***Rock and Roll Reminiscing-MMM***

Paul Connor

***Rock and Roll Reminiscing-MMMM***

Rock and Roll Reminiscing

07 April 2003 --- Letter Of The Week is “M”

For what this is about and some guidelines please click on the following link:

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum...=&threadid=7234

Yes, it’s a long post, but please read, if you participate.

This week we are only discussing artists whose last name, and groups whose name begin with the letter “M”.

Note: The word “The” doesn’t count, so for example “The Allman Brothers Band” belongs in the "A's" discussion and not in the “T’s” (guideline #5).

When possible, please supply complete title, format, company, year and catalog number when posting recordings.

And so our 26-week odyssey continues…

Hope you come along for the ride…

Sorry for being a day late on this. PSC

Dave Mason anyone?

shack

Montrose – Montrose – 1973 – This is a group where the debut album was terrific and the follow-ups never reached the same level. Ronnie Montrose had played with Edgar Winter for some time and he decided to form his own band. He found an unknown for lead singer by the name of Sammy Hagar. The self-titled album he made was a hard rock classic. The album starts off with “Rock The Nation” followed by “ Bad Motor Scooter”. Side 2 (for you vinyl fans) starts off with “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and “Rock Candy”. These 4 are the stars of the album but the other 4 cuts are very good also.

It’s a shame the subsequent albums are not as good as the first. They made one more album with Hagar but they went separate ways thereafter. I bought the next 3 albums hoping they would be as good as the 1st. They all have the Montrose sound but something is missing. The 2nd album Paper Money - 1974 - was a big letdown. The 3rd album Warner Brothers Presents…Montrose – 1975 - was a little better but primarily because of Ronnie Montrose’s guitar playing. Album 4 Jump On It – 1976 - is noteworthy only because of the cover (See Below)…and the band broke up after that.

shack

When we were discussing Delaney Bonnie and Friends, I said that Dave Mason may be one of the best musicians that no one had ever heard of. I know at least F1 has heard of him and maybe more. As stated, he was with Delaney Bonnie and Friends, and more notably Traffic with Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi (I always felt that these two got the lions share of the fame for the group although Mason was their equal IMO).

Dave Mason’s first album was Alone Together – 1970 – he had a little help from friends Jim Capaldi, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge to create a great album. “Only You Know And I Know”, “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave” and “Look At You, Look At Me” are very good tracks that still hold up today.

Another album I really like is self titled Dave Mason – 1975 – “Show Me Some Affection”, “Bring It On Home To Me”, “Harmony and Melody”, “You Can’t Take It When You Go” and his cover of "All Along The Watchtower” are the good tracks. All of his “friends” from the first album are gone but the new band is very good.

Split Coconut – 1975 – Dave picked up the help of Graham Nash and David Crosby for this one. “Split Coconut”, “Two Guitar Lovers” “You Can Lose It” and “Sweet Music” are nice cuts.

I would highly recommend Alone Together and Dave Mason. I like Split Coconut but it may not be for everyone.

I have been able to replace a couple of my Dave Mason albums with CDs but Dave Mason, Split Coconut and Headkeeper are out of print and I just about wore the vinyl out years ago. There are always “best of” CDs but I prefer the actual albums for artists I really like and Dave Mason falls in that category. Maybe they will be released on SACD or I will have to look for used or new old stock.

F1nut

LONNIE MACK - ATTACK OF THE KILLER V
1990 Alligator 4786 CD

If you like hard driving blues/rock with great guitar work, then this is for you. Lonnie wails on his killer V from the start to the grand finale, "Cincinnati Jail." Highly Recommended.

DELBERT McCLINTON - LIVE FROM AUSTIN
1989 Alligator 4773 CD

Another blues/rocker from Texas. While not ZZ Top, it's good and worth a listen.


shack,

That's a big, Hell Yeah, to Dave Mason. Good call.

joe6pak

MOODY BLUES!

My favorite album is one of the following: In Search of the Lost Chord, On the Threshold of a Dream, Question of Balance, Seventh Sojourn. I have those on Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs ultra gold disc. They say the remastered versions of these and their other albums from that era are very good sound wise and may be as good as the MFSL versions.

The Mamas & Papas.

They did not last long, but this group made a bunch of hits in a hurry. A #1 ( If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears) and #4 ( The Mamas & Papas ) album in 1966. A #2 album in !967, ( The Mamas and Papas Deliver ). 1966 Hit singles were Monday Monday #1, California Dreaming #4 ( I would have guessed that song to have made #1 ) I Saw Her Again #5. Big 1967 hits were Dedicated To the One I Love #2 and Words Of Love #5. This band, like so many others, burned up from the heat of money, success, and drugs.

To add to F1s Lonnie Mack recomendation, I would say that his Strike Like Lightning cd is worth a listen. SRV and Lonnie were the producers and SRV played guitar and did some singing on it. A good all around cd. I really like the songs If You Have To Know and Strike Like Lightning.

joe

shack

This is not serious R&R by any stretch of the immagination but I enjoyed these two in the early eightys.

Men At Work - Business As Usual - 1982 - "Who Can It Be Now", and Down Under" got lots of airplay and are the reason I bought the album from this Australian group. "Be Good Johnny", "Catch A Star" and "Down By The Sea" are good tracks too.

Men At Work - Cargo - 1983 - "Dr Jekyl And Mr. Jive", "Overkill" and " It's A Mistake" lead the way on this album.

I have both of these on vinyl and dont know if they are available on CD. Maybe more POP than R&R but it's something a little different in the collection.




Ok...I'll admit it. I like Sarah McLachlan. I have several of her CDs. She has a wonderful voice and her albums are musically sound. I have burned a demo disc that I use when comparing gear and speakers that has a couple of her songs because of the deep bass on them and the range of her voice. The Lilith Fair et.al has been overblown from a marketing standpoint, but I enjoyed her music before all of that BS.

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - 1993 - My favorite of the group. It leads off with three stong cuts "Possession", "Wait" and "Plenty" (the last two are my demos because of the bass). My favorite cut of the album is the last and "hidden" track. It is a piano and voice only version of "Possession".

Surfacing - 1997 - Again one of the best tracks leads off in "Building A Mystery" with other excellent tracks being "Adia" and Angel.

Mirrorball - 1999 - Nothing new here...just an album of live cuts primarily from the Liltih Fair concerts. Some better, some worse, some different from the studio tracks. If you like Sarah then you need to have this album.

Touch - 1989 and Solace - 1991 - are the last CDs I purchased. While they are good, they don't grab me like Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing. I guess her music had matured more in the latter albums. Again, if you like Sarah then these are worth the purchase price.

shack

Here is a bit of a one hit wonder:

Alannah Myles - Alannah Myles - 1989 - Her fame comes from one song only...."Black Velvet".... and a fine song it is...a sultry blues rock number that brings visual images of sexy southern girl on a hot summer night....:D This song is worth the price of the album all by itself. An therein may be a bit of a sad story...no one ever listened to the rest of the album...and that is a shame. There is one more cut similar to "Black Velvet"...a very good accoustic blues guitar number that ends the album, "Hurry Make Love". Another issue may have been that everyone expected more of the same. The rest of the album is more rock than blues with tracks like "Still Got This Thing", "Love Is", "Rock This Joint" and "If You Want To". Another nice song is "Who Loves You?" which starts out as a beautiful ballad and then breaks into some heavy rock and then alternates back and forth. I never saw anything else from her and that is too bad as I think she was fairly talented with a very nice and diverse voice. The album is pretty good and I see it at used CD stores all the time for a few bucks. If you can borrow it or buy it cheap, give it a listen and see if you like it.

joe6pak

Hmmmm. Shack, it looks like we are the only ones playing this game. Well, F1 did take a turn at bat. There are a bunch of M's out there.

Marshall Tucker Band.

Great southern rock. They put out several good albums. All I have by them is a 2 cd set called The Best Of The Marshall Tucker Band, The Capricorn Years. This set is 27 songs from their first 7 albums. God Tucker stuff.

Paul Mc Cartney.

One of the more successful singers in the M category.

joe

shack

Here is one I wholeheartedly endorse. I may have listened to this album more in the early 70s than any other rock group of the time. This was the joint effort of Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi and was a kick-****, in your face, hard rock band:

Mountain - Mountain Climbing! - 1970 - The first 5 songs on this album may be one of the best "sides" of the era. "Mississippi Queen", "Theme From An Imaginary Western", "Never In My Life", "Silver Paper" and "For Yasgur's Farm" were a great group of songs. The opening guitar riffs of "Mississippi Queen" hook you right away. It and "Never In My life" got most of the airplay but my favorite was (and still is) "Theme From An Imaginary Western". I bet I listened to that song a thousand times "back in the day". This is a classic that should be in any classic rock colletion.

Nantucket Sleighride - 1971 - was good but not to the level of the first album. The first three cuts are strong "Don't Look Around", "Taunta (Sammy's Tune)" and "Nantucket Sleighride". "The Animal Trainer And The Toad" is a nice rocker. The album is very similar to Climbing! and that may be some of it's weakness. Good...but no new ground was covered. Worth a listen for sure, but Climbing! is the one to have.

shack

Originally posted by joe6pak
Hmmmm. Shack, it looks like we are the only ones playing this game. Well, F1 did take a turn at bat. There are a bunch of M's out there. joe

joe, I agree. There is a lot of really good artists in the MMMM category. I've got several more I could post but I would like to see others jump in. COME ON IN GUYS!

joe6pak

Shack.

Maybe we should just violate the rules and post all the M's we can think of.
Of course there would be hell to pay when the Supreme Creator (tour) gets back. No telling what kind of evil graphics he would hit us with.

joe

shack

Of course there would be hell to pay when the Supreme Creator (tour) gets back. No telling what kind of evil graphics he would hit us with.

joe6pak

shack. Good one.

I gotta get me one of those.

joe

F1nut

STEVE MILLER BAND:

THE JOKER
1973 JVC XRCD 0043-2 CD

ANTHOLOGY
Vinyl

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE
Vinyl

LIVING IN THE USA
Vinyl

More or less in the pop/rock category and it seems like he's been around for ever. Has had many hits over the years including, "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash" and "Fly Like An Eagle." The "Anthology" release is a must have and I need to get it on cd.

shack, good call on Mountain. Who could forget Leslie West, a mountain of a man.

A turn at bat? joe, you're killing me

joe6pak

F1nut hits a long drive! Its going deep! It could be out of here! It is! Home run!

Steve Miller. I listened to him a lot. Fly Like an Eagle. I have that on a Mobile Fidelity Master recording LP. Incredible sounds! I was going to post him today.

joe

abmarsh

I like Molly Hatchet's first couple of albums.

Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes was a great album!

Mountain - Flowers of Evil, as well as Climbing and Nantucket Sleighride, had some really good stuff

mhw58

Paul McCartney-I'm a Beatlemaniac and also love a lot
of Paul's solo work. Ram is fantastic and Band on the
Run still sounds great. Tug of War, Flowers in the Dirt
and Flaming Pie are also very good.
Bob Marley was a genius who died far too young. Everyone
should at least own 'Legend' but Bob made a ton of great
music.
Thelonious Monk is a great jazz pianist and writer.
Madonna has written some good songs and her 'Immaculate Colection' is very good.
Don McLean's 'American Pie' is certainly a classic and he
wrote some other good songs like 'Vincent'.
You can laugh but the Monkees had a lot of good songs. Hey
I was 8 when they came out so they sounded good. Some of
their songs still do.
The Dave Matthews band is excellent and Dave has a unique
style.
Metallica did some great stuff especially in their early days.
Alannis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill has some great stuff
on it.
Mike

shack

Would someone be willing to expand on Bob Marley and Ziggy Marley. I have never listened to much much of this style of music and would be interested in what is good and where to start to see if I like it.

mhw58

shack,
Definitely start with 'Legend', it is a fantastic cd and the
perfect introduction to the genius of Bob Marley. Go to
www.allmusic.com and type his name in and you can
read a bio on him and they review all of his albums. His
catalog was recently remastered so his music sounds
better than ever. I think you'll be very happy with the 'Legend'
cd. If you have a Barnes and Noble or Borders book store
near you, you can listen to his cd's before you buy. Our Borders
has a reggae section and they always have a couple of Bob
Marley cd's there to listen to.
Mike

dcarlson

I don't know any Ziggy Marley. I do have Bob Marley's Legend. It's probably the best place to start.
Songs:
1. Is This Love
2. No Woman, No Cry
3. Could You Be Loved
4. Three Little Birds
5. Buffalo Soldier
6. Get Up, Stand Up
7. Stir It Up
8. One Love/People Get Ready
9. I Shot the Sheriff
10. Waiting in Vain
11. Redemption Song
12. Satisfy My Soul
13. Exodus
14. Jammin'

With Bob Marley, I've never ventured any furthur than this album but I do play it a hell of a lot. It has all of the songs you'd recognize.


I'd have to add Metallica's Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, my favorite ...And Justice for All and Metallica. Anything after the self titled (Black Album) sort of sucks.

Derick.

shack

Thanks mhw58 and dcarlson. Two posts at exactly the same time recommending exactly the same album! Looks like I'll be picking up a copy of Legend.

F1nut

Mike,

The Monkees, huh? Well alright, I'll come out of the closet. While I don't own any now, I did way back when and will have to agree with ya, they did have some good songs, ie., "Last Train To Clarksville."

Also, good call on Don McLean.

F1nut

joe,

A home run to you too with The Moody Blues. I saw them (3rd row center) at a place called Wolf Trap (great acoustics) and was blown away by their performance. I just picked up the Deluxe Edition of "Red Rocks", excellent!

shack

F1 - Your Steve Miller post was only a stand-up triple at best because you left out what may be his best album. Sailor - 1968 - As you probably know, the lyrics of the title song of the Joker album start out:

"Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah

Some call me the gangster of love"

Well this is the album where he first does a cover of "Gangster Of Love" and it sort of becomes his "handle". Another very good cut is "Living In The U.S.A.".

Maybe this is the SAC fly that brings you in.

shack

Stephen Stills got a few of his friends from The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash (Chris Hillman, Al Perkins, Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels, Dallas Taylor, Paul Harris and Joe Lala) and put together a very talented group by the name of Manassas. They recorded two albums.

Manassas - 1972 - A stellar blues/county/rock/folk/latin/bluegrass album (now how is that for eclectic). It is good from start to finish. The original vinyl was a double album containing 21 songs and most all of them are worth a listen. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

While no where near as good, I still liked Down The Road - 1973 - "Isn't It About Time", "Pensamiento". "Do You Remember The Americans" and "Lies" are good cuts.

If you want to hear the real Manassas (ie: great band) get the remastered CD of the self titled first album.

shack

Originally posted by F1nut
Mike,
The Monkees, huh? Well alright, I'll come out of the closet.

Two Monkee boys...huh? Anybody willing to come out of the Barry Manilow Closet?

F1nut

shack,

JEEZ! The Anthology cd is worth a home run all by itself.


Now, I'll give you a HR for Manassas. I think I wore out my vinyl copy, just bought the remastered cd, it's great. You seem to be testing the waters with Barry. It's ok, you can come out now.

joe6pak

F1nut.

Sorry. I seems as if your home run was over ruled by the official scorer. You still scored though. Thanks for your Moody Blues comment. I didn't know if anyone besides shack was reading any of my posts. Damn! Third row center at a Moody Blues concert! That is just fantastic. Have you heard the Lonnie Mack cd I mentioned? If so, how does it compare to Attack of the killer V?

shack.

It looks like our plea for help worked. Lots of other people posting. The problem is, they are mentioning all my next choices. I was going to feature the Monkees next. Darn my luck. I have heard Manassas. Good sounds. I just say no to Manilow!

Since F1 beat me to S Miller I guess I will just have to mention another Miller.

Roger Miller.

Country pop. Who can forget his 1964 hits, Dang Me, Chug-a-lug, (my fav), and Do-Wacka-Do. Also his 1965 hits England Swings and (the big one) KING OF THE ROAD. He knew how to write a catchy tune. He passed away in 1992 with throat cancer. Anybody have any Roger Miller?

Mungo Jerry.

This was a group, not a person. A one hit wonder with the very successful song, In The Summertime.

joe

F1nut

joe,

I haven't heard your Lonnie cd yet, but it's on a short buy list, thanks.

And the MB tickets were free...oh yeah!

I just want point out one thing guys, I've posted on each and every one of these lists, so give me a break.....lol. I wish some others would join us here, it's FUN.

joe6pak

F1nut.

Shack took away your home run and then credits himself with a sac fly to drive you in. Looks like a blatant attempt to pad his own stats. He should have to write the Manilow review for doing that.

If you like Lonnie and SRV you should like Strike Like Lightning. I will be checking out Lonnie's Attack cd.

Free MB tickets!!!! WOW.

joe

F1nut

Originally posted by joe6pak
He should have to write the Manilow review for doing that.

AGREED!!!