Spinning Vinyl

So this session had a theme of 80s vinyl. Sometime between 1988 and 1991, new releases stopped being issued on vinyl except for mega-hits, and CDs took over. But the early and mid 80s, while crammed with terrible synthesizer pop, also saw some of my favorite artists making great records. All of these are very special to me. 

Things started with XTC's English Settlement 1982, side two with No Thugs In Our House, Yacht Dance, and All Of A Sudden (It's Too Late). I've always loved the chorus of No Thugs, "No thugs in our house, are there dear, We made that clear, We made little Graham promise us he'd be a good boy". Sure, as long as an adolescent male tells you they'll be good, it's all set. Both Yacht Dance and All Of A Sudden are also great. "Life's like a jigsaw, you get the straight bits but there's something missing in the middle". English Settlement has always been my favorite XTC, and for an unknown reason I bought the expensive two LP import version when it came out, which was vastly superior to the single disc US version that had five less songs.

Next up, The Clash London Calling 1980, also side two. Side two isn't the hit-packed side one or side four, but it's very good. Spanish Bombs, Clampdown and the call to arms of The Guns of Brixton, "When they kick at your front door, How you gonna come?, With your hands on your head, or on the trigger of your gun". Even the weak side kicks ass.

Then it was side two of Elvis Costello's Trust 1981. I typically think of Imperial Bedroom as my Costello highlight, but I may need to reconsider. With songs like New Lace Sleeves, From A Whisper To A Scream, Different Finger, and White Knuckles, the side just slaps you in the face. The Attractions were such a great band.

Next I pulled out one I hadn't listened to in I don't know how long. Talking Heads Remain In Light 1980, side one with Born Under Punches, Crosseyed and Painless, and The Great Curve. It was listed as a best of the year along side London Calling on every such list. At the time of release, Ken Tucker wrote in Rolling Stone, "Remain in Light yields scary, funny music to which you can dance and think, think and dance, dance and think, ad infinitum." It was a thrill to hear after so long a time.

Side one of Robert Palmer's Pride 1983 followed. This was Palmer's last record before the one-two punch of Power Station's 33 1/3  and Palmer's Riptide, both with Tony Thompson, Andy Taylor and Bernard Edwards and featuring Some Like It Hot and Addicted to Love. But Pride is no slouch, and side one features the title track, Want You More, Dance For Me and You Are In My System.

Finally we get to 1986 and Joe Jackson's three-sided vinyl version of Big World. Side three with Soul Kiss, Tango Atlantico, Home Town, and the snark of The Jet Set, all demonstrating Jackson's gift for skilled and varied composition. Recorded live without any overdubs or sonic trickery, Big World is an outstanding example of a super tight band firing on all cylinders. 

It was a fine, if brief, romp through the stacks, sticking to favorite records by favorite artists with the speakers singing loud and clear.

Wet Leg moisturizer 2025, Haim I Quit 2025

I'm an old guy, and while I try to listen to new music, much of it leaves me cold. The current state of hip-hop doesn't enthuse me any more than older hip-hop did. Most of the stuff on the pop charts seems to be formulaic music produced by programmed machines instead of actual musicians. The spate of trendy heart-on-the-sleeve female artists doesn't connect with me, and yes, I listen to quite a bit of it.

But these two records are both appealing to me. Both feature actual musicians, solid vocals, smart lyrics, hooky songs, and actual hot guitar breaks from time to time. 

I listened to the first Wet Leg record, and I liked it, but it didn't make me want to dive deeper. The singles sure were great. This new one has a little less of a punk sound, although there's still some razor sharp guitars. It feels like the songs are more developed, and guitarist Joshua Mobaraki has more co-writes than on the debut. More hands on deck can't hurt. Slinky opener CPR, angry Catch These Fists, dismissive Mangetout, and the comfortable You and Me At Home all stand out, but there's not a really weak one anywhere. 

I could say the same for I Quit. Again, I listened to and mostly enjoyed previous Haim material, but this one seems like a step forward to me. They continue to benefit from pop wiz Rostam Batmanglij, who's  instincts are impressive, and his production is squeaky clean. 

Lyrics lean on female empowerment. The record kicks off with Gone and All Over Me, a strong start. But the hits keep coming, and Down To Be Wrong, Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out, Try To Feel My Pain, and Now It's Time are all strong songs. Again, there aren't any real flops. They often sound like Stevie Nick's Fleetwood Mac (without the pretense) or Sheryl Crow, in a good way.

Haim are a bit more pop than Wet Leg, so the longevity points might go Wet Leg's way. But right now I'm liking new music by contemporary artists, and that gives me hope. Old dog, new tricks. 

Van Morrison Remembering Now 2025 ...and Them 1964-1967

Van Morrison's latest is getting mostly excellent press, with several reviewers saying it's his best in three decades. I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, not because it isn't darn good, but because the last thirty years, while inconsistent, have given us several really good ones. How Long Has This Been Going On 1995, What's Wrong With This Picture? 2003, Down The Road 2002, Keep It Simple 2008, and You're Driving Me Crazy 2018 were all good Van Morrison records, and a few others came close. But since 2020, he's given us five records that range from dull to god-awful. His two lock down bitch sessions, a skiffle outing, an oldies covers record, and a back-catalog retread have kept this decade mostly disappointing.

And so Remembering Now is a strong return to form. He's never going to make music like he made in the 1970s again, and that seems an unreasonable expectation from anyone turning 80. But he still sings with soul and verve, and he's written mostly better songs this time around. The band has been around a while, and they are good. He tends to make long records, and if he'd edited out maybe three of them, it might approach perfection. You can read more detailed reviews elsewhere, but suffice it to say that if you gave up on Van Morrison a while back, now might be a good time to check out his new one.

So now lets check out Van in his youth with Them. Them made two LPs with Morrison, and this 3 CD collection The Complete Them 1964-1967 from 2015 includes those LPs, plus singles and b-sides and demos and first takes and pretty much everything that was worthy of release. And somewhat remarkably, almost everything here is worthy of release, and worth your time to hear it. Them was a blues-based rock outfit that most closely resembled The Animals in sound, although Morrison's voice and Eric Burden's are different, Morrison with a higher register than Burden, but both bluesy and soulful. 

Of course the few hits they had (Baby Please Don't Go, Here Comes The Night, Mystic Eyes) are here, and so is Gloria (a hit for The Shadows of Knight in the US). But there's a lot of fine performances, both from Morrison's pen as well as blues chestnuts Stormy Monday, Route 66, Turn On Your Lovelight, and I Put A Spell On You. The third disc is not essential, with it's demos and alternate takes, but there's six live tracks from BBC radio that are pretty cool. They had a good reputation as a live act. It could have been an excellent 2 CD set, but you really can't blame them for collecting it all in one place, and Van Morrison completists are surely happy. There's a detailed review at Everybody's Dummy here.

I also recently realized that in my quest to review all of Van Morrison's work, I skipped the work he did for Bang Records after Them and before Astral Weeks. Originally released as Blowin' Your Mind 1967, and later as T.B. Sheets and under several different names and with different song selections, I'll be brief. You can get Brown-Eyed Girl lots of other places, and unless you just have to have everything, the rest of the songs are unimportant and inferior to the work he would start to do immediately thereafter. 

Live Shows Part 2: 1980-2025

Talking Heads 1983 Blossom Music Center. The show they made the movie of, one of my all time favorites. 

The Neville Brothers/Dirty Dozen Brass Band Tipitina's 1980s. This one should be on my top ten list for sure. I always loved them, and they were amazing. Another show I didn't realize was happening in advance. Super hot on a steaming New Orleans night, well into the wee hours.

Various 80s/90s shows: 

Robert Palmer x2 at Nautica, and the Odeon. Great showman and singer. Dony Wynn, drummer extraordinaire kept time with great precision no matter who else was in the band. 

Bob Dylan/Del Amitri Nautica (I got into Del Amitri later, and only realized that I'd seen them live in retrospect). 

Santana at Nautica, Lindsey Buckingham at Peabody's Down Under (in a bar!), The Subdudes Peabody's Down Under, James Brown/Wilson Pickett at The Front Row (they were both fabulous). Peter Tosh Front Row, Bruce Cockburn, Joe Jackson/Todd Rundgren, Moody Blues, Melissa Etheridge x2 Nautica (quite the entertainer, she really rocked).

David Bowie The Coliseum, Michael Jackson The Coliseum, The Grateful Dead The Coliseum (they were terrible), Bob Dylan The Colliseum (The Budokon show, and I liked it a lot), Bob Dylan Akron Civic during his Christian phase, and he and the band were very good. 

Dwight Yoakam Blossom Music Center. k. d lang Music Hall, and again later at Cain Park.

Don Dixon and Marti Jones at least five times at Beachland, Music Box, The Empire (funky room, great show, a top ten entry). They were always excellent, especially when they had Jaime Hoover and Jim Brock with them.

Glass Harp reunion Akron Civic Theatre 1997.

Marsha Ball, Erma Thomas, Tracy Nelson 1999 on the Sing It! tour. They were wonderful. To get to see Tracey do Down So Low live took my breath away.

Lucinda Williams x2 The Odeon 2001, Nautica 2004? Smoking hot both times. 

Marti Jones/Amy Rigby as The Cynical Girls Beachland Ballroom, Cheryl Wheeler Beachland, Matthew Sweet Beachland, Marshall Crenshaw Beachland, Marsha Ball Beachland, The Proclaimers Beachland, Nick Lowe solo show Beachland.

Wilco/John Doe 2008 Lakewood Civic Auditorium. One of the loudest shows I ever heard. Fortunately I had hearing protection, but when the opener is super loud, you know you're in trouble. Wilco was great even if unnecessarily loud.

John Hiatt The Empire, rocking out with a full band. John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark, Joe Ely 2007 State Theatre, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett 2011 Akron Civic. Those last two were songwriter acoustic shows.

Fiona Apple Cain Park 2012. Oliver Mtukudzi, Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Pink Flamingo State Theatre. Trisha Yearwood Music Hall.

Jazz category: 

Ahmad Jamal x2 Purple Onion Toronto 1990, Jazz Alley Seattle 2006. One of my very favorite jazz artists.

Bill Frisell Jenny Scheinman, Greg Leisz 2007 Winchester. Wow. I'm so glad I got to see them in a small bar with an appreciative audience.

Pete Fountain Pete Fountain's Club 1980s, Allen Toussaint/Preservation Hall Jazz Band Music Box 2014, Preservation Hall Jazz Band Severance Hall 2000s, Diana Krall State Theatre 2012, Monty Alexander Nighttown 2010s.

The Cleveland Orchestra, Severance Hall 1995-2025, I've seen the orchestra at least 60 times. I subscribed to 4-6 concerts a year for at least ten years. Around my birthday in February each year they would have "stretch" concerts featuring new or neglected works, and things that were generally challenging. Some were good, others were pretty bad, but the good ones opened my ears to new and unique experiences. But I love Mozart, too. My most memorable series was seeing Mitsuko Uchida play and conduct Mozart piano concertos during the early-mid 2000s. Then the series was repeated from 2008-2015 and recorded for Decca. We saw the shows that were recorded, and of course I bought the CDs as they came out. Uchida's Mozart is beautiful, and her style suits the fluidity of the Cleveland Orchestra perfectly.

I know I have forgotten a lot. See also Live Shows Part 1 1966-1980.

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys early records were all about surfing, cars and girls. The first six records fit this category, and while some may find gold digging into the album tracks, the period is best served for most listeners by the Endless Summer 1974 compilation. Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), both from 1965, see the band's music and Brian's production getting more sophisticated and both are more than the singles and filler of their earlier work.

And then in 1966 comes Pet Sounds. Widely hailed as one of the greatest pop records ever, it is all that and more. Brian's masterpiece. Interestingly, it was met with mixed reviews on it's release in America, and Brian was deeply hurt by the rejection he felt. In England the record was met with universal acclaim. Go figure. It actually took a long time to develop it's reputation for greatness. In 1974 it was out of print and you could buy it in cut-out bins.

I'll skip over the whole Brian's breakdown and the collapse of Smile, the planned follow-up to Pet Sounds. The next ten years would be a roller coaster of quality for Beach Boys releases, some of which have received better reviews retrospectively than on their initial release. The band was trying hard to become relevant in a more grown-up album market that rejected their 60s surfer image. On the road they were becoming a nostalgia act even while they were producing some excellent work.

So I'll go ahead and tell you the ones I think are well worth hearing, and there will be plenty to disagree with. In the period from 1967-1977, I like Wild Honey 1967 (An unusual R&B outing, and fun and different because of it), Sunflower 1970 (Their last great record, and a showcase for under-appreciated Dennis), Surf's Up 1971 (Uneven, but when it's good, it's great), and Holland 1973 (Not perfect, but close, and their last really good record).

Then there's the one's that have received some good press, at least retrospectively. I don't really think they cut it for my list, but Friends 1968, 20/20 1969, and Love You 1977 all have their supporters, and they are at least interesting to hear from a historical perspective.

That leaves Smiley Smile 1967, Carl and the Passions "So Tough" 1972, 15 Big Ones 1976, and M.I.U. Album 1977, none of which deserve your time. There are good songs here and there, but they'll show up on any number of compilations. And everything after 1977 is at least as bad or worse, that is until That's Why God Made the Radio 2012, a decent stab at a reunion of what was left of the band 50 years after their debut. Better than almost anyone would have expected, but still not essential.

For all the myriad compilations, there's really not one that sums everything up. Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys 1993 has all the good stuff, but also includes a lot of unreleased material related to the aborted Smile, outtakes and assorted junk in a 5-CD box set for the collector. The two-CD Fifty Big Ones 2012 comes very close, and if you didn't have any Beach Boys music, it covers everything you need (except Caroline, No, but you need Pet Sounds anyway). 

Sly and The Family Stone 1967- 1975

Sly and the Family Stone were as great a band as everything you've ever heard. They broke new ground on several levels, interracially, politically, and most of all in the pursuit of pure funk. You can argue about who invented funk, but Sly and the Family Stone moved funk forward in a seriously big way. And got white folks into it too.

The 1970 Greatest Hits is an indispensable record. Even if you have all of their studio records, you'd still need it for the three great singles that appeared new on the album. Absolutely everyone with any cool at all owned it in 1970.

Other compilations that came later and include the songs on Greatest Hits are strong contenders these days for someone new to the Family Stone, assuming such people exist. For vinyl lovers, the 2009 Music On Vinyl two-disc The Best of Sly and the Family Stone adds a few more tracks and includes a couple from Fresh, which many see as his last great record. The 2003 The Essential Sly and The Family Stone, on two CDs, is even better, as it includes a couple from the 1967 debut A Whole New Thing (Underdog is definitely essential) as well as Small Talk 1974 and one from Sly's 1975 solo debut High On You, plus lots more album tracks that deserve to be heard.

Many would argue that the best way to appreciate the band is in live performance, and there's also a couple of good ways to do just that. Woodstock: Sunday August 17, 1969 from 2019 or The Woodstock Experience from 2009 both include the whole set, and it's easy to see why they wowed the peace and love crowd in upstate New York (Experience also includes Stand! on a second CD). Live at the Fillmore East October 4th & 5th, 1968 from 2015, available as a comprehensive four CD set or a two LP edited version is also killer.

By the way, their criminally neglected debut A Whole New Thing is not a lesser record just because it sold little and didn't really sound like what was coming. It's quite good. It sounds a little like a good War record without the Latin bit.

Dance To The Music is hands down one of the greatest singles of the sixties. 

Cynthia and Jerry got a message they're sayin' All The Squares Go Home!

Live Shows Part 1: 1966-1980

I was never a frequent attendee at live shows, and I never saw any stadium shows at all. I did enjoy seeing artists in theatre-sized rooms, and occasionally in smaller venues like the Cleveland Agora or Beachland Ballroom. I started making a list a while back as a memory exercise, and it's beginning to feel about as complete as I'm ever going to achieve. I'm going to try to be chronological as best I can. Hopefully I'll get the decade right. I did a list of my favorites here if you want to check it out. So here goes:

The Rolling Stones 1966 Cleveland Arena. My older brother's date got sick last minute and my mom made him take me. It's the only time I saw the Stones, and I don't remember much, but I can see the stage in my mind from where we sat. I was 11.

Lemon Pipers, Rotary Connection 1968 Cleveland Music Hall. My brother played bass. I went with my parents. I fell in love with Rotary Connection, and the amazing voice of Minnie Ripperton.

Chambers Brothers 1968-69? Cleveland Music Hall. I loved the Chambers Brothers. They were really good live, very energetic. I think my mom took me.

The Band 1970 Cleveland Music Hall. One of my most memorable concerts. They were outstanding, doing two hours with an intermission and no opener. 

Jethro Tull, Lee Michaels, Clouds 1970 Allen Theatre. Michaels was doing the stuff from his eponymous record with just him on B3 and Frosty on drums. They were killer, and very loud. Tull was good too. The weird bit where Ian Anderson wrapped his leg around the mic stand was wacky.

Little Richard, New York Rock Ensemble, several other bands, Cleveland Public Hall 1970. I got too high at this show, and the New York Rock Ensemble got me through the worst of it and saved me from a visit to the ER. They were one hot band.

Fanny, James Gang, Glass Harp, New York Rock Ensemble, some others 1972? Edgewater Park. So I'm very shaky on this, and it may have been two different shows a year apart. Fanny was great live, and everything amazing you've heard about James Gang is true. I absolutely loved New York Rock Ensemble.

Bruce Springsteen 1975 John Carrol Fieldhouse. A top ten show. Before Born To Run was released, and they were, well, early live Springsteen when he was the only guitarist. They did lots of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.

Sons of Champlin, The Tubes 1975 San Diego. I loved and still love the Sons of Champlin. I had no idea they were in town. I was in a record store and bought their new self-released album. The guy at the register asked if I was going that night to see them, and he sold me tickets. Terry Haggerty is one of my favorite guitarists ever. I liked the Tubes more than I thought I would.

Various 70s shows: Loggins and Messina/Little River Band Cleveland Music Hall (Little River band were really good), Average White Band Music Hall, Beach Boys Blossom, Jimmy Buffett (at least three times) Music Hall, Blossom, Stevie Ray Vaughn (and I think B B King on the same bill) Blossom, Boz Scaggs/Melissa Manchester John Carrol Field House, Barnstorm/Todd Rundgren, Starstruck, Kinks (on a bad night) Music Hall, Van Morrison (also a bad night) Music Hall, two bands I absolutely love, and both put on disappointing shows. Morrison was going through some kind of stage fright stage and had his back to the audience most of the night. Ray Davies was just too drunk.

Rockpile/Carlene Carter Cleveland Music Hall 1978. Rockpile were so special, with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams. As much talent as any other four guys. Carlene was dating or maybe married to Nick, and she was great with them behind her.

Elvis Costello/The Rubinoos The Agora 1979. Costello and The Attractions were just one of the most tight ensembles ever to plow their music into your ears. And the Rubinoos were a blast. Another of the top ten.