, what they hey, I’ll try it too. I will list the contents of each stack of CDs, with a comparable quality of CDs. The idea is to make the choice … More Which Stack of CDs?
If you follow this blog, you know I make a lot of lists. The thing about lists is it makes you choose and justify in your own mind. My colleague Peter said he took a cue from one of my blogs and developed a list of 10 songs he would enjoy if stuck on a … More Ten Desert Island Songs
I’ve written about Emerson Lake and Palmer a couple of times. Below is what I said about Works, Volume 1: Works Volume 1 (1977), Each member took an album side with the fourth side being a group effort. Keith Emerson wrote a piano concerto, Greg Lake composed a series of ballads, and Carl Palmer created some … More Emerson Lake & Palmer: Works Vol. 1 (1977)
An exciting genre of music enjoyed a tremendous popularity from the late 1960’s through the 1970’s, but even stalwarts like Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and Renaissance either changed their style or broke up. Progressive rock didn’t die, it soldiered on but with less popularity as waves of new musical style … More Progressive Rock: Coming in for a Landing
Emerson, Lake and Palmer had a really good decade together and then ran out of steam in 1979. Their album, Love Beach, was the nadir of their time together, recorded to fulfill their recording contract, it was absent of the creativity and energy that made them a trendsetting and popular band. For the next thirty … More ELP at 40
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