Hifi Pig

This little known album was recorded at Universal Studios in 1993 in front of a live audience and was produced by David Briggs.  It is part of the extremely popular MTV unplugged series and was released on Reprise records in the aforementioned year.

Obviously, Mr. Young needs no real introduction, and his contributions to popular music are almost unparalleled along with The Stones, The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

As the title suggests, this album is acoustic, featuring Nils Lofgren (E Street Band) on guitar and accordion, legendary session player Ben Keith on Dobro, Spooner Oldham (Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, The Box Tops) on piano and keyboards, Tim Drummond (An almost endless list of appearances on blues and soul luminaries’ albums), Oscar Butterworth on drums and Astrid Young and Nicolette Larson on backing vocals.  So with such a star studded cast, you’d expect an excellent recording.  However, it has been well documented that Young was unhappy with most of the performances on the night and was reluctant to release the album.  I can’t hear any lackluster performances myself, but you can clearly hear Young’s tension at times. More »

This album made very little impact upon its release but has since become regarded as a classic example of late ’60s psychedelia.  Part of the reason it was largely ignored is that it contained a fair degree of negativity about the musical status quo and predicted the violent demise of the hippy counter-culture at events like the infamously chaotic Altamont festival in 1970.

Love was one of the first successful mixed race pop groups with Arthur Lee (March 7, 1945 – August 3, 2006) contributing most of the song writing.  Internal tensions within the band meant that Forever Changes was the last album they would record with the classic line-up (indeed all members but Lee departed after this album was recorded).   The uncomfortable mood in the recording studio is evident upon listening to the album.  The band at this point were not commercially successful and were playing music unlikely to appeal to a black audience.  “When I did that album,” commented Arthur Lee, “I thought I was going to die at that particular time, so those were my last words.”  He was referring to the lyrics in “The Red Telephone” which included:

“Sitting on a hillside

Watching all the people die

I’ll feel much better on the other side.” More »

Originally called Flowers, Icehouse quickly called themselves by the name of their debut album.  And it is much cooler…in more ways than one.   Their Early work from the late ’70s is firmly rooted in pub-rock and punk, they cut their teeth relentlessly gigging and playing covers of popular punk tracks, before including more original material which culminated in the Flowers-  Icehouse record.  Their early commitment to live performances certainly paid off as the debut was very well received and the band barely looked back after that, becoming one of Australia’s most popular bands of all time.  Indeed a struggling little band called INXS used to open for them!

Man Of Colours is an entirely different kettle of fish to Icehouse.   The band had all but ditched their punk sound in favour of a catchy synth pop direction (with the exception of “Nothing Too Serious”).  Of course there were several years and albums between the two so you can’t be too critical of them for moving with the times.  As it turns out it was a brilliant career move anyway as this album is by far their most popular;  it debuted at number one on the Australian Album Charts and stayed there for eleven weeks, produced the band’s only number one single in “Electric Blue” and sold in excess of 700,000 copies. More »

Electric Ladyland  is the third and final studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, featuring Jimi himself, Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums.  The quintessential American power trio.

It was released in 1968 on Reprise records and was recorded at Olympic Studios, London.  It was initially produced by Chas Chandler who quit mid-session after heated disagreements with Hendrix, the latter becoming the credited producer for the entire album.

The album kicks off with ‘And The Gods Made Love’ a tripped out noise/ambient piece which segues into ‘Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)’.  ‘Crosstown Traffic’ follows.  A track we are all familiar with, which is included on all the best of compilations.

Things really get going with ‘Voodoo Child’.  A 15 minute blues tour de force showcasing Jimi’s amazing guitar and arrangement talents.  It is at this early point in the album that you are clubbed over the head with the realization that you are listening to a genius at the height of his powers.  The production really begins to shine here too, giving the illusion of a live performance.  It was recorded in one take, jam-style but in the studio, with the only “audience” being studio employees and band roadies who provide the applause.

It’s sorely tempting for this reviewer to analyze every single song on the album, however this is impractical and frankly, frowned upon by the music press. It is sometimes unfortunate, especially regarding an album like this, where every song is blessed with brilliant qualities. More »

This is CSN&Y’s debut album.  There was one previously released without Young, titled simply “Crosby, Stills and Nash”.  It was self produced and was released on the Atlantic record label to universal acclaim.  Young became an inconsistently floating fourth member of the group due to unfortunate mutual acrimony with the other three members.

The first thing that strikes you about this album are the magnificent vocal harmonies, giving the Beach Boys and Queen a run for their money!  All four members are terrific singers and they combine with each other brilliantly.  The second thing that grabs your attention is the very countrified style of the album which set the benchmark for the soft/country rock explosion of the early seventies.  There are plenty of rock tracks present throughout though, like the epically sprawling “Almost Cut My Hair”

This is a mostly laid back and relaxing album and cameos from Jerry Garcia (guitar) and John Sebastian (harmonica) only add to the star studded country rock grooves.  This record is also noteworthy for the fact that all four members wrote some songs individually and some collaboratively, giving the album a varied yet consistent vibe.  The one exception is “Woodstock” which was written by Joni Mitchell. More »

Chester and Lester was a collaborative project between Chet Atkins and Les Paul.  The project only delivered two albums and this is the second following on from the eponymous debut two years previous.  Released on RCA records, it was produced by Bob Fergusson.

Guitar aficionados will doubtless be familiar with messrs Atkins and Paul and much credit must go to Atkins who dragged Paul out of his self imposed decade long retirement to once again give us the gift of his sublime talents.

The album is almost entirely instrumental save for the offhand and light-hearted banter between the two guitarists between tracks and Chet providing a half sung, half spoken comedic tribute to Les on “I’m Your Greatest Fan” which Les reciprocates in kind.  ”Give My Love To Nell” also features a few country-tinged vocal harmonies. More »