Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Live At The Ritz NYC 1981 2026, Profesor Longhair Mardi Gras In Baton Rouge 2026

Record Store Day always comes with some mixed feelings. What once was great has been diminished somewhat by greed. The first store I went to opened fifteen minutes earlier and had a line of about eighty people waiting to get in. No way. Second store was small, two minute line, and pretty good supply of RSD product. Third store was new, small, no line, and had a very good supply of RSD releases, more than I'd seen in one place in several years (I'm never the first one through the door). That's where I picked up these two very different records.

The Joan Jett is big fun. Kinda like the Ramones, everything is fast, loud and buzzsaw simple. Recorded New Year's Eve 1981, it's a fine show. This single disc LP is almost an hour long, although there is a digital version on Spotify that is about twice as long with many more songs. This one has the highlights, and it's good. I'm not sure that the sonic quality of vinyl is needed for this music, but who cares? Ricky Byrd rocks on lead guitar.

Professor Longhair's Mardi Gras In Baton Rouge was released on CD in 1991. It was recorded in 1971 and 1972 in Baton Rouge and Memphis, and is from the same sessions as House Party New Orleans Style: The Lost Sessions, 1971–1972 from 1987. That CD highlighted less familiar Professor Longhair songs, while this one has a bunch that show up on several other releases. It's a good recording, there's a horn section on some of the songs, and while the piano and Fess's voice are the stars, the bands on these recordings are stellar. Snooks Eaglin's guitar is crazy good, and half the record also features the great Zigaboo Modiste (from the Meters) on drums. While I am not all that familiar with Professor Longhair's records in general, this is a good recording and sounds great. Longhair's 2 CD Anthology on Rhino seems like everyone's go-to Fess record, but this is no slouch. The Professor is the man most responsible for the piano stylings we have come to associate with New Orleans as he influenced Alan Toussaint, Dr. John, Harry Connick, Jr., Jon Cleary and every other recent NOLA piano star.

Joan Jett Fit To Be Tied: Great Hits by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts 1997

I've always had a soft spot for Joan Jett. Not a great voice, but it's hard not to notice how much she gives a damn. Simple rock 'n' roll. Why use four chords when three will do? And Joan's out there, shouting away with an invigorating insistence.

The Blackhearts are solid. Think AC/DC, but not quite that riff-heavy. Just a good hard rock band.

Joan always had an ear for songs. The covers she chooses, and invariably executes perfectly, are a big part of Joan's draw. Her versions of Jonathan Richmonds' Roadrunner, Sly Stone's Everyday People, Tommy James' Crimson And Clover, and especially the Mary Tyler Moore show theme Love Is All Around are all killer renditions.

Her own classics are here, too. Bad Reputation, I Love Rock N Roll, Cherry Bomb, Little Liar, Do You Want To Touch Me? (Oh Yeah), and the Springsteen penned Light Of Day, all rock hard and fast with zero subtlety. There's never any problem understanding what Joan means.

For a CD, I like the song selection here more than the recent 2010 Greatest Hits. Even though that one has more songs, it omits the essential Roadrunner, and Little Liar, which was a hit, and should be on any Jett hits package. This one from '97 is available cheap, even new.