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Roxy Music

Glam rock and punk rock were two opposing forces in the 1970s. On their debut album, Roxy Music took it as a challenge to meld the two into a cohesive collection of songs, the likes of no one had heard before. The result was pure brilliance.

Oil and vinegar can not be mixed together homogeneously, yet they can be combined into something incredible. Roxy Music’s first album combines the slick oil of glam and art rock with the piss and vinegar of punk to make an incredible album that satisfies and stimulates the auditory to the same effect of a good olive oil and Balsamic vinegar to the palate. Great in itself, but also an excellent foundation to be built upon with things to come.

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The Tragically Hip – Trouble At The Henhouse

Being the most popular doesn’t necessarily make you the best. Being real and true to yourself does. The Tragically Hip were the best Canadian band ever.

The Tragically Hip never compromised their music for commercial success, yet found great success in the great white north. Making music that is real and true is what The Hip were always all about. From 1989 to 2016, The Tragically Hip were Canada’s rock and roll ambassadors to the world. Even though they gave their last performance in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario in 2016 – a televised performance viewed live by a third of all Canadians – they are still considered by many to be the band that best defines Canada today. Gord Downie, who was taken from us way too soon by brain cancer, was a lyricist who was quite possibly the most prolific Canadian poet ever.

“Trouble at the Henhouse” is one of my favorite albums by The Tragically Hip; my all-time favorite Canadian band. It is their 6th of 14 albums, all of which are in my vinyl collection.

The guitar hanging in the background was signed by all the members of The Hip. I asked Gord Downie to put some words of wisdom on it. He wrote:

“Play to live. Das Hips”.

‘Nuff said.

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Genesis

If a rock band ever releases a self-titled album, it’s usually their first record. For Genesis, it was their 12th.

Genesis released their debut album in 1969. Their eponymous LP came out in 1983. Like most bands with that longevity, there were many personnel changes through the years. Many were so significant, most other bands would have just dissolved. But 14 years later, Genesis forged on as a three-piece band. An ensemble that consisted of all original founding members. That’s quite the exception in rock and roll.

With its combination of progressive excess and pop sensibility “Genesis” was a huge success for the band, hitting number one in the UK and earning them a Grammy award for Best Rock Performance in the US. Of the nine songs on the album, five were released as successful singles.

The standout song on this album to me will always be the opener “Mama”. It is a perfect combination of where Genesis had started, where they had been, and where they were in 1983.

Although its hard for me to say for sure, this may very well be my favorite Genesis album.

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Carly Simon – Anticipation

The title track to Carly Simon’s second album, “Anticipation”, was written about her longing for the arrival of Cat Stevens, whom Simon was dating in 1971. It’s a beautiful love song…but it also reminds me of ketchup.

About two years after the release of the single and album of the same name, Heinz chose to use “Anticipation” as the theme for a series of television commercials where it alluded to a longing for the arrival of their thick, slow-moving ketchup. Yeah, not quite as romantic as I’m sure Simon originally intended (at least I hope not) but the ads were so successful and aired so often throughout the 1970s that I bet most who grew up in that era still think more of ketchup than love when they hear Carly Simon sing “Anticipation”. But when you disconnect that memory and listen to the song as if Heinz ketchup never existed, it really is a beautiful testament to love and longing. The rest of the songs on the album were equally introspective musings about love and life. Beautiful songs that almost everyone can relate to; something common to all of Carly Simon’s songs. Fortunately, “Anticipation” is the only one that may be forever remembered as an ode to ketchup.

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The Waitresses – Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?

The Waitresses were best known for their quirky 1982 new wave hit “I Know What Boys Want”. Anyone who never checked them out beyond their one hit wonder status, has no idea what they are missing.

Quirky, sure. But The Waitresses were also about intelligent, multifaceted arrangements and musicianship that had every bit as much in common with the CBGB crowd in New York as it did with the virtuosic eclecticism of Frank Zappa.

The Waitresses released a couple of albums following “Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?” Unfortunately neither contained the magic combination of what they accomplished on their debut. An album I rank as one of the top ten albums from the 1980’s.

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Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II

I wonder if when Bob Dylan released his first greatest hits compilation in 1967 he ever imagined that four years later he would release a second collection, or that it would be a double LP.

Actually, if you consider actual hits, “Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II” could have easily been a single album, but I don’t think anyone complained. Interspersed with his well-known, often played on the radio songs, are an additional album’s worth of songs that were either deep cuts hand-picked by Dylan or previously unreleased songs. It made for a wonderful collection that combines both Dylan’s early, strictly acoustic folk music and his later more electrified rock songs, and all points between…and of course, his greatest hits.

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The Patti Smith Group – Easter

The Patti Smith Group may sound to some like an odd opening act for Bob Seger, but in early 1977 it kind of made sense, with her trying to without compromise, broaden her sound to a more mainstream audience. Unfortunately, Patti Smith broke her neck and nearly died during the second show of that tour. She fortunately recovered, but would have to wait until her next album, “Easter”, and for a little help from Bruce Springsteen to find that no-compromise crossover success.

It was January 26 when Patti Smith tripped over a stage monitor, plunging 15 feet onto a concrete floor in the orchestra pit at the front of the Tampa Florida stage. She cracked two vertebrae and had to get over 20 stitches to her head and face after the fall. The incident took her out of action for almost a year. I’m surprised it wasn’t longer.

After therapy following her neck surgery after the accident, Patti Smith and her group returned to the studio to record her third album “Easter”. Although the songs were a diverse mix between punk and mainstream rock, there was no potential that Smith’s record label felt were a breakthrough single. That is, until the album’s producer, Jimmy Iovine, turned Smith on to a song Bruce Springsteen had written but thrown away; a song that both Smith and her label found common ground on.

“Because the Night” became the no-compromise crossover that both Patti Smith and her record label were looking for. The song became the group’s biggest hit. “Easter” became The Patti Smith Group’s best-selling album.

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Bob Seger – Beautiful Loser

By 1975, Bob Seger had put together a group of top-notch Detroit area musicians to back him up. The album “Beautiful Loser” was the first appearance of the Silver Bullet Band on a Bob Seger record, though they played on only one song.

The other songs were performed by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, session musicians affiliated with the Alabama recording studio where Seger recorded all the songs on “Beautiful Loser”.

Even though The Silver Bullet Band appear only on “Nutbush City Limits”, a cover of an Ike and Tina Turner song, they became Seger’s touring band and backing band on his most successful albums, including “Live Bullet” and “Night Moves”.

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War – Why Can’t We Be Friends?

SoCal funk. A style that fuses funk with Latin music, R&B beats and rock into an addictive upbeat soulful stew. That was War. The song “Low Rider” from their 1975 album “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” is a perfect example. Really, the whole album is.

This album is so funky and upbeat, I don’t know how anyone can listen to it and not be left in a good mood, with its songs bouncing around in their head the rest of the day.

Not surprisingly “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” Hit the top spot on Billboard’s R&B charts. It was also nominates for two Grammy awards.

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Paul McCartney and Wings – Band On The Run

It took a few tries for Paul McCartney to record a suitable follow-up album for his tenure with The Beatles but with “Band on the Run”, he nailed it. It’s not that McCartney’s first two solo albums or his next two as part of Wings were bad records. They just weren’t in step with what critics or Beatles fans wanted from him.

Expectations were high for McCartney following the Beatles’ split and personally, I think with his first four records, he tried too hard to live up to what was expected rather than make albums that he wanted to make. By the time it came around to write and record “Band on the Run” Paul McCartney had nothing to lose, so he stopped trying to please outside of himself and just did what felt right. Now, this is nothing more than my personal opinion based on nothing more than having listened to all these albums numerous times. In other words, I’m probably totally wrong. But until someone proves I am, I’m claiming that’s the way it was.

The one thing I know to be true though, is that after the break-up of the Beatles, “Band on the Run” was the album where Paul McCartney finally nailed it.