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Saturday 18 November 2023

The Best Years of Our Lives (Deluxe Version) Album • Steve Harley • 1975

The Best Years of Our Lives is the third studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1975. It was the first album to feature Harley's name ahead of the band's (the band was previously known as Cockney Rebel). The album was produced by Harley and Alan Parsons, and contains the band's only UK number one, the million-selling "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)".[

Timeless Flight Album • Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel • 1976

Timeless Flight is the fourth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was written and produced by Steve Harley.

Love's a Prima Donna (1997 Remaster) Album • Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel • 1976

Love's a Prima Donna is the fifth studio album by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by EMI in 1976. It was produced by Harley, and would be the band's last album before splitting in 1977.

Thursday 27 April 2023

Flat Baroque and Berserk Album • Roy Harper • 1970

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Liege And Lief Album • Fairport Convention • 1969

Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist (Denny did not appear on the group's 1968 debut album), as well as the first to feature future long-serving personnel Dave Swarbrick and Dave Mattacks on violin/mandolin and drums, respectively, as full band members (Swarbrick had previously guested on Unhalfbricking). It is also the first Fairport album on which all songs are either adapted (freely) from traditional British and Celtic folk material (for example "Matty Groves", "Tam Lin"), or else are original compositions (such as "Come All Ye", "Crazy Man Michael") written and performed in a similar style. Although Denny and founding bass player Ashley Hutchings quit the band before the album's release, Fairport Convention has continued to the present day to make music strongly based within the British folk rock idiom, and are still the band most prominently associated with it.

The album was moderately successful, peaking at number 17 on the UK Albums Chart during a 15-week run. It is often credited, though the claim is sometimes disputed, as the first major "British folk rock" album (this term is not to be confused with American-style folk rock, which had first achieved mainstream popularity on both sides of the Atlantic with the Byrds' early work several years prior). The popularity of Liege & Lief did a great deal to establish the new style commercially and artistically as a distinct genre. In an audience vote at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2006, the album was voted "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time". It was voted number 254 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).

Saturday 22 April 2023

Van Morrison (Playlist)

Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.

As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish showbands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria".

Under the pop-oriented guidance of Bert Berns, Morrison's solo career began in 1967 with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl". After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. Moondance (1970) established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances.

Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and early rhythm and blues. An equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as the album Astral Weeks. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul". His live performances have been described as "transcendental" and "inspired", and his music as attaining "a kind of violent transcendence".

Morrison's albums have performed well in Ireland and the UK, with more than 40 reaching the UK top 40. He has scored top ten albums in the UK in four consecutive decades, following the success of 2021's Latest Record Project, Volume 1. Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. Since turning 70 in 2015, he has released - on average - more than an album a year. He has received two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.

Journey (Playlist)

Journey is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1973 by former members of Santana, Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch. The band currently consists of guitarist/vocalist Neal Schon (the longest-serving original member), keyboardists/vocalists Jonathan Cain and Jason Derlatka, drummer/vocalist Deen Castronovo, bassist Todd Jensen, and lead vocalist Arnel Pineda.

Journey had their biggest commercial success between 1978 and 1987, when Steve Perry was lead vocalist; they released a series of hit songs, including "Don't Stop Believin'" (1981), which in 2009 became the top-selling track in iTunes history among songs not released in the 21st century. Escape, Journey's seventh and most successful album, reached number one on the Billboard 200 and yielded another of their most popular singles, "Open Arms". The 1983 follow-up album, Frontiers, was almost as successful in the United States, reaching number two and spawning several successful singles; it broadened the band's appeal in the United Kingdom, where it reached number six on the UK Albums Chart. Journey enjoyed a successful reunion in the mid-1990s and have since regrouped twice; first with Steve Augeri from 1998 to 2006, then with Arnel Pineda from 2007 to the present.

Sales have resulted in 25 gold and platinum albums, in addition to the 15-time platinum RIAA Diamond Certified, 1988's Greatest Hits album. They have had 19 top-40 singles in the US (the second-most without a Billboard Hot 100 number-one single behind Electric Light Orchestra with 20), six of which reached the top 10 of the US chart and two of which reached number one on other Billboard charts, and a number-six hit on the UK Singles Chart in "Don't Stop Believin'". In 2005, "Don't Stop Believin'" reached number three on iTunes downloads. Originally a progressive rock band, Journey was described by AllMusic as having cemented a reputation as "one of America's most beloved (and sometimes hated) commercial rock/pop bands" by 1978, when they redefined their sound by embracing pop arrangements on their fourth album, Infinity.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Journey has sold 48 million albums in the US, making them the 25th-best selling band. Their worldwide sales have reached over 100 million records globally, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time. A 2005 USA Today opinion poll named Journey the fifth-best US rock band in history.[14][15] Their songs have become arena rock staples and are still played on rock radio stations around the world. Journey ranks number 96 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Journey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the class of 2017. Inductees included lead singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon, keyboardists Jonathan Cain and Gregg Rolie, bassist Ross Valory, and drummers Aynsley Dunbar and Steve Smith.

England Dan & John Ford Coley (Playlist)

England Dan & John Ford Coley were an American soft rock duo composed of Danny Wayland "England Dan" Seals and John Edward "John Ford" Coley, active throughout the 1970s. Native Texans, they are best known for their 1976 single "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight", a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and a No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit. After they disbanded, Seals began performing as Dan Seals and launched a country music career through the 1980s which produced 11 No. 1 country hits.

Friday 21 April 2023

Bridge Over Troubled Water Album • Simon & Garfunkel • 1970

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released in January 1970 on Columbia Records. Following the duo's soundtrack for The Graduate, Art Garfunkel took an acting role in the film Catch-22, while Paul Simon worked on the songs, writing all tracks except Felice and Boudleaux Bryant's "Bye Bye Love" (previously a hit for the Everly Brothers).

With the help of producer Roy Halee, the album followed a similar musical pattern as their Bookends LP, partly abandoning their traditional style to incorporate elements of rock, R&B, gospel, jazz, world music, pop and other genres. It was described as their "most effortless record and their most ambitious".

Bridge Over Troubled Water was released on January 26, 1970, and several re-releases followed. The album was mixed and released in both stereo and quadraphonic. Columbia Records released a 40th Anniversary Edition on March 8, 2011, which includes two DVDs, including the politically themed TV special Songs of America (1969), the documentary The Harmony Game, additional liner notes and a booklet. Other reissues contain bonus tracks, such as the 2001 version, which covers the demo tapes of "Feuilles-O" and "Bridge over Troubled Water". Contemporary critical reception to Bridge was initially mixed, but retrospective reviews of the album have been laudatory, and it is considered by many to be the duo's best album.

Despite numerous accolades, the duo decided to split up, and parted company later in 1970; Garfunkel continued his film career, while Simon worked intensely with music. Both artists released solo albums in the following years. Bridge includes two of the duo's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful songs, "Bridge over Troubled Water" and "The Boxer", which were listed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Critically and commercially successful, the album topped the charts in over ten countries and received two Grammy Awards, plus four more for the title song. The album sold around 25 million records; making it at the time of release the best-selling album of all time. It has been ranked on several lists, including at number 172 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Intensified Album • Desmond Dekker & The Aces • 2018

Intensified is an album by Desmond Dekker & the Aces released in 1970.