Back in time

BLACK SABBATH Released Their 2nd LP ‘PARANOID’ In The US 55 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

7 January 2026

Metal pioneers BLACK SABBATH released their 2nd LP, titled
PARANOID in the US, this day 55 years ago, on 7 January 1971.

The longplayer was originally titled War Pigs, but the record company allegedly
changed it out of fear of a backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War.

The front cover, with the original title in mind, was designed and shot by Keith McMillan
in Black Park, Buckinghamshire. His assistant, Roger Brown, was the weirdo with the sword. It was a choice by Vertigo Records with the potential visual and commercial impact in mind, and was designed by Tony Iommi.

Ozzy: “What the fuck does a bloke dressed as a pig with a sword in his hand
got to do with being paranoid, I don’t know, but they decided to change the
album title without changing the artwork.”

It featured 3 of their epic hammers, Paranoid,
War Pigs (highly relevant again) and Iron Man.

The LP peaked at #4 in the UK and hit the top spot in the US.

Rolling Stone Magazine said in a retrospective review: “Sabbath ruled for bummed-out
kids in the Seventies, and nearly every heavy-metal and extreme rock band of the last three decades, including Metallica, Nirvana and Slipknot, owes a debt of worship to Iommi’s crushing” guitar riffs, Ward and Butler’s visigoth rhythm section and Osbourne’s agonized bray.”

TITLE TRACK
More than 1,542 billion
streams on Spotify.

Geezer Butler: “‘Paranoid’ was about depression, because I didn’t really know the difference between depression and paranoia. It’s a drug thing; when you’re smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can’t relate to people. There’s that crossover between the paranoia you get when you’re smoking dope and the depression afterwards.”

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BOB DYLAN Released His 17th LP ‘DESIRE’ 50 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

5 January 2026

Living, 84-year-old, singer-songwriter icon BOB DYLAN released one of his
best longplayers in his illustrious career, with DESIRE, on 5 January 1976,
today 50 years ago.

Seven of the songs were co-written with Jacques Levy.

It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart for five weeks, becoming
one of his best-selling LPs, and was certified double Platinum. It reached
No. 3 in the UK.

It’s one of Dylan‘s most collaborative efforts, featuring the same caravan of
musicians as the acclaimed Rolling Thunder Revue tours the previous year.


Back sleeve

Rolling Stone said: “Love songs aren’t the focus of Desire, which is one of the things
that differentiates it from Dylan‘s other post-rock work. On the best songs, he returns
to the fantastic images, weird characters and absurdist landscapes of the Sixties.”

The record opened with the single Hurricane.

A song about the imprisonment of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter (1937–2014).
It describes acts of racism and profiling against Carter, which led to a flawed trial
and a murder conviction that was eventually overturned.

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EMMYLOU HARRIS – Country Shero Released Her Third Album ‘ELITE HOTEL’ Today 50 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

29 December 2025

Country shero EMMYLOU HARRIS (aged 78 now) released
her classic third LP ELITE HOTEL on 29 December 1975,
today 50 years ago.

It topped the US Country Albums Chart.

AllMusic said in retrospective review: “In addition to the usual eclectic mix
of covers — which includes the Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere” and Hank
Williams’ “Jambalaya” this time out — Elite Hotel offers renditions of the country
perennials “Together Again” and “Sweet Dreams,” which were, respectively, Harris’
first two number one chart hits.”

The album featured her first 2 No. 1 singles. Together Again and Sweet Dreams.

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Still touring.

UK/Europe 2026

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PARLIAMENT Released Their Classic LP ‘MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION’ Today 50 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

15 December 2025

PARLIAMENT was a musical team formed in 1968 by colorful
funk icon George Clinton (aged 84 now), as a flagship act of
his P-Funk collective.

Clinton is regarded, along with James Brown and Sly Stone, as one of the foremost innovators of funk music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic. In 2019, he and Parliament-Funkadelic were given Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Today 50 years ago, on 15 December 1975, Parliament
released their 4th LP, titled MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION.

Clinton: “We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in,
like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn’t think black people would be
was in outer space.

I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang.”

Rolling Stone Magazine wrote: “It’s a parody of modern funk. Unlike the Ohio Players or Commodores, the group refuses to play it straight. Instead, Clinton spews his jive, conceived from some cosmic funk vision.”

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THE CLASH Released Triple Album ‘SANDINISTA!’ 45 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

12 December 2025

Punk icons THE CLASH released their 4th LP, a triple one, called
SANDINISTA! today 45 years ago, on 12 December 1980.

#19 in the UK, #24 in the US, #3 in Canada

The longplayer(s) crossed various genres including funk, reggae, jazz, gospel, rockabilly, folk, dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, disco, and rap. For the first time, the band’s songs were credited to The Clash as a group, rather than to Joe Strummer and Mick Jones.

The band agreed to a decrease in album royalties
in order to release the 3-LP at a low price.

Rolling Stone said: “The Clash drop the big one.
To hell with Clash style, there’s a world out there.”

Mick Jones: “I always saw it as a record for people who were, like, on oil rigs.
Or Arctic stations. People that weren’t able to get to the record shops regularly.”

Joe Strummer: “It was triply outrageous”.

KEY SINGLE

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JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND Released Their Debut LP 55 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

11 December 2025

JOHN LENNON had his first solo LP, following the split of The Beatles out today 55 years ago, on 11 December 1970. The album was credited to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

It went to #8 in the UK, #6 in the US,
#1 in Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands.

Co-produced by Lennon, Ono, and Phil Spector the record contains a largely raw
production sound with songs heavily influenced by Lennon‘s recent primal therapy.
Its lyrics reflect Lennon‘s personal issues and include themes of child-parent
abandonment and psychological suffering.

Creem (legendary American rock magazine said: “It’s totally enthralling to see
that Lennon has once again unified, to some degree, his life and his music into a
truly whole statement”

John Lennon: “You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway.
You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you,
mate.”

Yoko Ono: “My husband John Lennon was a very special man. A man of humble
origin, he brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music.”

Turn Up The Volume: Lennon always was my favourite Beatle – the rocker,
the big mouth, the challenger, the dreamer, the maverick, the misfit, the open
minded musician/human – and this solo debut is his best post-Beatles work.

Singles.

– MOTHER –

– WORKING CLASS HERO –

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THE BYRDS Released Their 2nd LP ‘TURN! TURN! TURN!’ 60 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from the past

7 December 2025

Iconic nightingales THE BYRDS, by some described at the time as the American answer to the British Beatles (sorry, guys, wrong answer) released their 2nd LP ‘TURN! TURN! TURN!’ on 6 December 1965, 60 years ago.

Frontman/lead guitarist Roger McGuinn‘s contributions to songwriting increased and rhythm guitarist David Crosby received his first writing credit on a Byrds album. However, the band’s prolific songwriter Gene Clark (vocals, tambourine) still contributed most of
the original material.

It reached #17 in the US (with a run
of 40 weeks on the charts) and #11
in the UK.

The New York Times wrote: “Not so strong as the first Byrds LP,
Mr. Tambourine Man, but still an effective program of folk-rock.”

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BOB MARLEY And THE WAILERS- Their Classic ‘LIVE!’ Album Came Out 50 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

5 December 2025

The late reggae pioneer BOB MARLEY (1945-1981) and his WAILERS
had their classic and timeless praised LP LIVE! out on 5 December 1975,
today 50 years ago.

It was recorded live in July 1975 at their
2 concerts at the Lyceum Theatre, London.

Sound‘s (legendary British music weekly) photographer
Kate Simon (who shot the cover of Marley‘s 1978 album Kaya)
was at one of the concerts:

“It was like seeing someone who was as good-looking as Steve McQueen, playing with
a group that was peerless, as tight as anything you’d ever heard. And not only did you
hear this magnificent voice, but the message was one of faith, truth and doing the right
thing. To see someone who sang about principles, and did it in such a way that made
even me dance, that was quite something.”

The fantastic version on the LP of Marley‘s greatest hit NO WOMAN, NO CRY
was released as a single (more than 350 million streams on Spotify).

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Biography – Discography

THE BEATLES – Masterpiece ‘RUBBER SOUL’ Came Out 60 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

3 December 2025

THE BEATLES released one of their masterpiece LPs,
with their 6th one RUBBER SOUL, on 3 December 1965,
today 60 years ago.

Pitchfork said: “It’s arguably the most important artistic leap in the Beatles’ career,
the signpost that signalled a shift away from Beatlemania and the heavy demands
of teen pop, toward more introspective, adult subject matter.

It’s also the record that started them on their path toward the valuation of creating
studio records over live performance. If nothing else, it’s the record on which their
desire for artistic rather than commercial ambition took center stage.

A radical idea at a time when the success of popular music
was measured in sales and quantity rather than quality.”

John Lennon: “Rubber Soul was the pot album, and Revolver was acid. I mean, we
weren’t all stoned making Rubber Soul, because in those days we couldn’t work on pot.”

George Harrison: “We all think it’s just about our best LP. I can’t wait for it to
come out. The sleeve’s finished too, and the picture on the front is pretty good!”

Paul McCartney: “The effect was to stretch the perspective and elongate the faces.
We excitedly asked photographer Robert Freeman if it was possible to print the photo
this way. Being Bob, he said, ‘Yes,’ and the cover to our album Rubber Soul was decided.”

Turn Up The Volume: Every note, every chord, every hook, every vocal, every harmony
is spot-on, proving once again they were and still are the world champions of perfect pop gems. All killers, no fillers.

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THE WHO Released Their Influential Debut LP ‘MY GENERATION’ Today 60 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

3 December 2025

THE WHO released their influential debut LP MY GENERATION
on 3 December 1965, that’s 60 years ago today.

Rolling Stone Magazine said: “With its ferocious blend of grungy
distortion, rumbling bass and percussion, and brutish vocals, this album
became the blueprint for much of the subsequent garage rock, heavy metal,
and punk.

My Generation positively shoved at the boundaries of popular music.
Townshend’s fiercely original guitar experiments here predate the
innovations of his later American rival Jimi Hendrix.”

Pete Townshend: “The music we play has to be tomorrow’s,
the things we have to say have to be said today, and the reason
for bothering is yesterday.”

John Entwistle: “This band makes sure that we have whole sections of
stuff that are free form so that they don’t know what we are doing next.”

Keith Moon: “Give me a mandolin and I’ll play you rock ‘n’ roll.”

Roger Daltrey: “Rock & roll was the only thing I wanted to get into.”

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