**Rock and Roll Reminiscing - RRRR**

Tour2ma

Rock and Roll Reminiscing

11 May 2003 --- Letter Of The Week is “R”

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

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&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 “R”.

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…

joe6pak

O.K. I'll go first. The King of the RRRR's.


The Rolling Stones.


joe

mhw58

I love the Stones. 40 Licks has great remastered sound.
My favorites are Let it Bleed, Exile on Main street, Sticky
Fingers and Some Girls.
The Ramones-A great fun band that had a lot of influence.
They've had their cd's remastered and they've never
sounded better.
Bonnie Raitt-Bonnie is a great slide player with a bluesy
voice. I love Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw and her
earlier albums were great too.
Radiohead-Probably my favorite 90's band. The Bends and
OK Computer are two of the best cd's of the 90's.
Mike

shack

Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything? - 1972 - His first 4 albums are all interesting, but this double album is a consumate Rundgren album. Musical styles all over the board and somewhat eclectic. Unless you are a fan, the only songs you might recognize are "I Saw The Light", "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" and "Hello It's Me" because they got a considrable amount of airplay. My personal favorites on this one are "Wolfman Jack" and "Couldn't I Just Tell You". This is maybe his best album and I recommend it. If You like Rundgren any of the other of his first four are worth a listen. Runt - 1970 - (The name of the group and the album), Runt - The Ballad of Todd Rundgren - 1971, and A Wizard - A True Star - 1973.

The next album I would recommend is:

Nearly Human - 1989 - According to the liner notes this is a "Live Studio" album. It has a stunning opening track of "The Want Of A Nail" with Bobby Womack. This may be my favorite Rundgren cut of all.

If you are not a diehard Rundgren fan and just want the more recognizable cuts, I would recommend The Very Best Of Todd Rundgren - 1997 - The track list includes: "We Gotta Get You a Woman", "Be Nice to Me", "I Saw the Light", "Hello It's Me", "Couldn't I Just Tell You" "Just One Victory", "A Dream Goes on Forever ", "Real Man", "Love of the Common Man", "Love Is the Answer", "Love in Action", "Can We Still Be Friends?", "The Very Last Time", "Bang the Drum All Day", "Something to Fall Back On", and "The Want of a Nail". All are good songs and I would add "Love is The Answer" as one of my favorites. (Some cuts are from his work as the group Utopia)

I also like his production work with other groups like Meatloaf (very instumental on Bat Out Of Hell) and Grand Funk Railroad.

shack

R.E.M.

I did not have the oportunity to listen to the early work of R.E.M. when they were primarily a "college alternative" band. My fist exposure to them was when they started getting some commercial success. The first CD was Document - 1987 - "The End Of The World As We Know It" and "The One I Love" were the reason I bought the CD and are still my favorite cuts.

Green - 1988 - "Stand", "Orange Crush" and "Get Up" are my favorites on this CD.

Out Of Time - 1991 "Losing My Religion" by itself makes this a decent album.

Automatic For The People - 1992 - This one got rave reviews but I never really cared for it.

After Automatic For The People I sort of lost interest in R.E.M.. I can take them in small doses and I basically like Berry, Buck and Mills...but I can't stand Michael Stipe. For me...R.E.M. is a group that I could be happy with a greatest hits album that includes the songs above and a few more.

Tour2ma

Shack,
Nice write up on Todd. I was meaning to get around to him, but you covered him very nicely. Something/ Anything? is great. I'd also mention "Black Maria" and "Piss Aaron" as favorite cuts in addition to those you mentioned. A Wizard... was a very strange, but likeable effort.

Healing is another in my collection that I like somewhat, but the best effort in this release is not on this album... Todd included an extra 45 sized disc with the LP that spins at 33-1/3rd. Side A is "Time Heals" an excellent rocker. Todd was always pulling stuff like this...

In addition to his performing and the producing you mention, he is also a hell of an engineer. He found ways to cram more time onto an album side than had ever been done before. Whereas normally you likely had room on a C-90 side to record an album, plus a repeat of one or two favorite tracks, with a couple of Todd’s releases you ran out of tape.

Quite a talent, our Mr. Rundgren….

shack

Bonnie Raitt - Luck Of The Draw - 1991 - Is defintely one of my 50 or so "TOP TEN" albums.

Rolling Stones I've never been a huge fan so Forty Licks does the trick for me. I started to get the SACD's but decided to get Forty Licks instead. The fact that this is my first Stones album may explain my choice. "Gimmie Shelter" and "Start Me Up" have always been my favorite Stones tunes.

Rare Earth - The Best Of Rare Earth -Twentieth Century Masters - The Millennium Collection - 2001 - It came down to this one and The Very Best Of Rare Earth - 1998 - I went with The Millennium Collection because of it's extended versions of "Get Ready", "I Know I'm Losing You" and "Ma"...as well as "I Just Want To Celebrate". I had Get Ready and Ecology on vinyl many years ago but I can't find them now and must have lost them. I don't think they are in print.

Tour2ma

For Bonnie, I have to give the nod to her very old stuff, back when the Lady was truly troubled by relationships, booze and, yes, drugs, and it seasoned her blues. If you never got back as far as her 2nd album, Give It Up (1972), do yourself a favor and find it. “Love Me Like a Man” is my absolute, all-time favorite track of hers. With lines like,
“When I come home hot and tired and I begin to cry, I want a Man to hold me, not some fool to ask me why” and
“When we’re all alone, I want my Man to rock me, like my backbone was his own”. Damn, her whiskey voice and bottleneck guitar, and lines like those…

I wrote back in a Little Feat post that I saw them open for and back-up Bonnie on three different occasions in the early 70’s. I also saw her a decade later at a benefit concert. She has always been a great live performer.

Little known tidbit, Bonnie and Delbert McLinton were tight. They vowed whoever made it big first would open doors for the other. Bonnie did and tried to keep her promise, but he never quite made it past cult status.

Oh well enough sponging off of others’ posts. Time to add a name to the list…

Lou Reed
Lou of course had success leading The Velvet Underground (more on them near the end of our journey), but was languishing in the early 70’s until he was resurrected (or some think ruined) by David Bowie.

David had admired Lou’s TVU efforts and got him back into the studio, after a dismal initial, self-titled, solo effort, to record Transformer which David co-produced (with Lou and Mick Ronson) and played on (that’s David on sax). The album gave Lou his biggest hit to date, “Walk on the Wild Side”, and jump-started his solo career.

Lou followed with Berlin, a dark, ambitious album that is beautiful to hear, but depressing to listen to. His next studio album was the pop success, Sally Can’t Dance, which many believe he made just to prove he could put out a top ten album, which it became. Fans didn’t care for it much, we much preferred the live album that came out between these two studio efforts, Rock and Roll Animal.

Rock and Roll Animal is a flat out great effort where Lou lives up to its name. It’s all covers of TVU material, written by Reed, and never let’s up. Rumor at the time was Lou swapped bands with Alice Cooper prior to the ’73 tour when this was recorded. Not sure if it’s true, but former Alice guitarist, Dick Wagner, does appear. Anyway, it is a great listen that I RECOMMEND.

Lou continued to record another dozen or so albums after Sally Can’t Dance, but I did not follow him forward. Instead I chose to back-peddle to his TVU days. But as I said that’s for a little later…

Tour2ma

Another 70’s band that I still love to listen to is Roxy Music. This was Brian Ferry’s band all the way. For me, Brian’s work defined “art-rock”.

The self –titled 1972 release got me curious, although it had no standout cuts. For Your Pleasure, 1973, hooked me but good with tracks like “Do the Stand”, “Editions of You” and “The Bogus Man”. 1973’s Stranded was a bit of a let down, but had a track, “Street Life” that kept me interested as did 74’s Country Life with “The Thrill of it All”. Then came Siren (1975) with “Love is the Drug”, the quintessential Roxy Music track, and several other very good ones as well, e.g., “End of the Line”, “Both Ends Burning” and “Just Another High”.

Oh and through it all, the covers just got better and better… See?


OK, Siren was a bit of a retreat cover-wise, but not musically.

In 1976 Viva was released and I thought the journey was over, but in 1982 along came Avalon for one more fling, and a very good one at that. Brian did a great deal of very good solo work throughout his entire Roxy Music run, but somehow it never grabbed me the same way.

For those that don’t know Brian Ferry, there is a very good hits sampler, Street Life: 20 Greatest Hits, that I suggest you try. In addition to the Roxy highlights, of course including “Love is the Drug”, there are several tracks of Brian’s solo work.

For Roxy alone, 2001’s, The Best of… is the best sampler ever of Brian’s group work.

shack

Tour, as you said Rock 'N' Roll Animal is all covers of The Velvet Underground material but the cut I always think of from Reed is "Sweet Jane". A fine song that may be Reed's best.

Tour2ma

Agree, but I like Mott's version better than Lou's. You'd be surprised how many folk think Lou borrowed it from them...

And some folks actually believe it is a drug song... :eek:

jgido759

The Rasberries were the ultimate un-noticed pop/rock band of the early 70's with AM radio hits like "Go All The Way" & "I Wanna Be With You" and the albums "The Rasberries", "Fresh", "Side 3", & "Starting Over". Unfortunately, after the band broke up, Eric Carmen went on to a very uneventful solo career.

Tour2ma

Yup, Cleveland boys. I remember an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "The Raspberries: We Never Knew How Heavy They Were".

Anybody have a copy of their scratch-and-sniff debut album cover?

avelanchefan

Ok I try to post one band per letter....some letters just plain stumped me but one of my more favorite bands fits in letter "R". And that is Rage Against the Machine.

Evil Empire was their first major release. This is just one hell of a CD. My musical tastes vary, but when a band comes out and tries to do something different, something out of the mainstream, then they have me hooked. Rage fits that bill. First off you notice the schrill, and distinct voice of Zach De La Rocha. His political views that he sings/raps about are interesting to say the least. But give the man credit, not to many people are out their singing about Mexicans, and raising issues that you would have never really thought about. Not saying I agree with them, but his views sure did not hurt the band. Now you start to notice the sure bizarreness(sp?) of Tom Morello's guitar. At first I thought it was some type of keyboard, or cpu generated sound. But Morello can work that hachet to dizzying proportions. It may sound weird....if not downright odd. But thats what seperated these fellas from the mainstream. They had the ability to seperate themselves from everyone else, yet savvy enough to get radio play. To bad Zach's politaical views made him a miserable man in the spotlight. Not like Eddie Vedder miserable....but he felt he was losing touch with "his" reality and quit the band. The band has since moved on and created the supergroup AudioSlave with Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.

1. People of the Sun
2. Bulls on Parade
3. Vietnow
4. Revolver
5. Snake Charmer
6. Tire Me
7. Down Rodeo
8. Without a Face
9. Wind Below
10. Roll Right
11. Year of the Boomerang

I could mention Rage's other works. And they are good. But this one really outshines all the rest. Their best work IMO.

[Deleted User]

Alright I need to throw my two cents in here. I would like to submit for consideration The Rutles. A hysterically funny parody of the career of the Beatles. If you know anything at all about the Beatles then you need to check out this DVD. It contains several of the early stars of Saturday Night Live along with Eric Idle and Neil Innes of Monty Python fame. Also contains a cameo appearance by George Harrison.

dcarlson

I'll second Radiohead

Radiohead-Probably my favorite 90's band.

They're still going very strong in 00s. I feel like they're one of the only bands truly pushing the limits in music today. You can't say they sound like any other band, ever. That's a testament to their creativity and originality.

Great albums

Pablo Honey
The Bends
OK Computer - One of my all time favs. It always make the top albums of the 90s and even of all time.
Kid A - A bit out there at first listen but it grows on ya quickly.
Amnesiac - From the same recording session as Kid A great too.

I'm surprised there's not more Radiohead fans here. There recording quality is outstanding.

As for Rage Against the Machine. All of their albums are equally good. Their first Self Titled album is my favorite.

How about the The Red Hot Chili Peppers?

They seem to be getting better and better ever since Blood Sugar Sex Magic. John Frusciante is an absolutely amazing guitarist. Flea too.

Their latest By the Way is amazing. The best album I bought last summer.

Tour2ma

I love the Red Hot’s Blood Sugar…, dc. Will have to nab By the Way when BMG drops it from their preferred list, i.e., full price…

Next up for me is a very different band…
Renaissance
Renaissance – 1969
Prologue – 1972
Ashes are Burning – 1973
Turn of the Cards – 1974
Tales of 1001 Nights – Vol. I – CD (1990 Sire – 9 26129-2)
Tales of 1001 Nights – Vol. II – CD (1990 Sire – 9 26143-2)
The individual albums I have are all on reel to reel, thus the CD purchases.

This is another group that underwent significant change on the road to a measure of success. Its original line-up centered on lesser-known, former Yardbirds’ members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. After two albums in two years, and no success to mention, they were gone and a new line-up was in place with the significant addition of Annie Haslam. Annie was operatically trained and possessed a three-octive range. The basic theme here is the blending of rock beat with baroque and/ or Russian classical structures.

The result is dissimilar to any other group, but if you are able to blend It’s A Beautiful Day and The Moody Blues, especially their Days of Future Passed effort, you might come the closest to getting an idea of their early sound. However, their music grew increasingly complex with each release, culminating in 1975 with the release of Scheherazade & Other Stories, a buying oversight I just might have to correct. “Song of Scheherazade” runs nearly 25 minutes.

It has been a long time since the tape has seen play, so I’m a bit foggy on the individual albums' details, but the two “hits” CD’s do revive old memories reasonably well. The issue with the CD’s is that the best early tracks had to be represented by live covers of the original group’s best work. This is due to a running legal battle that was waged between the original line-up and the latter one. While the live versions, off of 1976’s Live at Carnegie Hall, are very fine, and include a back-up group called The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, I remember a slight preference for the studio versions.

All save the original self-titled album are available on CD re-releases. For a test, … Vol. I may be the best choice.

shack

Linda Ronstadt - Back in the day she was a rocker...country rock...but rock none the less. In the late 60's she was the lead singer for a group called the Stone Poneys. They had a hit titled "Different Drum".

She went out on her own and her third album titled Linda Ronstadt - 1971 - was significant for a couple of reasons. First would be her backup band consisting of Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Of course these guys went out on their own and did OK. J.D. Souther was also in the band and he did ok too. It didn't hurt that she recorded some songs her friends had written like "Rock Me On The Water" (Jackson Browne) and "Birds" (Neil Young). This album established her "country rock" sound. Not her best but pretty good.

Her best album of the era was Heart Like A Wheel - 1975 - This one still has some definite country rock flavor but you can feel her shifting gears just a little at times. Don, Glenn and J.D. were back helping and they brought Timothy B. Schmit for a couple of tracks. She also had a few good backup singers like Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur and a little known R&B singer by the name of Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom). The best tracks are "When Will I Be Loved", "Heart Like A Wheel", "You're No Good" and a cover of song by another one of her friends..."Willing" (Isn't it interesting how Lowell George and Little Feat keep popping up?).

Linda Ronstadt has gone through many different styles over the years including Broadway/Big Band and contemporary and traditional Hispanic music.

Another one of my favorites is:

Cry Like a Rainstorm - Howl Like the Wind - 1989 - She recorded this one with Aaron Neville. The ballads are the stars on this CD and you can hear how her vocal range has matured over the years. On this album Aaron Neville is...well...Aaron Neville with that distinctive voice of his. He and Ronstadt sing well together. The best cuts from this CD are "Still Within The Sound Of My Voice", "Cry Like A Rainstorm", "All My Life", "Don't Know Much", "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby," and "Adios". I like this one a lot.

Oh yeah...back then she was a babe...and those eyes could melt you...I was in lust.

George Grand

Mitch RYDER & The Detroit Wheels.

The ORIGINAL Motor City high energy rock and roll revue type band. Paved the way for pretenders to the throne like Bob Seger, whose band couldn't play their way out of a paper bag.


George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

Tour2ma

"Fee Fee Fi Fi Fo Fo Fum.. Looking mighty nasty here she come."
Mitch Ryder was a bad boy. I remember the debate about whether or not he used the "F" word in a lyric...
"Everytime she kissed me is like a ????"
Rhino did them proud with a remastered hits collection several years ago.

Big thumbs up on Linda, Shack. "Heart Like a Wheel" was a very strong listen. Have to at least mention "Blue Bayou" in passing. A real "melt your shorts" torch song. Even her Nelson Riddle work covering standards had moments. All good stuff from the one-time, First Girlfriend of California...

Tour2ma

Damn, how’d we miss…

Leon Russell
Leon Russell – C-90 (1970)
… and the Shelter People – C-90 (1971)
Carney – C-90 (1972)
Leon Live – Triple Vinyl (1973)
Sophomore year a roomie comes back and says, “I’m into gospel music”, to which I reply, “You’re (effin’) kidding.” Then he spins … and the Shelter People and gospel flavored it be…. and damn good.

The following is from AMG:

The ultimate rock & roll session man, Leon Russell's long and storied career includes collaborations with a virtual who's who of music icons spanning from Jerry Lee Lewis to Phil Spector to the Rolling Stones. A similar eclecticism and scope also surfaced in his solo work, which couched his charmingly gravelly voice in a rustic yet rich swamp pop fusion of country, blues and gospel.
As a member of Spector's renowned studio group, Russell played on many of the finest pop singles of the 1960s, also arranging classics like Ike & Tina Turner's monumental "River Deep, Mountain High"; other hits bearing his input include the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," Gary Lewis & the Playboys' "This Diamond Ring," and Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey."

I saw Leon in Cleveland Stadium in ’73 thus my affection for the live release. I also saw him a few years ago at a free concert series, Party on the Plaza. Leon, a little long in the tooth by then, rolled out on stage in his little powered wheelchair, hopped on the piano bench, played continuously for an hour and a half, then on the chair and off the stage. That night was one of the highlights of the series. As much as I enjoyed Leon live, in general his studio work is even stronger.

The self-titled debut is great and is full of original material including the classic “A Song for You” and “Delta Lady”, the latter of which Joe Cocker borrowed a couple years later. … Shelter People includes nearly as many Dylan covers as it does originals. “Stranger in a Strange Land” is a standout original, but the covers start to make you aware of his gift of timing, of phrasing a lyric, and it puts his own songs in a new light. Carney included “Tight Rope”, “Magic Mirror” and “This Masquerade”, which later won a Grammy for George Benson.

This man wrote great songs, played wonderfully, sang distinctively, and arranged beautifully. He should be appreciated a lot more than he is.

Tour2ma

Tom Rush
Tom Rush – C-90 (1970)
Merimack County – C-90 (1972)
Not a star by any stretch and more country or folk than rock, but Tom, or as I somehow came to think of him, Little Tommy Rush, made some good message music. One of my favorites was a sarcastic little song off the ’72 release named “Kids These Days”.
“Kids these days, not how it used to be… I’d have more fun, but the women are so hard to please… "

Nicjedi

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS! Check out there concert 'Live at Slane Castle"