Rolling Stone | TURN UP THE VOLUME

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 45 Second LP By THE BAND

Posted on September 12, 2020 by JL

12 September 2020

Band: THE BAND
Album: THE BAND – second LP
Released: 22 September 1969

ROLLING STONE wrote: “The Band were four-fifths Canadian – drummer Levon Helm was from Arkansas – but their second album is all American. Guitarist Robbie Robertson’s songs vividly evoke the country’s pioneer age (“Across the Great Divide”) and the Civil War (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”), while reflecting the fractured state of the nation in the 1960s. The Band’s long life on the road resonates in the brawn of Garth Hudson’s keyboards and Helm’s juke-joint attack. But Robertson’s stories truly live in Helm’s growl, Rick Danko’s high tenor and Richard Manuel’s spectral croon. “Somebody once said he had a tear in his voice,” Helm said
of Manuel: “Richard had one of the richest-textured voices I’d ever heard.”

“It’s easy to be a genius in your twenties. In your forties, it’s difficult.” – Robbie Robertson

Two of the many highlights (live versions taken from their famous final The Last Waltz concert – with the original line-up – in 1976 in San Francisco filmed by top director Martin Scorsese)…

– THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN –

– UP ON CRIPPLE CREEK –

Album – expanded version
(Original tracklist #1 – #12)

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THE BAND: Biography

Back sleeve

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 46 ‘LEGEND’ By BOB MARLEY

Posted on September 10, 2020 by JL

10 September 2020

Artist: Bob Marley
6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981
Album: Legend
Released: 8 May 1984

Rolling Stone: “Bob Marley said:”Reggae music is too simple for [American musicians]. You must be inside of it, know what’s happening, and why you want to play this music. You don’t just run and go play this music because you think you can make a million off it.” Ironically, this set of the late reggae idol’s greatest hits has sold in the millions worldwide. In a single disc, it captures everything that made him an international icon: his nuanced songcraft, his political message (and savvy), and – of course – the universal soul he brought to Jamaican rhythm and Rastafarian spirituality in the gunfighter ballad “I Shot the Sheriff,” the comforting swing of “No Woman, No Cry” and the holy promise of “Redemption Song.”

“If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.” – Marley

Full album…

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BOB MARLEY: All Albums

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 47 JOHN COLTRANE

Posted on September 7, 2020 by JL

7 September 2020

Artist: John Coltrane
Born in North-Carolina in 1926
Passed away in New-York in 1967
Album: A Love Supreme
Released: January 1965 – 55 years ago

Rolling Stone: “Two important things happened to John Coltrane in 1957: The saxophonist
left Miles Davis’ employ to join Thelonious Monk’s band and hit new heights in extended,
ecstatic soloing. Coltrane also kicked heroin addiction, a vital step in a spiritual awakening
that climaxed with this legendary album-long hymn of praise – transcendent music perfect
for the high point of the civil rights movement. The indelible four-note theme of the first piece, “Acknowledgment,” is the humble foundation of the suite. But Coltrane’s majestic, often violent blowing (famously described as “sheets of sound”) is never self-aggrandizing. His playing soars with nothing but gratitude and joy. You can’t help but go with him.”

Quote Coltrane: “You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.”

Full album…

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JOHN COLTRANE: Biography

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 48 Black Records Matter

Posted on September 4, 2020 by JL

4 September 2020

Band: Public Enemy
Album: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Released: 28 June 1988

Keyline: BLACK LIVES MATTER (yes, 32 years ago too, bully Trump!)

AllMusic wrote: “‘Yo! Bum Rush the Show’ was an invigorating record, but it looks like
child’s play compared to its monumental sequel, ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us
Back’, a record that rewrote the rules of what hip-hop could do. That’s not to say the album is without precedent, since what’s particularly ingenious about the album is how it reconfigures things that came before into a startling, fresh, modern sound. Public Enemy used the template Run-D.M.C. created of a rap crew as a rock band, then brought in elements of free jazz, hard funk, even musique concrète, via their producing team, the Bomb Squad, creating a dense, ferocious sound unlike anything that came before.” Score: 5/5.

Full album…

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Key tracks: Rebel Without A Cause / Don’t Believe The Hype / Bringe The Noise

– REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE –

– DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE –

– BRING THE NOISE –

Full album…

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PUBLIC ENEMY: Facebook

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 49 Here Come THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND

Posted on September 2, 2020 by JL

2 September 2020

Band: The Allman Brothers Band
Album: At Fillmore East
Released: July 1971

Rolling Stone: “Rock’s greatest live double LP is an unbeatable testimony to the Allman Brothers’ improvisational skills, as well as evidence of how they connected with audiences to make jamming feel communal. “The audience would kind of play along with us,” singerorganist Gregg Allman said of the March 1971 shows documented here. “They were right on top of every single vibration coming from the stage.” The dazzling guitar team of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts was at its peak, seamlessly fusing blues and jazz in “Whipping Post” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” But their telepathy was interrupted: Just three months after the album’s release, Duane died in a motorcycle accident.”

Gregg Allman: “I said, other people can write songs, let’s see if I can. So the first
400 or 500 wound up on the floor somewhere. Then I wrote one called Melissa.”

Full album….

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THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND: Biography

Back sleeve

50 Greatest ROLLING STONE Albums Of All Time – No 50 LITTLE RICHARD

Posted on September 1, 2020 by JL

1 September 2020

Artist: Little Richard
Album: Here’s Little Richard – his debut LP
Released: 4 March 1957
Score: #13 in the USA

Rolling Stone:“I came from a family where my people didn’t like rhythm & blues,” Little Richard told Rolling Stone in 1970. “Bing Crosby, ‘Pennies From Heaven,’ Ella Fitzgerald was all I heard. And I knew there was something that could be louder than that, but didn’t know where to find it. And I found it was me.” Richard’s raucous 1957 debut album collected singles such as “Rip It Up” and “Long Tall Sally,” in which his rollicking boogie-woogie piano and falsetto scream ignited the unfettered possibilities of rock & roll. “Tutti Frutti” still contains what has to be considered the most inspired rock lyric ever recorded: “A wop bop alu bop, a wop bam boom!”

Keyline: “Wop-bop-a-loom-a-blop-bam-boom.”

Key bang: Tutti Frutti…